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Although a British Association Address is hardly an annual stocktaking, it would be improper to begin this year of Office without referring to three more of our losses :One that cultured gentleman, amateur of science in the best sense, who was chosen to preside over our Jubilee meeting at York thirty-two years ago. Sir John Lubbock, first Baron Avebury, cultivated science in a spirit of pure enjoyment, treating it almost as one of the Arts; and he devoted social and political energy to the welfare of the multitude of his fellows less fortunately situated than himself. Through the untimely death of Sir George Darwin the world has lost a mathematical astronomer whose work on the Tides and allied phenomena is a monument of power and achievement. So recently as our visit to South Africa he occupied the Presidential Chair. By the third of our major losses, I mean the death of that brilliant mathematician of a neighbouring nation who took so comprehensive and philosophic a grasp of the intricacies of physics, and whose eloquent though sceptical exposition of our laws and processes, and of the modifications entailed in them by recent advances, will be sure to attract still more widespread attention among all to whom the rather abstruse subject-matter is sufficiently familiar. I cannot say that I find myself in agreement with all that Henri Poincaré wrote or spoke in the domain of physics, but no physicist can help being interested in his mode of presentation, and I may have occasion to refer, in passing, to some of the topics with which he dealt. And now, eliminating from our purview, as is always necessary, a great mass of human activity, and limiting ourselves to a scrutiny on the side of pure science alone, let us ask what, in the main, is the characteristic of the promising though perturbing period in which we live. Different persons would give different answers, but the answer I venture to give is-Rapid progress, combined with Fundamental scepticism. Rapid progress was not characteristic of the latter half of the nineteenth century-at least not in physics. Fine solid dynamical foundations were aid, and the edifice of knowledge was consolidated; but wholly fresh ground was not being opened up, and totally new buildings were not expected. "In many cases the student was led o believe that the main facts of nature were all known, that the chances of any great discovery being made by ex residual effect, which might add a more or less important detail to the theory."-Schuster. With the realisation of predicted ether waves in 1888, the discovery of X-rays in 1895, spontaneous radio-activity in 1896, and the isolation of the electron in 1898, expectation of further achievement became vivid; and novelties, experimental, theoretical, and speculative, have been showered upon us ever since this century began. That is why I speak of rapid progress. Of the progress I shall say little-there must always be some uncertainty as to which particular achievement permanently contributes to it; but I will speak about the fundamental scepticism. Let me hasten to explain that I do not mean the wellworn and almost antique theme of Theological scepticism; that controversy is practically in abeyance just now. At any rate the major conflict is suspended; the forts behind which the enemy has retreated do not invite attack; the territory now occupied by him is little more than his legitimate province. It is the scientific allies, now, who are waging a more or less invigorating conflict among themMeanwhile the selves; with philosophers joining in. ancient foe is biding his time and hoping that from the struggle something will emerge of benefit to himself. Some positions, he feels, were too hastily abandoned and may perhaps be retrieved; or, to put it without metaphor, it seems possible that a few of the things prematurely denied, because asserted on inconclusive evidence, may after all, in some form or other, have really happened. Thus the old theological bitterness is mitigated, and a temporising policy is either advocated or instinctively adopted. To illustrate the nature of the fundamental scientific or philosophic controversies to which I do refer, would require almost as many addresses as there are Sections of the British Association, or at any rate as many as there are chief cities in Australia; and perhaps my successor in the Chair will continue the theme; but, to exhibit my meaning very briefly, I may cite the kind of dominating controversies now extant, employing as far as possible only a single word in each case so as to emphasise the necessary brevity and insufficiency of the reference. In Physiology the conflict ranges round Vitalism. (My immediate predecessor dealt with the subject at Dundee). In Chemistry the debate concerns Atomic structure. (My penultimate predecessor is well aware of pugnacity in that region). In Biology the dispute is on the laws of Inheritance. (My successor is sure to deal with this subject; probably in a way not deficient in liveliness). And besides these major controversies, debate is active in other sections. In Education, Curricula generally are being overhauled or fundamentally criticised, and revolutionary ideas are promulgated concerning the advantages of freedom for infants. In Economic and Political Science, or Sociology, what is there that is not under discussion? Not property alone, nor land alone, but everything-back to the garden of Eden and the inter-relations of men and women. Lastly, in the vast group of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, "slurred over rather than summed up as Section A," present-day scepticism concerns what, if I had to express it in one word, I should call Continuity. The full meaning of this term will hardly be intelligible without explanation, and I shall discuss it presently. Still more fundamental and deep-rooted than any of these sectional debates, however, a critical examination of scientific foundations generally is going on; and a kind |