CHEMICAL NEWS,} Sept. 8, 1876. British Association.-The President's Address. 97 THE CHEMICAL NEWS. lation. Our knowledge of the varied forms of animal life, VOL. XXXIV. No. 876. BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF of three and a half years, is a subject of general congratuand of the remains of animal life, which occur, it is now known, over large tracts of the bed of the ocean, is chiefly derived from the observations made in the "Challenger" and in the previous deep-sea expeditions which were organised by Sir Wyville Thomson and Dr. Carpenter. The physical observations, and especially those on the temperature of the ocean, which were systematically conducted throughout the whole voyage of the " Challenger," have already supplied valuable data for the resolution of SCIENCE. the great question of ocean-currents. Upon this question, which has been discussed with singular ability, but under different aspects, by Dr. Carpenter and Mr. Croll, I cannot attempt here to enter; nor will I venture to forestall, by any crude analysis of my own, the narrative which Sir Wy ville Thomson has kindly undertaken to give of his own achievements and of those of his staff during their long scientific cruise. GLASGOW MEETING, SEPTEMBER 6, 1876. INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, Six and thirty years have passed over since the British Association for the Advancement of Science held its tenth meeting in this ancient city, and twenty-one years have elapsed since it last assembled here. The representatives of two great Scottish families presided on these occasions; and those who had the advantage of hearing the address of the Duke of Argyll in 1855 will recall the gratification they enjoyed while listening to the thoughtful sentiments which reflected a mind of rare cultivation and varied acquirements. On the present occasion I have undertaken, not without anxiety, the duty of filling an office at first accepted by one whom Scotland and the Association would alike have rejoiced to see in this Chair, not only as a tribute to his own scientific services, but also as recognising in him the worthy representative of that long line of able men who have upheld the pre-eminent position attained by the Scottish schools of medicine in the middle of the last century, when the mantle of Boerhaave fell upon Monro and Cullen. The task of addressing this Association, always a difficult one, is not rendered easier when the meeting is held in a place which presents the rare combination of being at once an ancient seat of learning and a great centre of modern industry. Time will not permit me to refer to the distinguished men who in early days have left here their mark behind them; and I regret it the more, as there is a growing tendency to exaggerate the value of later discoveries, and to underrate the achievements of those who have lived before us. Confining our attention to a period reaching back to little more than a century, it appears that during that time three new sciences arose, at least as far as any science can be said to have a distinct origin, in this city of Glasgow-Experimental Chemistry, Political Economy, and Mechanical Engineering. It is now conceded that Black laid the foundation of modern chemistry; and no one has ever disputed the claims of Adam Smith and of Watt to having not only founded, but largely built | up, the two great branches of knowledge with which their names will always be inseparably connected. It was here that Dr. Thomas Thomson established the first school of Practical Chemistry in Great Britain, and that Sir W. Hooker gave to the chair of Botany a European celebrity; it was here that Graham discovered the law of gaseous diffusion and the properties of polybasic acids; it was here that Stenhouse and Anderson, Rankine and J. Thomson made some of their finest discoveries; and it was here that Sir William Thomson conducted his physicomathematical investigations, and invented those exquisite instruments, valuable alike for ocean telegraphy and for scientific use, which are among the finest trophies of recent science. Nor must the names of Tennant, Mackintosh, Neilson, Walter Crum, Young, and Napier be omitted, who, with many others in this place, have made large and valuable additions to practical science. The safe return of the "Challenger," after an absence Another expedition, which has more than fulfilled the expectations of the public, is Lieutenant Cameron's remarkable journey across the continent of Africa. It is by such enterprises, happily conceived and ably executed, that we may hope at no distant day to see the Arab slave dealer replaced by the legitimate trader, and the depressed populations of Africa gradually brought within the pale of civilised life. From the North Polar Expedition no intelligence has been received; nor can we expect for some time to hear whether it has succeeded in the crowning object of Arctic enterprise. In the opinion of many, the results, scientific or other, to be gained by a full survey of the Arctic regions can never be of such value as to justify the risk and cost which must be incurred. But it is not by cold calculations of this kind that great discoveries are made or great enterprises achieved. There is an inward and irrepressible impulse-in individuals called a spirit of adventure, in nations a spirit of enterprise-which impels mankind forward to explore every part of the world we inhabit, however inhospitable or difficult of access; and if the country claiming the foremost place among maritime nations shrink from an undertaking because it is perilous, other countries will not be slow to seize the post of honour. If it be possible for man to reach the poles of the earth, whether north or south, the feat must sooner or later be accomplished; and the country of the successful adventurers will be thereby raised in the scale of nations. The passage of Venus over the sun's disk is an event which cannot be passed over without notice, although many of the circumstances connected with it have already become historical. It was to observe this rare astronomical phenomenon, on the occasion of its former occurrence in 1769, that Captain Cook's memorable voyage to the Pacific was undertaken, in the course of which he explored the coast of New South Wales, and added that great country to the possessions of the British Crown. As the transit of Venus gives the most exact method of calculating the distance of the earth from the sun, extensive preparations were made on the last occasion for observing it at selected stations-from Siberia in northern, to Kerguelen's Land in southern latitudes. The great maritime powers vied with each other to turn the opportunity to the best account; and Lord Lindsay had the spirit to equip, at his own expense, the most complete expedition which left the shores of this country. Some of the most valuable stations in southern latitudes were desert islands, rarely free from mist or tempest, and without harbours or shelter of any kind. The landing of the instruments was in many cases attended with great diffi culty and even personal risk. Photography lent its aid to record automatically the progress of the transit; and M. Janssen contrived a revolving plate, by means of which from fifty to sixty images of the edge of the sun could be taken at short intervals during the critical periods of the phenomenon. The observations of M. Janssen at Nagasaki, in Japan, 98 the sun. British Association.-The President's Address. were of special interest. Looking through a violet-blue In this brief reference to one of the finest results of modern science, I have mentioned a great name whose loss England has recently had to deplore, and in connection with it the name of an illustrious physicist whose premature death deprived France, a few years ago, of one of her brightest ornaments-Wheatstone and Foucault, ever to be remembered for their marvellous power of eliciting, like Galileo and Newton, from familiar phenomena, the highest truths of nature! The discovery of Huggins that some of the fixed stars are moving towards and others receding from our system, has been fully confirmed by a careful series of observations lately made by Mr. Christie in the Observatory of Greenwich. Mr. Huggins has not been able to discover any indications of a proper motion in the nebula; but this may arise from the motion of translation being less than the method would discover. Few achievements in the history of science are more wonderful than the measurement of the proper motions of the fixed stars, from observing the relative position of two delicate lines of light in the field of the telescope. The observation of the American astronomer Young, that bright lines, corresponding to the ordinary lines of Fraunhofer reversed, may be seen in the lower strata of the solar atmosphere for a few moments during a total eclipse, has been confirmed by Mr. Stone, on the occasion of the total eclipse of the sun which occurred some time ago in South Africa. In the outer corona, or higher regions of the sun's atmosphere, a single green line only was seen, the same which had been already described by Young. I can here refer only in general terms to the observations of Roscoe and Schuster on the absorption bands of potassium and sodium, and to the investigations of Lockyer on the absorptive powers of metallic and metalFrom the loidal vapours at different temperatures. vapour of calcium the latter has obtained two wholly distinct spectra, one belonging to a low, and the other to CHEMICAL NEWS, a high temperature. Mr. Lockyer is also engaged on a Spectrum analysis has lately led to the discovery of a new metal-gallium-the fifth whose presence has been first indicated by that powerful agent. This discovery is known by a work on the application of the spectroscope due to M. Lecoq de Boisbaudran, already favourably to chemical analysis. Our knowledge of aërolites has of late years been greatly increased; and I cannot occupy a few moments of your time more usefully than by briefly referring to the subject. So recently as 1860 the most remarkable meteoric fall on record, not even excepting that of L'Aigle, occurred near the village of New Concord, in Ohio. On a day when no thunder-clouds were visible, loud sounds were heard resembling claps of thunder, followed by a large fall of meteoric stones, some of which were distinctly seen to strike the earth. One stone, above 50 lbs. in In 1872, weight, buried itself to the depth of two feet in the ground, another remarkable meteorite, at first seen as a brilliant and when dug out was found to be still warm. star with a luminous train, burst near Orvinio, in Italy, and six fragments of it were afterwards collected. Isolated masses of metallic iron, or rather of an alloy of iron and nickel, similar in composition and properties to the iron usually diffused in meteoric stones, have been found here and there on the surface of the earth, some of Of the meteoric origin of large size, as one described by Pallas, which weighed Sir Edward about two-thirds of a ton. these masses of iron there is little room for doubt, Sabine, whose life has been devoted with rare fidelity to although no record exists of their fall. the pursuit of science, and to whose untiring efforts this Association largely owes the position it now occupies, was the pioneer of the newer discoveries in meteoric science. Eight and fifty years ago he visited, with Captain Ross, the northern shores of Baffin's Bay, and made the interesting discovery that the knife-blades used by the Esquimaux in the vicinity of the Arctic highlands were formed of meteoric iron. This observation was afterwards fully confirmed; and scattered blocks of meteoric iron have been found from time to time around Baffin's Bay. But it was not till 1870 that the meteoric treasures of Baffin's Bay were truly discovered. In that year Nordenskiöld found, at a part of the shore difficult of approach even in moderate weather, enormous blocks of meteoric iron, the largest weighing nearly 20 tons, imbedded in a ridge of basaltic rock. The interest of this observation is greatly enhanced by the circumstance that these masses of meteoric iron, like the basalt with which they are associated, do not belong to the present geological epoch, but must have fallen long before the actual arrangement of land and sea existed-during, in short, the middle Tertiary, or Miocene period of Lyell. The meteoric origin of these iron masses from Ovifak has been called in question by Lawrence Smith; and it is no doubt possible that they may have been raised by upheaval from the interior of the earth. I have indeed myself shown by a magneto-chemical process that metallic iron, in particles so fine that they have never yet been actually seen, is everywhere diffused through the Miocene basalt of Slieve Mish in Antrim, and may likewise be discovered by careful search in almost all igneous and in many metamorphic rocks. These observations have since been verified by But, as Reuss in the case of the Bohemian basalts. regards the native iron of Ovifak, the weight of evidence appears to be in favour of the conclusion, at which M. Daubrée, after a careful discussion of the subject, has arrived that it is really of meteor.c origin. This Ovitak iron is also remarkable from containing a considerable amount of carbon, partly combined with the iron, partly diffused through the metallic mass in a form resembling coke. In connection with this subject, I must refer to the able and exhaustive memoirs of Maskelyne on the Busti and other aërolites, to the discovery of vanadium by R. Apjohn in the meteoric iron, to the interesting observa. CHEMICAL NEWS, Sept. 8, 1876. British Association.-The President's Address. tions of Sorby, and to the researches of Daubrée, Wöhler, Lawrence Smith, Tschermak, and others. 99 names of Weber, Helmholtz, Thomson, and Clerk Max well. The work of the latter on electricity is an original essay worthy in every way of the great reputation and of the clear and far seeing intellect of its author. The important services which the Kew Observatory has rendered to meteorology and to solar physics have been fully recognised; and Mr. Gassiot has had the gratification of witnessing the final success of his long and noble efforts to place this observatory upon a permanent footing. A physical observatory for somewhat similar objects, but on a larger scale, is in course of erection, under the guidance of M. Janssen, at Fontenay, in France, and others are springing up or already exist in Germany and Italy. It is earnestly to be hoped that this country will not lag behind in providing physical observatories on a scale worthy of the nation and commensurate with the import-electricity of high tension is passed through dielectrics, ance of the object. On this question I cannot do better than refer to the high authority of Dr. Balfour Stewart, and to the views he expressed in his able address last year to the Physical Section. Weather telegraphy, or the reporting by telegraph the state of the weather at selected stations to a central office, so that notice of the probable approach of storms may be given to the seaports, has become in this country an organised system; and considering the little progress meteorology has made as a science, the results may be considered to be on the whole satisfactory. Of the warnings issued of late years, four out of five were justified by the occurrence of gales or strong winds. Few storms occurred for which no warnings had been given; but unfortunately among these were some of the heaviest gales of the period. The stations from which daily reports are sent to the meteorological office in London embrace the whole coast of Western Europe, including the Shetland Isles. It appears that atmospheric disturbances seldom cross the Atlantic without being greatly altered in character, and that the origin of most of our storms lies eastward of the longitude of Newfoundland. As regards the velocity of the wind, the cup-anemometer of Dr. Robinson has fully realised the expectations of its discoverer; and the venerable astronomer of Armagh has been engaged during the past summer, with all the ardour of youth, in a course of laborious experiments to determine the constants of his instrument. From seven years' observations at the Observatory of Armagh he has found that the mean velocity of the wind is greatest in the S.S.W. octant and least in the opposite one, and that the amount of wind attains a maximum in January, after which it steadily decreases, with one slight exception, till July, augmenting again till the end of the year. Among recent investigations I must refer to Prof. Tait's discovery of consecutive neutral points in certain thermoelectric junctions, for which he was lately awarded the Keith prize. This discovery has been the result of an elaborate investigation of the properties of thermo-electric currents, and is specially interesting in reference to the theory of dynamical electricity. Nor can I omit to mention the very interesting and original experiments of Dr. Kerr on the dielectric state, from which it appears that when a change of molecular arrangement occurs, slowly in the case of solids, quickly in the case of liquids, and that the lines of electric force are in some cases lines of compression, in other cases lines of extension. Of the many discoveries in physical science due to Sir William Grove, the earliest and not the least important is the battery which bears his name, and is to this day the most powerful of all voltaic arrangements; but with a Grove's battery of 50 or even 100 cells in vigorous action, the spark will not pass through an appreciable distance of cold air. By using a very large number of cells, carefully insulated and charged with water. Mr. Gassiot succeeded in obtaining a short spark through air; and lately De la Rue and Müller have constructed a large chloride of silver battery giving freely sparks through cold air, which, when a column of pure water is interposed in the circuit, accurately resemble those of the common electrical machine. The length of the spark increasing nearly as the square of the number of cells, it has been calculated that with 100,000 elements of this battery the discharge should take place through a distance of no less than 8 feet in air. Passing to the subject of electricity, it is with pleasure that I have to announce the failure of a recent attempt to deprive Oerstedt of his great discovery. It is gratifying thus to find high reputations vindicated, and names which all men love to honour transmitted with undiminished lustre to posterity. At a former meeting of this Association, remarkable for an unusual attendance of distinguished foreigners, the central figure was Oerstedt. On that occasion Sir John Herschel, in glowing language, compared Oerstedt's discovery to the blessed dew of heaven which only the master-mind could draw down, but which it was for others to turn to account and use for the fertilisation of the earth. To Franklin, Volta, Coulomb, Oerstedt, Ampère, Faraday, Seebeck, and Ohm, are due the fundamental discoveries of modern electricity-a science whose applications in Davy's hands led to grander results than alchemist ever dreamed of, and in the hands of others (among whom Wheatstone, Morse, and Thomson occupy the foremost place) to the marvels of the electric telegraph. When we proceed from the actual phenomena of electricity to the molecular conditions upon which those phenomena depend, we are confronted with questions as recondite as any with which the physicist has had to deal, but towards the solution of which the researches of Faraday have contributed the most precious materials. The theory of electrical and magnetic action occupied formerly the powerful minds of Poisson, Green, and Gauss; and among the living it will surely not be invidious to cite the In the solar beam we have an agent of surpassing power, the investigation of whose properties by Newton forms an epoch in the history of experimental science scarcely less important than the discovery of the law of gravitation in the history of physical astronomy. Three actions characterise the solar beam, or, indeed, more or less that of any luminous body-the heating, the physiological, and the chemical. In the ordinary solar beam we can modify the relative amount of these actions by passing it through different media, and we can thus have luminous rays with little heating or little chemical action. In the case of the moon's rays it required the highest skill on the part of Lord Rosse, even with all the resources of the Observatory of Parsonstown, to investigate their heating properties, and to show that the surface of our satellite facing the earth passes, during every lunation, through a greater range of temperature than the difference between the freezing- and boiling-points of water. But if, instead of taking an ordinary ray of light, we analyse it as Newton did by the prism, and isolate a very fine line of the spectrum (theoretically a line of infinite tenuity), that is to say, if we take a ray of definite refrangibility, it will be found impossible, by screens or otherwise, to alter its properties. It was his clear perception of the truth of this principle that led Stokes to his great discovery of the cause of epipolic dispersion, in which he showed that many bodies had the power of absorbing dark rays of high refrangibility and of emitting them as luminous rays of lower refrangibility,-of absorbing, in short, darkness, and of emitting it as light. It is not, indeed, an easy matter in all cases to say whether a given effect is due to the action of heat or light; and the question which of these forces is the efficient agent in causing the motion of the tiny disks in Crookes's radiometer has given rise to a good deal of discussion. The answer to this question involves the same principles as those by which the image traced on the daguerreotype plate, or the decomposition of carbonic acid by the leaves of plants, is referred to the action of light and not of heat; and applying these principles to the experiments 100 British Association.-The President's Address. made with the radiometer, the weight of evidence appears to be in favour of the view that the repulsion of the blackened surfaces of the disks is due to a thermal reaction Occurring in a highly rarefied medium. I have myself had the pleasure of witnessing many of Mr. Crookes's experiments, and I cannot sufficiently express my admiration of the care and skill with which he has pursued this investigation. The remarkable repulsions he has observed in the most perfect vacua hitherto attained are interesting, not only as having led to the construction of a beautiful instrument, but as being likely, when the subject is fully investigated, to give valuable data for the theory of molecular actions. A singular property of light, discovered a short time ago by Mr. Willoughby Smith, is its power of diminishing the electrical resistance of the element selenium. This property has been ascertained to belong chiefly to the luminous rays on the red side of the spectrum, being nearly absent in the violet or more refrangible rays and also in heat-rays of low refrangibility. The recent experiments of Prof. W. G. Adams have fully established the accuracy of the remarkable observation, first made by Lord Rosse, that the action appeared to vary inversely as the simple distance of the illuminating source. Switzerland sent, some years ago, as its representative to this country the celebrated De la Rive, whose scientific life formed lately the subject of an eloquent éloge from the pen of M. Dumas. On this occasion we have to welcome, in General Menabrea, a distinguished representative both of the kingdom of Italy and of Italian science. His great work on the determination of the pressures and tensions in an elastic system is of too abstruse a character to be discussed in this address; but the principle it contains may be briefly stated in the following words:"When any elastic system places itself in equilibrium under the action of external forces, the work developed by the internal forces is a minimum." General Menabrea has, however, other and special claims upon us here, as the friend to whom Babbage entrusted the task of making known to the world the principles of his analytical machine-a gigantic conception, the effort to realise which it is known was one of the chief objects of Babbage's later life. The latest development of this conception is to be found in the mechanical integrator of Prof. J. Thomson, in which motion is transmitted, according to a new kinematic principle, from a disk or cone to a cylinder through the intervention of a loose ball, and in Sir W. Thomson's machine for the mechanical integration of differential equations of the second order. In the exquisite tidal machine of the latter we have an instrument by means of which the height of the tide at a given port can be accurately predicted for all times of the day and night. The attraction-meter of Siemens is an instrument of great delicacy for measuring horizontal attractions, which it is proposed to use for recording the attractive influences of the sun and moon, upon which the tides depend. The bathometer of the same able physicist is another remarkable instrument, in which the constant force of a spring is opposed to the variable pressure of a column of mercury. By an easy observation of the bathometer on shipboard, the depth of the sea may be approximately ascertained without the use of a sounding-line. The Loan Exhibition of Apparatus at Kensington has been a complete success, and cannot fail to be useful, both in extending a knowledge of scientific subjects and in promoting scientific research throughout the country. Unique in character, but most interesting and instructive, this exhibition will, it is to be hoped, be the precursor of a permanent museum of scientific objects, which, like the present exhibition, shall be a record of old as well as a representation of new inventions. It is often difficult to draw a distinct line of separation between the physical and chemical sciences; and it is perhaps doubtful whether the division is not really an artificial one. The chemist cannot, indeed, make any large advance without having to deal with physical principles; and it is to Boyle, Dalton, Gay-Lussac, and Graham that we owe the discovery of the mechanical laws which govern the properties of gases and vapours. Some of these laws have of late been made the subject of searching inquiry, which has fully confirmed their accuracy, when the body under examination approaches to what has not inaptly been designated the ideal gaseous state. But when gases are examined under varied conditions of pressure and temperature, it is found that these laws are only particular cases of more general laws, and that the laws of the gaseous state, as it exists in nature, although they may be enunciated in a precise and definite form, are very different from the simple expressions which apply to the ideal condition. The new laws become in their turn inapplicable when from the gaseous state proper we pass to those intermediate conditions which, it has been shown, link with unbroken continuity the gaseous and liquid states. As we approach the liquid state, or even when we reach it, the problem becomes more complicated; but its solution even in these cases will, it may confidently be expected, yield to the powerful means of investigation we now possess. Among the more important researches made of late in physical chemistry, I may mention those of F. Weber on the specific heat of carbon and the allied elements, of Berthelot on thermo-chemistry, of Bunsen on spectrum analysis, of Wüllner on the band- and line-spectra of the gases, and of Guthrie on the cryohydrates. Cosmical chemistry is a science of yesterday, and yet it already abounds in facts of the highest interest. Hydrogen, which, if the absolute zero of the physicist does not bar the way, we may hope yet to see in the metallic form, appears to be everywhere present in the universe. It exists in enormous quantity in the solar atmosphere, and it has been discovered in the atmospheres of the fixed stars. It is present, and is the only known element of whose presence we are certain, in those vast sheets of ignited gas of which the nebulæ proper are composed. Nitrogen is also widely diffused among the stellar bodies, and carbon has been discovered in more than one of the comets. On the other hand, a prominent line in the spectrum of the Aurora Borealis has not been identified with that of any known element; and the question may be asked-Does a new element, in a highly rarefied state, exist in the upper regions of our atmosphere? or are we, with Angström, to attribute this line to a fluorescent or phosphorescent light produced by the electrical discharge to which the aurora is due? This question awaits further observations before it can be definitely settled, as does also that of the source of the remarkable green line which is everywhere conspicuous in the solar corona. I must here pause for a moment to pay a passing tribute to the memory of Ångström, whose great work on the solar spectrum will always remain as one of the finest monuments of the science of our period. The influence, indeed, which the labours of Ångström and of Kirchhoff have exerted on the most interesting portion of later physics can scarcely be exaggerated; and it may be truly said that there are few men whose loss will be longer felt or more deeply deplored than that of the illustrious astronomer of Upsala. I cannot pursue this subject further, nor refer to the other terrestrial elements which are present in the solar and stellar atmospheres. Among the many elements that make up the ordinary aërolite, not one has been discovered which does not occur upon this earth. On the whole we arrive at the grand conclusion that this mighty universe is chiefly built up of the same materials as the globe we inhabit. In the application of science to the useful purposes of life, chemistry and mechanics have run an honourable It was in the valley of the Clyde that the chief industry of this country received, within the memory of many here present, an extraor linary impulse from the race. CHEMICAL NEWS, Sept. 8, 1876. British Association.-The President's Address. application by Neilson of the hot blast to the smelting of iron. The Bessemer steel process and the regenerative furnace of Siemens are later applications of high scientific principles to the same industry. But there is ample work yet to be done. The fuel consumed in the manufacture of iron, as, indeed, in every furnace where coal is used, is greatly in excess of what theory indicates; and the clouds of smoke which darken the atmosphere of our manufacturing towns, and even of whole districts of country, are a clear indication of the waste, but only of a small portion of the waste, arising from imperfect combustion. The depressing effect of this atmosphere upon the working population can scarcely be overrated. Their pale- I had almost said etiolated-faces are a sure indication of the absence of the vivifying influence of the solar rays, so essential to the maintenance of vigorous health. The chemist can furnish a simple test of this state of the atmosphere in the absence of ozone, the active form of oxygen, from the air of our large towns. At some future day the efforts of science to isolate, by a cheap and available process, the oxygen of the air for industrial purposes may be rewarded with success. The effect of such a discovery would be to reduce the consumption of fuel to a fractional part of its present amount; and although the carbonic acid would remain, the smoke and carbonic oxide would disappear. But an abundant supply of pure oxygen is not now within our reach; and in the meantime may I venture to suggest that in many localities the waste products of the furnace might be carried off to a distance from the busy human hive by a few horizontal flues of large dimensions, terminating in lofty chimneys on a hill-side or distant plain? A system of this kind has long been employed at the mercurial mines of Idria, and in other smelting-works where noxious vapours are disengaged. With a little care in the arrangements the smoke would be wholly deposited, as flue-dust or soot, in the horizontal galleries, and would be available for the use of the agriculturist. The future historian of organic chemistry will have to record a succession of beneficent triumphs, in which the efforts of science have led to results of the highest value to the wellbeing of man. The discovery of quinine has probably saved more human life, with the exception of that of vaccination, than any discovery of any age; and he who succeeds in devising an artificial method of preparing it will be truly a benefactor of the race. Not the least valuable, as it has been one of the most successful, of the works of our Government in India, has been the planting of the cinchona tree on the slopes of the Himalaya. As artificial methods are discovered, one by one, of preparing the proximate principles of the useful dyes, a temporary derangement of industry occurs, but in the end the waste materials of our manufactures set free large portions of the soil for the production of human food. The ravages of insects have ever been the terror of the agriculturist, and the injury they inflict is often incalculable. An enemy of this class, carried over from America, threatened lately with ruin some of the finest vine districts in the South of France. The occasion has called forth a chemist of high renown; and in a classical memoir recently published, M. Dumas appears to have resolved the difficult problem. His method, although immediately ap. plied to the Phylloxera of the vine, is a general one, and will no doubt be found serviceable in other cases. In the apterous state the Phylloxera attacks the roots of the plant, and the most efficacious method hitherto known of destroying it has been to inundate the vineyard. After a long and patient investigation, M. Dumas has discovered that the sulpho-carbonate of potassium, in dilute solution, fulfils every condition required from an insecticide, destroying the insect without injuring the plant. The process requires time and patience; but the trials in the vineyard have fully confirmed the experiments of the laboratory. The application of artificial cold to practical purposes is rapidly extending; and, with the improvement of the ice ΙΟΙ machine, the influence of this agent upon our supply of animal food from distant countries will undoubtedly be immense. The ice-machine is already employed in paraffin works and in large breweries; and the curing or salting of meat is now largely conducted in vast chambers, maintained throughout the summer at a constant temperature by a thick covering of ice. I have now completed this brief review, rendered difficult by the abundance, not by the lack of materials. Even confining our attention to the few branches of science upon which I have ventured to touch, and omitting altogether the whole range of pure chemistry, it is with regret that I find myself constrained to make only a simple reference to the important work of Cayley on the Mathematical Theory of Isomers, and to elaborate memoirs which have recently appeared in Germany on the reflection of heat- and lightrays, and on the specific heat and conducting power of gases for heat, by Knoblauch, E. Wiedemann, Winkelmann, and Buff. The decline of science in England formed the theme, fifty years ago, of an elaborate essay by Babbage; but the brilliant discoveries of Faraday soon after wiped off the reproach. I will not venture to say that the alarm which has lately arisen, here and elsewhere, on the same subject will prove to be equally groundless. The duration of every great outburst of human activity, whether in art, in literature, or in science, has always been short, and experimental science has made gigantic advances during the last three centuries. The evidence of any great failure is not, however, very manifest, at least in the physical sciences. The journal of Poggendorff, which has long been a faithful record of the progress of physical research throughout the world, shows no signs of flagging; and the Jubelband by which Germany celebrated the fiftieth year of Poggendorff's invaluable services was at the same time an ovation to a scientific veteran, who has perhaps done more than any man living to encourage the highest forms of research, and a proof that in Northern Europe the physical sciences continue to be ably and actively cultivated. If in chemistry the case is somewhat weaker, the explanation, at least in this country, is chiefly to be found in the demand on the part of the public for professional aid from many of our ablest chemists. But whatever view be taken of the actual condition of scientific research, there can be no doubt that it is both the duty and the interest of the country to encourage a pursuit so ennobling in itself, and fraught with such important consequences to the wellbeing of the community. Nor is there any question in which this Association, whose special aim is the advancement of science, can take a deeper interest. The public mind has also been awakened to its importance, and is prepared to aid in carrying out any proposal which offers a reasonable prospect of advantage. In its recent phase the question of scientific research has been mixed up with contemplated changes in the great universities of England, and particularly in the University of Oxford. The national interests involved on all sides are immense, and a false step once taken may be irretrievable. It is with diffidence that I now refer to the subject, even after having given to it the most anxious and careful consideration. As regards the higher mathematics, their cultivation has hitherto been chiefly confined to the Universities of Cambridge and Dublin, and two great mathematical schools will probably be sufficient for the kingdom. The case of the physical and natural sciences is different, and they ought to be cultivated in the largest and widest sense at every complete university. Nor, in applying this remark to the English universities, must we forget that if Cambridge was the Alma Mater of Newton and Cavendish, Oxford gave birth to the Royal Society. The ancient renown of Oxford will surely not suffer, while her material position cannot fail to be strengthened, by the expansion of scientific studies and the encouragement of scientific research within her walls. Nor ought such a proposal to |