One of the dullest meetings of the British Association on
record has come to an end,—one of the dullest, we mean, in the sense not of the adept, but of the ordinary reader,—the hearer who hopes to pick up something new by the light of a very general education. The Times has even ventured to lecture the men of science on the duty of trying to keep the interest of the public pressing close on their heels,—in a word, on the duty of being popular. There is something in that, for of course all highly 04 technical discussions must be reserved for very select assemblies ; but has the Times itself, or any of our papers, done its duty by this meeting of the Association ? Professor Tait's lecture on "Force," -Which seems to have been brilliant, and must have been more or less popular, was nowhere, to our knowledge at least, so reported as to be intelligible. Yet in it he seems to have- come to close-quarters with one of the positions taken by Professor Tyndall at the celebrated Belfast meeting. We can hardly expect men of science to be popular if, when they are so, the Press declines to give the people the opportunity of reading what they say.
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