3-017-216 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Meeting of the British Association at Birmingham: Professor Phillips, the President, delivering the Inaugural Address in the Townhall, 1865. 'There were probably about 1500 ladies and gentlemen present; but the hall is so vast that even a much larger audience would scarcely make the place appear to be full. The roof and columns are lavishly decorated, while the galleries and area are quite plain. The assemblage of learned men on the platform was imposing enough...there were present Sir Charles Lyell, Professor Phillips, Sir Roderick Murchison, and a strong muster of the notabilities of science; also Lords Stanley and Lyttelton and several knights and baronets. In the audience there was a fair proportion of ladies, while amongst the other sex, both here and on the platform, there was that remarkable diversity of physiognomy which seems to be a peculiar effect of the pursuit of science. Professor Phillips delivered his address very quietly, and was not heard distinctly throughout the hall. The meeting was slow to applaud, and it was not until the ice had been broken by the allusion to the scientific balloon ascents of Mr. Glaisher that cheers followed the periods in their due order'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.