Abstract
THIS year's Congress was opened at the Hôtel de Ville, Clermont, on Friday, August 18, under the presidency of Prof. Dumas, the well-known chemist and the perpetual secretary of the Academy of Sciences. M. Dumas praised in warm terms the spirit of individual initiative so largely developed in England, and he compared the British Association with her younger sister, the French Association. He spoke in high terms of English men of science, and referred to the Exhibition of 1851, and the important results which have followed it in the development of permanent scientific institutions in England. M. Dumas acknowledged the zeal of the French Government in helping science, and he showed that science must be promoted not only by benevolent and intelligent individuals, but also by the State. He, in eloquent terms, presented to the assembly the testimony of his long-continued labours extending over a period of more than sixty years, as a proof that science was conducive only to happiness. He advised men of science not to meddle either with theology or with philosophy, but to leave all questions in these regions in the hands of theologians and philosophers. The province open to science is large enough to give every satisfaction to the widest ambition.
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French Association for the Advancement of Science . Nature 14, 357–358 (1876). https://doi.org/10.1038/014357b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/014357b0