Address / of George Gabriel Stokes.

  • Sir George Stokes, 1st Baronet
Date:
[1869?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address / of George Gabriel Stokes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ADD11ESS OF GEOIIGE GABRIEL STOKES, M.A., Sec. R.S., D.C.L. OXON., LL.D. DUBLIN, FELLOW OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE, AND LUCASIAN PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, PRESIDENT. My Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen, As this is the first time that the British Association for the Advancement of Science has met in the City of Exeter, and it is probable that many now present have never attended a former Meeting, I hope the older members of the Association will bear with me if I say a few words in explanation of the objects for which the Association was instituted. In the first place, then, it aims at fulfilling an office which is quite distinct from that of the various scientific societies which are established in different parts of the country. These, for the most part, have for their leading object to make the volun¬ tary labours of isolated workers in science available to the scientific world generally by receiving, discussing, and publishing the results which they may have obtained. The British Association, on the other hand, aims at giving a more systematic direction to scientific inquiry, and that in various ways. In a rapidly progressing branch of science it is by no means easy to become acquainted with its actual state. The workers in it are scattered throughout the civilized world, and their results are published in a variety of Transac¬ tions and scientific periodicals, mixed with other scientific matter. To make oneself, without assistance, well acquainted with what has been done, it is requisite to have access to an extensive library, to be able to read with faci¬ lity several modern languages, and to have leisure to hunt through the tables ■ of contents, or at least the indices, of a number of serial works. Without • such knowledge, there is always the risk that a scientific man may spend his strength in doing over again what has been done already ; whereas with better direction the same expenditure of time and labour might have resulted in some substantial addition to our knowledge. With a view to meet this 1869. u
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