British Association at Dundee

Abstract

On Wednesday, the annual meeting of the British Association, held this year at Dundee, was brought to a close. The meeting opened on August 27, and was the first full meeting to be held since 1939; in that year, it will be recalled, the annual meeting opened also in Dundee, but was abandoned on the declaration of war. It was thus appropriate that the Association should mark the renewal of its full activities by meeting at Dundee, though nevertheless the generosity of the city in once more offering itself as host must not be overlooked. The formal opening of the meeting with the delivery of the presidential address on the evening of August 27 was preceded, at noon, by a civic ceremony in the Caird Hall, at which the Lord Provost conferred on Sir Henry Dale, president of the Association, the freedom of Dundee; this distinction, as Sir Henry remarked, not only honoured him but also the British Association. The Lord Provost and Corporation also gave a civic reception for the Association on the evening of August 28, and a dinner on the following evening to selected visitors, at which Sir Henry Dale, Sir Richard Gregory (immediate past-president of the Association) and Dr. Kirtley F. Mather, of Harvard, who had just delivered the British and American Association Lecture, paid just tribute to the hospitality of Dundee and its citizens. Local interest in the meeting was shown by the fact that of the total registration of 3,000 announced by Sir Henry Dale on August 27, no less than 1,770 were from Dundee and the neighbourhood; this latter figure exceeded that for 1939 by more than 250 and constitutes a record for meetings in Great Britain outside London. Sir Henry Tizard was elected president of the British Association for 1948, when the annual meeting will be held at Brighton. Sir Henry is chairman of the Advisory Council on Scientific Policy and of the Defence Research Policy Committee (see Nature, February 8, p. 191); his acceptance of the office of president of the British Association ensures that the Association will be fully in touch with scientific developments and will not lack energetic leadership during the coming year.