The Presidential address at the meeting of the British Association,
which opened at Sheffield on Wednesday, was delivered by Professor Bonney. Confining himself to the branch of science of which he has made a lifelong study, Professor Bonney dealt with the problems of the ice age pre- sented by the glacial phenomena of Great Britain. On the vexed question of the part played by glaciers in the sculpture of hills and valleys, Professor Bonney inclines to the view that their action may be defined as one of abrasion rather than excavation, the more extensive erosions being due to torrents and rivers. Turning to the problem of glacial deposits, Professor Bonney gave a guarded adhesion to the theory which finds the solution in subsidence and submergence as opposed to the rival explanation by land- ics. But he admitted that both theories were open to grave objections. The judicial character of the address was well brought out in the peroration, in which the President emphasised the importance, at certain stages in the development of a scientific idea, of contenting ourselves with the attempt to separate facts from fancies. The giving of a name cannot convert the imaginary into the real, and we must remember that "if hypotheses yet on their trial are treated as axioms, the result will often bring disaster, like building a tower on a foundation of sand."
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