Tyndall's Belfast Address
John Tyndall delivers the British Association for the Advancement of Science presidential address.
The British Association for the Advancement of Science met in 1874 in Belfast. It proved to be a momentous occasion. John Tyndall, Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution, delivered the presidential address on the evening of August 19th. Tyndall’s topic was the relationship of science, past and present, to philosophical materialism. The address ignited a storm of controversy that surrounded Tyndall for the rest of his life, and it changed the way modern science came to be perceived by the British public.