New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-08-15
INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF SIR WILLIAM
THOMSON.

British Association for the AuNancepo"' VI !"
resignng the chair to Sir william Thomson spoke OF his
oontribu TO science and said
OF him. Center knight did break lance" Tho
President elect then took the chair amid the applause OF
the assembly and proceeded to deliver the inaugural
address
In his opening remarks Sir william Thomson referred
to the origin of the Association and its connection with
Edinburgh and paid tribute to the memory OF Sir John
Herschel and Prof. De Morgan who had passed away
since the last meeting He then drew mastery
sar 81 by sfh R
Brewster, Harcourt, Faraday Young, Gregory. Hamil
four stewart, Sabine, &c, in which he made the
following interesting announcement "A rehabilitation
s e seo me has bee G
taken by Adams He writes to that he has already
when Sir Edward sabnes Tables Of the values of the
Magnetic Elements deduced from observation are com
to take into account terms Of at least one order beyond
those included by Gauss The form in which the requisite
the whole surface of the globe. Materials from scientific
travellers of all nations, from our home magnetic obscr
the Cape Van Diemen's Land, and Toronto, and from
the scientific observatores OF other countries, have
day. night after night for quarter of century he has
toed with constant assistant always by his side to
Work. AT this moment while we are here assem-,
bed believe that in their quiet Summer retirement IN
magnetic chart OF the world If two years Of life and
health granted to Them science WILDE provided with
opening up Of the most refractory enigmas Of
mca physics, the cause of terrestrial magnetism" SIR
several l' branches '' Of Science: Accurate and
minute measurement seems TO-. the non non
nifed work than looking for something new But nearly
all the grandes discoveries of science have been but the
rewards OF accurate measurement and patient, long
continued labor in the minute shifting OF numerical re-
Srsnal Atlantic st eeesrapS he Said inpeed
and supported by sense Of the grandeur or ther en-
a
unmoved by the beauty of thescienfc problem directly
be immediately through their work, that the scien
tfc world to be instructed in lOngneglected and
discredited fundamental electric discovery Of Faradays
or that again. the assistance Of the British Asso
citation was invoked to supply their electricians with
methods for absolute measurement twhlch they louhd
necessary the best economical return for their
expenditure and to obviate and detect those faults IN
laying the foundation for accurate electric measure
ment in every scientific laboratory In the world and I'M,
branches into the Hottest regions and suDtes ether OF
Passing to the Subject of spontaneous generation Sir
William said that careful scrutiny has, In every
life Dead matter cannot become living without coming
under the influence OF matter previously alye. Ihis
seems to teaching OF science as the law OF
gravtaton utterly repudiae, az opposed to all phil
Osophical uniformaransm the assumption of differ
different vicsstudes Of temperature pressure moisture,
gaseous atmospheric produce or to permit that to
which is a direct contravention of what seems to
Logical law am prepared for the answer our code cod,
as OF knowledge And say search for spon
one satisfied with the purely negative testimony OF
which we have much against it, throw himself into
the inquiry Such investigations as those OF Pasteur
Pouchet and Bastian ere among the most interesting
and momentOus i'll the whole range of natural history,
and their results whether positive or negative must rch-
ly reward the most careful and abcrous experimenting
confess to being deeply impressed by the evidence
To adopt article of scientific faith true through all
f and aSSnR me hSs me S @ @
the earth Tracing the ply history OF the earth
| backward, strict dynamical principles, we are
brought a redhot melted globe which no life could
exist Hence, when the earth was first Mt for ethee
o water air all round warmed and nnn
ated by brilliant sun, ready to become garden. Dd
istence, in all the fullness of ripe beauty by. q
up from seed sown spread and multiply the whole
earhi sciences bound by the everlasting law of honor
sented to it. III probable solution, consistent with the
ordinary course of nature can be found we must not in
| woke an abnormal act of creative power. When lava
stream flows down the sides of Vesuvius Or.Etna 1t
quickly cools and becomes solid and after few weeks
originated by the transport 81 SEED ,,, anu
STeaares When enc volcanic Island springs up
and after few years is found clothed Win vegea
waited it through the air or oated TO it ON RATS Is
Of aR4 e p hS' IS 5 Ss
similarly explainedf Every year thousands, probably
Whepce came these fragmeLtsi What is the previous
history of any one Of themi Was it created in the
beginning of time amorphous MAST This idea is
so Unacceptable that tacitly explicitly all dis
card H. liz is often assumed that all and il is certain
been broken off from greater launched
into space. II is sure that collisions must occur be-
tween great moving through space it is that
ships, steered without intelligence directed TO prevent
collision could and the Atlantic for thou
sands OF years with Immunity from collisions; When
two great into collision in space it
tain that large parof each is eted but It seems also
quite certain tat in large quantity OF debris
be shot forth in all directions, much of which may
have experienced no greater violence than individual
pieces OF rock experience In landsip or In blasting by
gunpOwder Should the time when this earth comes into
collision with another body comparable in dimensions
itself, be when 1t is still clothed as at present with
vegetation, many great and small fragments carrying
seed and Irving plants and animals would undoubtedly
be scattered through space Hence and because we ali
confidently believe that there at present and have
been from time immemorta many worlds OF life beside
own we must regard II probable in the highest degree
that there countless seedbearng meteOrc stones
@ npoR m earth II s tine ens %
upon 1t might by what bndly call natural causes,
fully conscious the many scientific Objections which
may be urged against this hypothesis but believe them
thence too severely to allow TO think of discussing
any OF them on the present occasion The hypothesis
mens from the ruins OF another world may seem lid and
visionary all maintain is that is not unscentc From
the earth stocked with such vegetation could
meteOrcay to the earth teemng with all the endless
variety OF plants and animals which now inhab it. the
tnuity, most ably laid before the association by pre-
decessor IN this chair tMr. GrOve) all creatures now
living earth have proceeded by orderly evolution from
some such origin Darwin concludes his great work
The Origin OF species with the following words 1t is
! interesting TO contemplate an enanged bank clothed
with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing ON
the bushes, with various insects fitting about, and
with worms crawling through the damp earth and 10
reflect that these deliberately constructed FORMS so diff
ferent from each other and dependent each otbes
SO complex a manner, have all been produced by laws
acting around u.s. There is grandeur in this view OF
life, with its several powers, having been originally
breathed by the Creator into few forms into one
and that while this planet has cycling according
10 the fixed law of gravity, from simple beginning
endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have
been being evolved With the feeling expressed
In these sentences most cordially sympathize /
| have omitted two sentences which come between
| them describing briefly the hypothesis of the
origin OF species by natural selection, because
have always felt that this hypothesis does CON
tain the theory OF evolution If evolution there has
been. in biology. Sir John Hersehel, expressing a