The Express.
London, England, 1856-09-11 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBBR 11.

NOTWITHSTANDING the antiquity and popularity
of the proverb which tells us that " You can't make
silk purse out of a sow's ear," we coshes that oar
faith in its literal truth becomes weaker end weaker
fts we read, year after year, the reports of the pro
endings of the British Association. The discoveries
In physical science, and their practical application to
everyday uses, proceed with such wonderfully
tepid strides, that we have long since lost sight of
oar old landmarks of the improbable, and sae
utterly at a loss to guess at what point the im-
possible even begins. Chemistry is perpetually
working new wonders as marvellous almost as that
which is indicated in the old sew we have quoted,
and we swept them almost as matters of corms. We
are evidently getting blase as regards those strange
metamorphose% Your cooketioner sends a syrup of
jasper"( pears, and a bottle of pineapple punch, to
retreat you during the dog days—end very admirable
they are. But little reeks he so to the state of the
pear and pineapple market; it is the butter market
which is the important oaasideration, for that is the
article which, by moms shimaisal magio, tarnishes the
assent* of jurgooe► and pineapple, and Heaven knows
what besides. The paturner, in like manner, has sr
senors of violet, sod other popular flowers, at your
service; bat the perfume, instead of owing its origin
to the vegetable products whose names it bears, is
derived from substances more likely to attract the
attention of inspectors of nuisances than of saanufao-
tures of "termite doubles de mille-fleure." It wee
but the other day that we were presented with a
sample of essential oil of aimed*, perfect at all
points except its poisonous quality; bat the "a►mosd"
from which it was extracted was a tar barrel. What
must the sericulture' part of his indiums have
thought when Professor DAVBINY, at the moat
meeting of the British Association, told them that
guano was not only of sovereign virtu* in the
production of monstrous turnips and fabulouss,
mange' wurzel, bat that it was a substitute for
the cochineal insect, and was heoesforward to
furnish us with a scarlet dye P Peruvian bark is no
longer to be the sole source of quinine, mat so costly;
the valuable drag abounds, it would mese, is ammo-
Wesel refs's. Cotton wool biomes pa tattoo, sad
inn cotton becomes collodion, so extensively red in
photography ; clay becomes aluminium, that mental-
loss metal now so familiar, in the shape of ingots at
bast, to thousands; and therefore we repeat that it
is very hazardous to predicats that sows' ears may
not be very proper materials wherewith to make silk
prow

We do not sty that the experiment will area be
tried ; but who knows! The marvels we have
alluded to, and thous's& of other marvels, coon still
more extraordinary, are net the result of lucky
guesses or trials. On the contrary, they are based
on long analytical investigation', and on concdosions
drawn from tneriade of facts slowly and patiently
ascertained and verified. One of the means of di..
seminating a popular knowledge of those fads. and
of eliciting the opinions and observations of ema of
science respecting them, is the annual gathering of
the Society to which we have already referred. Is
its early days this "peripatetic" salami of phiia
eophers offered too fair a mask for aiding' to resist;
bat few men are now disposed to treat lightly the
services it has rendered to science, not only by those
direct aide cfforded by combined operation, but by
infusing, is one centre of commerce or wealth
after another, an intend la the program of
erientific knowledge, and, an aequeiatance, valuable
• though necessarily superficial, with what is going os
in various departments of mines or useful inquiry.
An important progress has thus been leaden destroy-
ing the apathy or contempt with which many well
educated persoae, especially in the provisoes, regarded
the Waite and apparently manly carious inquiries
to which scientific men devoted tleemselvea. The
eel bono • feeling has passed away, and the public
are beginning to acknowledge that many facts whirls
apparently led to no valuable results, after men
labour and pains were expended Is emertaining them,
were really importaat links to a special chain of
reasoning, and absolutely necessary in order to arrive
at conclosiona of practical utility.
Most of us are old enough to remember the time
when the experiments of FARADAY, 01111T111), and
others, on the direction of the 'lune-galvanic aurae,
wets looked upon by many as mere scientific caricei-
taw, of no interest to society is general ; bat they
were the very toundations of that marvellous peastisel
benefit to the world, the electric telegraph. When
Daft exhibited a few minute grains, which be told
as were the metallic base of alum, the world little
dreamed that it would lead to a mode of extracting
from clay, which contains large quantities of that
mineral in a state of combination, the beautiful metal,
ingots rat which were exhibited at the Paris Exhibi.
du, and which was shown to be of great value in
the arts, from the resistance it offen to the antic' of
acid; its freedom from oxidation or tarnish, the fa-
cility with which it works under the hummer, and its
lightness, which renders it very valuable for small
weights, presenting a large extent of surface com-
pared with those formed of other metals. A watch
manufactured entirely from aluminium was exhibited
at the Exhibition; and for watch movements, its ex-
emption from deterioration by damp or add velem
renders it a very desirable material. The general
public have gradually learned how the multitude of
astronomical observations, and other similar opera-
tions, which were popularly considered at one time to
be mere curiosities, involving a considerable outlay,
with nothing to show for it bat a bewildering
collection of figures, have nevertheless a direct bear-
ing on our every-day wants. The study of the laws
of light has a very intelligible exponent of its re-
sults in the improvements in optical instruments; so
that although the "canoe of adulteration—for it has
become a feeieooe—hse made equally rapid progress,
the microscope of the present day renders detection
almost inevitable.

The Government of this country has done but little
hitherto to foster science, and the greater &mem is
therefore dee to thaw who have banded and kept I
together the British Assothatios, sad who have pm-1
Mated, is spite of innumerable news mid witticisms,
in their efforts to Inoculate the inhabitants of the
various great towns with a love be mimics in pie-
rs]. It were no essy matter, were we even capable
of doing jestioe to ►he *abject, to give an intelligible
sketch of the researches, baying an eminently pew
tioal bearing, which have been originated or amnia
oat by this body; we are all intimated in their eta
tiananoe, and we trust that the falling off in the sib.
scrlpticies anuouneed at the last meatier of the
Association it bet temporary. In ear pest cities
sea ars asaally too mach absorbed is the exalting