Abstract
At the close of his presidential address, Sir Henry Dale launched an appeal on behalf of the British Association for a development fund of £100,000 for the advancement of science. It was appropriate, he said, that the appeal should be announced in the Caird Hall, Dundee, where he was speaking, because it was Sir James Caird, who gave the hall to the city, who also gave the British Association in 1912 its first endowment fund. This was followed by other gifts, such as that in 1926 of £10,000 by Sir Alfred Yarrow, who, however, made it a condition that the capital and interest should be expended in twenty years. The Association now requires substantial funds to enable it to continue to discharge its functions. Hitherto, its working expenses have been small, chiefly because a large part of the cost of the annual meetings has been provided by the generous hospitality of the cities where they were held. It has no significant reserves to meet the present rising costs or to enable it to undertake new activities. An appeal is accordingly being made for a development fund of £100,000 to be used under the direction of the Council of the Association for the advancement of science. Among the specific purposes for which funds are urgently needed are the support of certain aspects of research not adequately covered by specialist and other bodies; promotion of contacts between British and other men of science; the extension of the scheme whereby senior science students at universities and colleges are enabled to attend annual meetings of the Association; provision of better accommodation than the wholly inadequate offices at present occupied by the Association; increased endowment to maintain Down House, the home of Charles Darwin, with its priceless collection of Darwiniana; and provision of a central organisation for the dissemination in Britain of scientific information. Particulars of the appeal can be obtained from the Secretary, British Association for the Advancement of Science, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W.1.
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Development Fund for the British Association. Nature 160, 324 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/160324b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/160324b0