[A] Given at Bradford on September 5, 1900.
Twenty-seven years ago the British Association met in Bradford,
not at that time raised to the dignity of a city. The meeting was
very successful, and was attended by about two thousand persons--a
forecast, let us hope, of what we may expect at the present assembly.
A distinguished chemist, Prof. A. W. Williamson, presided. On this
occasion the association has elected for the presidential chair one
whose attention has been given to the study of an important department
of biological science. His claim to occupy, however unworthily, the
distinguished position in which he has been placed, rests, doubtless,
on the fact that, in the midst of the engrossing duties devolving
on a teacher in a great university and school of medicine, he has
endeavored to contribute to the sum of knowledge of the science which
he professes. It is a matter of satisfaction to feel that the success
of a meeting of this kind does not rest upon the shoulders of the
occupant of the presidential chair, but is due to the eminence and
active coöperation of the men of science who either preside over
or engage in the work of the nine or ten sections into which the
association is divided, and to the energy and ability for organization
displayed by the local secretaries and committees. The programme
prepared by the general and local officers of the association shows
that no efforts have been spared to provide an ample bill of fare, both
in its scientific and social aspects. Members and associates will, I
feel sure, take away from the Bradford meeting as pleasant memories as
did our colleagues of the corresponding Association Française, when, in
friendly collaboration at Dover last year, they testified to the common
citizenship of the Universal Republic of Science. As befits a leading
center of industry in the great county of York, the applications of
science to the industrial arts and to agriculture will form subjects of
discussion in the papers to be read at the meeting.
Since the association was at Dover a year ago, two of its former
presidents have joined the majority. The Duke of Argyll presided
at the meeting in Glasgow so far back as 1855. Throughout his long
and energetic life, he proved himself to be an eloquent and earnest
speaker, one who gave to the consideration of public affairs a mind
of singular independence, and a thinker and writer in a wide range of
human knowledge. Sir J. Wm. Dawson was president at the meeting in
Birmingham in 1886. Born in Nova Scotia in 1820, he devoted himself to
the study of the Geology of Canada, and became the leading authority on
the subject. He took also an active and influential part in promoting
the spread of scientific education in the Dominion, and for a number of
years he was Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the McGill University,
Montreal.