The Sun.
London, England, 1855-09-14 00:00:00

LON DON. FRIDAY EVENING, SE PTEMBEit 14 I.

BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE AD-
VANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.

Tho 25th meeting of the members of this association was
,pened in Glasgow on Wednesday. The general com-
nittee met in the Mercheats' Hall at 1 o'clock for the elec-
ion of sectional officers and the despatch of business
isually brought before that body. Among the gentlemen
,resent we observed Sir William Jardine, Dr. Whowell,
Professor Phillips, Colonel Sabine, Mr. Movckton Milnes,
.11r. James Heywood, M.P., Mr. Yates, Liverpool, Mr.
leorge Rennie, Professor Penny, Earl of Harrowby, Sir
:harles Lyall, Sir James Campbell, Dr. Strang, Prince
Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Count Frolich, Mr. Edward
Cheshire, anchor of the " Results of the Census," Mr. Wm.
NTewmarch, one of the honorary secretaries of the Statis-
ical Society of London, Sir Roderick Murchison, the Hon.
ho Lord Provost, Mr. William Gourlie,
The Earl of Harrow by took the chair.
Professor PHILLIPS, of Oxford, read the minutes of last
neeting, hell at Liverpool, which were approved.
Colonel SABINE then read thi, " Report of the Council
of the British Ass•)ciation to the General Committee assem-
bled at Glasgow."
After which Mr. NINNIS submitted the statement of
..tccou;its.

Professor PHILLiv then addressed a few words for the
guidance of the office bearers in the various sections, and
'his finished the business of the meeting.
Prepiratory to the first general meeting in the evening the
Lord Provost of the city gave a brilliant entertainment in
the 111`Lellan-rooms.

The following distinguished guests sat cl ,wn to dinner:—
the Duke of Argyll, Mr. James Graham, Sir W. Jardine,.
Bart., Sir Charles Lyell, Mr. James Smith, of Jordan-hill,
Mr. Walter Crum, Professor William Thomson, Professor
Anderson, Principal Macfarlan, Colonel Sabine, Professor
Phillips, Mr. John Taylor, Professor Ramsay, Mr. James
M`Lellan, Dr. John Strang, LL.D., Mr. William Gourlie,
his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, the Earl of
Elgin, the Earl of Eglinton, Sir R. I. Murchison, Sir
'John Ross, Sir John Maxwell, Professor Syme, Dr. Lyon
Playfair, Dr. Allan Thomson, Baron Liebig, Dr. Retzius,
if Stockholm, M. C. Graban, Count Campello, the Rev.
Dr. Whewell, Viscount Ingestre, Lord Belhaven, Sir
Philip Egerton, Mansura Mahmund, Lord Wrottesley,
Dr. Rae, Lord Talbot, Professor Sharpey, M. Freaky, the
Duke of Hamilton, Prince Bonaparte, the Earl of Harrow-
by, Sir John Richardson, Mr David Brewster, Sir C. W.
Paisley, Colonel R iwlinson, Rear-Admiral Beechy, Profes-
sor Sadgwick, the Ray. Dr. Robinson, of Armagh, tbe
ltev. Dr. Scoresby, Mr. William Murray, Dr. Kolliker,
Agassiz, Mr. William Hopkins, Sir M. Shaw Stewart,
Sir Jatnes Ferguson, Sir Archibald Alison, M Petigot,
Sir E. Belcher, Count Frolich, Sir Thomas Hesketh, Dr.
Dickinson, and Mr. N. B. Ward.

The following address of the Duke of ARGYLL was de-
livered at the evening meeting :
Gentlemen of the British Association,—l knew, gentle-
men, that the duty of presiding over this meeting of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science has
been assigned to me in-duly in tionsequenee of my local
connection with the district and city in which we are now
tasembled. It cannot, therefore, be departing from the
special duty of that position if I address you in the first
place as one of those who are receiving the honour of your
visit. I am sure I cannot express in terms too warm the
feelings of this great community.. It would be strange in-
deed if Glasgow did not hold out to you a cordial reception.
Here, if anywhere, we have reason to honour science, and
to welcome the men whose lives are devoted to its pursuit.
the west of Scotland has itself contributed not a few illus-
trious names to the number of those who have enlarged the
boundaries of knowledge, or have given fruitful application
to principles already known. I need not dwell on the fact
that it was in this valley of the Clyde that the patient
genius of Watt perfected the mechanism which first gave
complete control over the powers of steam, ani that it
was on thee° waters, too, that those powers were first ap-
plied in a manner which has given new wings to commerce,
and is now affecting not less decisively the terrible opera-
tions of war. These are but single examples, more striking
ant palpable than others, of the depeadeuce of the arts
upon the advance of science. Tide, however, is a depell'i-
elite; which I am sure the citizens of Glasgow would be the
first to acknowledge, and which, no doubt, with them, as
with all men, mutt be an important eleueeet in the value
which they set upon physical research. But I am sure I
should deeply wrong the intelligence of the people of Glas-
gow if I were to represent them as measuring the value of
science by no other standard than its immediate applica-
bility to commercial purposes. They seek to honour act-
euce for its own sake, and to encourage the desire of
knowledge as in itself one of the noblest instincts of our
nature. It is my duty, also, gentlemen, to speak on behalf
of a special body—one of which Gla gow has so much rea-
son to be proud—l mean its ancient and venera,ble
eersity. If the mechanical arts owe to this district of
Scotland the greatest impulse they have ever yet received,
it is not less true that our knowledge of the laws which re-
gulate the pursuits of industry and determine the distri-
bution of the " wealth of nations " has been almost
founded on the researches of one whose name is indissolu-
bly associated with this seat of learning. Here, again, we
have an illustrious example of the mutual relatioue be-
tween science and politics iu its best and highest definition.
But, indeed, our convictions are independent of such ex-
amples. It is impossible to appreciate too highly the in-
fluence which science is evidently destined to have on the
prospects
of education, and we look for the time when its
methods,
as well as its results, will form the subject of
teaching, not only as partially it has long done in our col-
leges, but also in the humblest of our schools.. I feel it to
he no stnal privit ge arising out of the academical office
which this Year I have the honour of hulling to be able to
assure you, on behalf of the University of Glasgow, of the
deep jute. est with which we regard your visit, and of our
hige appreciation of the euds which it is your object to
promote. It is now 15 years since the last meeting of the
British Association here. There are probably few even
annual meetings of any considerable body of men which
are not marked by some melancholy recollections. Srid
more must this be the case after the lapse of so lung an in-
terval —one which measures, as is usually reckoned, full
half a generation in the life of man. Among the mauy
vacancies in your ranks which that period has occasioned
Matra are some which, from local association or from other
causes, are naturally impressed more deeply on the maid
than others. I am sure that one venerable name will rise
to the memory of all who took any interest in the proceed-
ings of 1840,—0f one whose early tastes for natural science
hue only yielded before his devotion to a yet higher ser-
vice, but whose powerful mind still sought to found all his
efforts in the cause of religion and humanity on obedience
to the eternal laws, which are as sure and steady in
their operation over the minds of men and over toe
progress of society as are other laws over the sub-
jects of material change. Who can forget toe zeal
and more than youthful eagerness with which Dr. Chal-
mers entered into the discussions of the statistical sec-
tion, and how he saw in those discussions the means of
spreading the knowledge of principles which are of vitil
interest to the welfare of the State? But that name,
though the lapse of years has not carried it beyond toe
regio of regret, is one with which we have at least be _owe
familiar as belonging to the number of the departed great.
Such is not the ease with other vacancies, and especially
with one which ie still affectiug us with almost bewildered
sorrow and an abiding sense or irreparable loss. Who shall I
take up the torch which has fallen from the hand of E
ward Forbes ? Who shall hold it us he held it to those der k
places in the history of life which science is striving, per-
haps in vain, to penetrate, but which seemed already open-
ing their treasna a tor his flue and advancing genius tidt
while sad recollections are thus forced upon us as regards
the life of individual men eve have every reaeon to be sa-
tisfied with the inheritance they have left. Many labourers
are gone, brit the cause iu which they laboured has been
steadily gaining ground. Long as 15 years may be as a
period in human life, it is generally but a fraction in the
history of national progress. Yet since the last meeting
of the British Association here I am greatly mistaken if
we cannot mark great strides iu the advance of science. I
wish, gentlemen,you h.ed x pre,l(l4l.lt inure competent than
I am to chronicle that a. vance and direct the retrospect to
practeal and useful end. There are, however, smile
features so remarkable that 'cannot omit referringto them
as well calculated to raise our hopes and stimulate our ex-
ertions. In that science which is the oldest and most ve-
nerable of all—l mean astronomy—if there had been
nothing else to mark the progress of discovery, the con-
struction and application of Lord Itosse's great reflector
would have been enough to constitute an important
epoch. Its systematic operations may be said to be still
only in the first stages of their progress; yet already bow
often do we see reference had to the mysterious revela-
tions it ban made in discussions on the principles of that
science, and in not a few of the speculations to which
they are giving birth ! My distinguished friend, Sir D.
owlfhifit
which
he oftmhl Neuron,
rserwt.(,)vrnel dhiel arafssu lyd
eze
tsoi mge nebeai
late. ad”
Brewster, in his reconenuceet
d
Attilicilaintwstobefloeascarortpelidanstsecr‘ieested in the devotion of abilities, of
means, and of leisure to the noblest pursuits must ear-
nestly wish to see Lord Rosso rewarded by that which
he will value most—the steady progress of discovery. It
must always be remembered, however, that astronomy is
a science of which hitherto at least it m'ght almost be said
that one great genius had left us no more worlds to con-
quer—that is to say, he carried our knowledge at a bound
to one grand and apparently universal law, to which all
worlds were subject, and of which every new discovery
had been but an additional illustration. The reign of that
law, whether universal or not, was at least so wide that we
had never pierced beyond the boundary of its vast dotnain.
For the first time since the days of Newton a suspicion has
arisen in the minds of astronomers that we have passed
into the reign of other laws, and that the nebular pheno-
mena revealed to us by Lord Rosse's telescope must be
governed by forces different from those of which we bays
any knowledge. Whether this opinion bo or be not well
founded—whether it be or be not probable that our limited
command over time and space can ever yield to our re-
eerch any other law of interest or importance comparable
with that which has already been determined—still inside
that vast horizon there are fillings-in and fillings-up which,
Will ever furnish infinite reward to labour. Of these not
a few have been secured since our last meeting here. Be-
sides the patient work of our professed astronomers and
the good service rendered by such men as Mr. Lassen and
Mr. Nasmyth, who have so well relieved the business of
commercial industry by their devotion to the pursuits of
science, we have had one event so remarkable that in the
;thole history of astronomy it stands alone. If in leokin,
at the wonderful objects revealed to us in Lord Reese's
e telescope we turn instinctively sometimes from the thing
1 shown to the thing which shows—from the spiral nebulas

. to the hnoWledge and resources which have collected their
feeble light, and brought their mysterious forms under the
cognisance of the human eye—how much more curiously
do we turn from the single planet Neptune to that other
instrumeut which has felt, as it were, and found its obscure
' and distant orbit ! Se long as our species remains that body
will be associated with one of the most g'orious proofs ever
given of the reach of the human intellect—of the sweep and
certainty of that noble science which now honours with en-
during memory the twin names of Adams and Leverrier.
In geology, the youngest, but not the least vigorous of the
sciences, every year has been .addinq to the bee eith of its
foundation—to the depth and meaning of its results. Pro-
bably no science has ever advanced with more rapid steps.
In 1840 the then recent publication of the "Silurian sys-
tem," had just established those landmarks of the Paleo-
zoic world which all subsequent discovery has only tended
to confirm. The great horizons which were first defined
by the 1 hours of M urchison and Sedgwiek have since dis
closed the same phenomena which they so accurately de-
scribed in every quarter of the globe, and the generalisa-
tions founded thereupon have been definitively established.
The same period has sufficed, partly by the labours of the
same distingnished meet, to clear up the relative position
of the strata which represent the closing epochs of ancient
life and those which form the base of the secondary age.
But, above all, the last few years have seen immense pro-
gress made in our knowledge of that vast series of deposits
which usher in the dawn of existing forms and carry us on
to those changes which, though the most recent, are not
the least obscure of any which have affected the surface of
the globe. The investigations of Edward Forbes on the
laws which ,'etermine the conditieee of marine, zoology
have ,upplied !is with data altogether new on some of the
highest c tiolusions of the science, while his profound spe-
culations on the centres of creation and areas of distrib
tion have pointed out paths of inquiry which are theen-
selves of inexhaustille int ereet;and hold out the promise
of great results. Another branch of investigation, which,
if not entirely new, is at least pursued on a new system
and with new reson veal bres-beetropen'ed up in dyne-R4(I4J
geology by the learning and ingenuity of Mr. Hopkins;
while the thor ugh elucidation of the conditions of glacier
motion, which we owe to Professor James Forbes, of
Edinburgh, has given us clear and definite ideas on one,
and that not th least important, of the agents in geolo-
gical cle.nge. The observations aceuinulated during the
recent Arctic voyages have materially added to our know-
ledge of the operation of the same agency under different
conditions—conditions which we know must once have
extended widely over the firths and estuaries near where
we are now assembled—leaving behind them those ens
during records of the glacial epoch which were first ex-
plore d by my friend Mr. Smith, of Jo dan-hill. We owe
many impo tent observations on the same phenomena
and on the vari seri changes of sea-level to Mr. Robert
Chambers ; and if the thanks of science are duo to
those who advance her interests, both directly by
adding to her store of facts or of her discovered laws,
and also indirectly by investing them with popular
interest, and thus enlarging the circle of observers,
we must mention with special gratitude the classical works
of Mr. flu ;h Miller and those writings of Sir Cherie. Lyell
which his inuefaligable induetry is ever bringing en abreast
with the progress of discovery—a progress stimulated in no
small degree by his own exertions—and which are alike
remarkable for completeness of knowledge, for fertility of
suggestion, and for stunt !Allies ethical reasoning. I think
we cannot mistake the general tendency of geological re-
search, whether stratigrephical or zoological. It has been
to prolong periods which had been considered short ; to
divide others which wereclassed together; to fill up spaces
which were imagined blank, and to connect more and more
in one unbroken chain the course of physical change and
the progress of organic life. We pass from geology by a
natural transition to another science, which stands to it in
close alliance. If all our most sure conclusions iespectine
the superficial covering of the globe have been founded on
the classification of its animal remains, it is not less true
that our knowledge and understanding of organic structure
have been infinitely extended by theeneans which geology
has afforde I of studying that structure in relation to its
history in past time. In the hands of our great country-
man, Professor Owen, physiology has assumed a new rank
n science, leading us up to the very threshold of the

. „ .
deepest mysteries of nature. If the fast few years had
been marked by no other event in the advancement of sci-
ence, there would have been enough to signalise them in
the publication of his treatise on the " Homologies of the
Vertebrate Skeleton ;" and we may recollect with pri.le
the fact of that hi eh argument having been first opened at
a meeting of the British Association. A sad interest indeed
alt mite. in one direction at least to the progress of our
knowledge in geography. All serious doubt seems to have
closed new over the grave of Franklin., Even in a year
during which war has been claiming the noblest vi .time by
thousands anti tens of thousands, it would ill become this
association not t , mark with an expression of our sorrow
and admiration the self-sacrifice of that gellant band which
has perished in the cause of science. But their devotion
has been emulated, under a still higher stimulus, in the
more successful career of others; and at last in the discovery
of the Nonh-West Passage (still so called in spite of its
having been found iinpasseble), the courage and endurance
of eeptain M'Clure and his associates have ascertained
with certainty a insist remarkable f act in the physical
cenforrnal ion of the glo`ee. Results of still larger anti cer•
tainly of more iinme bate interest are being arrived at by
the rapid march of African exploration—not, surely, be-
fore the time. Every pelt of the circumference of that
vast continent has been either known or accessible to us
for centuries. On its sell hive flourished some of the most
ancient atel faenoue monarchies, and one Of its great val-
leys is the fatherland of science. Yet up to comparatively
recent. times our horizon there has been bounded by the
same sands or mountains which bounded the knowledge of
antiquity, amid we had almost is little acquaintance with
its interior as had the Tyrian merchant when his eye
reste I of old on the peaks of Atlas. Nothing but familia-
rity with the fact could have reconciled us to the ignorance
in which we have so long remained of one of the largest
and most interesting regions of the world. That ignorance
is at last being cleared away; and the exertions of many
individuals, among whom the names of Mr. Galton, of Mr.
Anderson, Dr. Livingston, Dr. Baikie, and Dr. Barth stand
conspicuous, havo contributed results of the deepest inte-
rest and importance. No man who values science can fail
to appreciate the extension of our knowledge respecting
geography even where, as in the Arctic Regions, that
knowledge is pursued simply for its own sake; but it be-
comes invested with tenfold interest when it brings with
it the largest influence on the destinies of millions of the
human race, anti tolls, as we may confidently hope it will
ultimately do in the case of Africa, an inexhaustible field
for manufacturing and commercial enterprise. In con-
nection with the diffusion of geographical knowledge I
cannot omit to mention the magnificent publications of
Mr. Alexander Keith Johnston, of Edinburgh, in his
" Atlas of Physical Geography." It is seldom that 011 de
a mass of i formation has been presented in a form so
beautiful and attractive, or one which tends so much to
place the study of geography on a truly scientific basis—
that is to say, on the basis of its relation to the other with-
rid sciences, and those grand costnissal views of terrestrial
phenomena which have found their most distinguished in-
terpreter in Bsron Humboldt. The kindred science of eth-
nology has receive' of late years great development, not
only by its increasing store of facts, but by the more sci-
entific use which is being made of facts which have been
long familiar. The investigation of the laws which regu-
late the growth of language promise to cast the moat
important lights on the history of our rale • but eon-
clusiens to which that investigation may lead are still
matters of keen and anxious controversy, and ars exposed
to all that suspicion which has been directed against almost
every science at some stage or other of its growth, and
which, we must allow, every science has, at some stage or
other, justified by hasty generalisation anti premature de-
duction. Of all the sciences chemistry is that which least
requires to have its triumphs recorded here. The imme-
diate applicability of so many of its results to the useful
arts has secured for it the watchtul interest of the world,
and every dayis adding some new proof of its inexhaustible
fertility. There is one department of inquiry, and that
perhaps the most interesting of all—l mean organic che-
mistry— which has received an especial impulse during the
last few years—ati impulse in duly due to the genius of one
distinguished matt whom we have the honour of number-
ing among o it gu Ftts upon this occasion. I think Baron
Liebig will find in Seotland that kind of welcome which a
man of science values most —a readiness to profit by his
instructions, an i an t nlightened appreciation among the
farmers of the country of the practical value of studying
in their hush 'miry the laws which have been revealed by
his research. I am reminded, through the kindness of Dr.
Lyon Playf air, of some facts which give yet a more special
interest to this subject in connection with our meeting
here. It was to the British Association at Glasgow in
1840 that Raron Liebig first communieated his work on
the ;application of she uistry to vegetable physiology. The
philoettphical explanation there given of the principles of
manuring anti cropping glare an immediate impulse to
agriculture, anti directed attention to the manures which
are valuable for their amtnenie and mineral ingredients,
end especially to guano. of which in 1840 only a few speci-
mens heti epeeare in this country. The consequence was
that iu the next year, 1841, no less than 2,881 tons were
imported ; anti during the succeeding years the total quan-
tity imported into this country has exceeded the enormous
amount of 1,500,000 teas. Nor has this been ad; che-
mistry has come in with her aid to do the work of nature,
and, as the supply of guano becomes exhausted, limited
as its production must be to a few rainless regions of the
world, the importance of artificial mineral manures will
increase. Already considerable capital is invested in
the manufacture of superphosphates of lime, formed
by the solution of bones in sulphuric acid, the use
of which was first recommended at the last Glasgow meet-
ing. Of these artificial manures not loss than 60,000 tons
are annually sold in England alone ; and it is a curious
example of the endless interchange of services between the
yariceiasci
sciences that geology has contributed her quota to
the same important end, and the exuviae and bones of ex-
tinct animals, found in a fossil state, are now, to the ex-
tent of from 12,0.0 to 15,000 tons, used to supply annually
the same fertilising materials to the soil. The exertions
of Professor Danbeny, of Oxford, on the same important
subject, and the continued attention which he has devoted
to it, have done much for the cause of agricultural chemi-
stry in Englsnd ; while the thanks both of agricultural anti
of scientific men are due to Dr. Lyon Playfair and Pro-
' fessor Gregory, of Edinburgh, for those admirable transla-
tions of Baron Liebigs works which have rendered then?
accessible to every English reader, and have thereby had
no unimportant influence in extending the knowledge of
the laws affecting both vegetable and animal physiology.
I am indebted to the same quarter for the 'mention of one
remarkable instance of the manner in which—so use Dr.
Playfair's words- " the overflowings of abstract science
pass into and fertilise the field of industry," One of the
newest and mast obscure se 'jects of chemical research has
been the discovery of certain conditions under which bodies
alike in their composition are neverthenies endowed with
unlike properties, and thereby become convertible to new
purposes. ..,
It is in the application of this principle that a
this city,
Mr. James Young, has succeeded
illuminating principle of coal gas either in
a solid
id state ; and it has proved to be a substance
gentleman,ll obtaining
or
liquid
oq
if the ll
u
tf immense valise for the lubrication of machinery, vast
quantities of it being now manufactured and sold for that
purpose, 1 hardly know whether it is strictly in connexion
with the advance of chemical knowledge that I ought to
remind you.of, one great discovery made long since we last
assembled here—l refer to the discovery of the effects of
1
chloroform on the animal eystetn—one which (Anima for my
friend Dr. Simpson, of Edinburgh, a high place indeed
among the benefactors of mankind. Chloroform ass mere
chemical composition had indeed been known before, and

had been made the subject of elaborate research by the dis-
tinguished French chemist, M. Dumas, whom we have here
the honour of receiving as a guest. Bat the discovery of
its application is not the less a triumph of science
and of the best and highest scientific faculties. Seldom,
indeed, has that dispesitien of mind which is ever ready to
receive a chance suggestion, and to pursue it, believing
what great things we have vet to learn, been crowned with
a more brilliant and (Hied reward. It marks the growing
sense entertained of the value of statistical research that
during the late session of Parliament a committee of the
House of Lords sat for a eousiderable time en the best
means for securing a complete system of agricultural re-
turns. We owe much in this matter to the exertions of
this Highland Society of Scotland, and, as has been spe-
cially recorded by the committee, to the zeal and activity
of their able secretary, Mr. Hall Maxwell. We owe not
less, also, to the high intelligence of the farmers of Scot-
land generally, who have rendered every assistance in their
power, and that with a willingness which can only arise
from an enlightened appreciation of the great objects to be
gained by the inquiry. No one has rendered snore impor-
tant servic- to statistical science in one of Uri most interest
ing Ilepartmen's than the able chamberlain of this city.
Dr. Strang. His petite lical reposes on the growth and pro-
gress of Glasgow are among the most curious and useful
records of tie; kin-I which have been published in any part
oft he Unite I K•netben. I need hardy say that they supply
materials fur much refl- ction on many questions connected
wit h the social welfare of the peeple. I believe Dr. Strang
has lately visited Perla with a view to communicate to
this meeting of the association various fact connected with
the great improvements which are in the coarse of pro-
gress in that city. Should his investigation cast any lteht
on the best the ins of impowing the dwellings of thelabour-
ing classes in the great centres of pepelation, arid on the
Dosibility of doing so on a large scale by public authority,
he will have rendered no small service to his country in t
matter of vital interest and of much difficulty. Closely
connected with the subject of statistics, as familied to agri
cultural returns, 1 am happy to say that, mainly owing to
the exertions of Sir .T. :Forbes, of Fettercairn, and of Mr.
Slane Home, a meteorological society for Scstlend has
been established, warmly seconded by the Highland So
ciety. The wonderful results on a great scale, which
have been obtained in this department of science by
Lieutenant. Maury, of the United States, give us ground
to hope that, even on the small areas of indivi-
dual countries, where, of course, from the crossing
of local influences, the general result is infinitely compli-
cated, some approach may he made towards ascertaining
the laws which regulate the seasons. The admirable
agency which is now afforded by the Kew committee of
this association:for the verification of instruments, and by
the slew meteorological department of the Board of Trade,
under Captain Fitzroy, for the reduction of local observe-
tions, will, I trust, be taken advantage of by the new
Scottish society. I cannot help coneratulating the asso-
ciation on the position which his been secured by science
in connection with both of those establishments. The
thanks of the commercial as well 33 of the scientific world
are due to Colonel Sabine and the °ther members of the.
Kew committee, whose assistaece is now highly appre-
ciated by practical seen, and eagerly sought for by the be!t
in,trumentanakere ; while Captain Fitzroy's office and
duties are in themselves an acknowledgment of no small
imps) tence of the public value of systematic observation.
The increasing employment of iris" in shipbuilding has
brought into corresponding notice the uncertainty which
attends the action of the cesnpass on board vessels of that
construction. This important and intric to subject has
been treated by Mr. Archibald Smith, of Jordan-hill,
with all the resources of his high /mathematical and scien-
tific attainments, in publications which have -appeared
under the sanction anti with the re •ornmetelation of the
Admiralty It will not fail to interest this great cornmer
cial city, whose freights are on every sea, that this ques-
tion was taken up at the last Liverpool meeting by Dr.
Scoresby, that it has continued to occupy his else atten-
tion, anti that he intends to c immunieete to this meeting
of the association some of the valuable results of his in-
vestigation. Feeling deeply, as I do, my own inability to
give anything like en adequate sketch—even in outline—
of the progress of the science during the last few years, I
remember at the same time with some satisfaction that it
is less the business of theaeseciation to boast of the achieve-
ments which have already been efficteti titan to devise
means of facilitating those which are yet to come. You
have appointed a Parliamentary committee for the consi-
deration of one important branch of this inquiry. We
shall, doubtless, hear from my noble friend Lord Wrot-
tesley those recommendations which have been the result
of its recent labour'', and which will be found to owe
much to his enlightened zeal, to his great know'etige, and
his sound judgment. In the reeentime I trust I may
be allowed t' make a few general observations on what ap-
pear to me to be Borne of the best means of promotive in
this country the advancement of physical science. It will
ree•lily he understood that, in referring for a moment here
to the aid which may be afforded by the State to the ail
vancement of science, I divest myself en tire'y of auy offi-
cial character, other than that which belongs to me as
your president, and Olt I seek to give exereeeion to my
own opinions only. lam not one of those who ate die-
posed to look to public authority as the prim :ry or the best
supporter of abstract science. In the mein it most depen,S
for its advancement on its own inexhaustible attractions—
on the delight which it afloalsue to study the constitution
of the world around us, and to endeavour to understand,
thou Jr it be but slackly, how the reins of its government
are held. Nor am I disposed to indulge in any complaint
on a matter which has lately attracted some attention
anion; scientific men. In a groat manufacturing country
like ours, the disposition of whose people is eminently
practice], it is perfectly natural that greater attention
shmal be bestowed on the arts than on the abstract
sciences. This, indeed, is but adherine to what has been
hitherto, at least, the natural and historical order of pre-
cedence; for it is a just observation of Profess •Whewell,
in his lecture on Co' results of the Great Exhibition of
1851, that practice has generally cone before thecry—re-
suite have been arrived at before the laws on which they
depend had been defined or understood. Art, in short, has
preceded science. But it is equally important to observe
that in recent times this order hes been in numberles' in •
stances reeersed. Abstract science has gone ahead of the
arts, and the conduct of the workshop is now perpetually
receiving its direction from the experiments of the labora-
tory. Perhaps the most wonderful discovery of modern
day's—that of the electric telegraph—was thought out and
perfected, so fee as its principle was concerned, in the
closet and the lecture-room, and flashed ready-made on the
astonishment of the world. In chemistry the lead taken
by abstract science in reacting on the arts is manifest and
constant, and, in a greater or less degree, the same result
is appearine in connection with every branch of physical
research. The interest, therefore, of the State, even if it
be considered merely in this economic point of view, in
the encouragement of abstract scienee, is obvious and im
oscillate ; and there is this additional motive to be remem-
bered—the moment any result of ec'ence becomes ap-
plic -ble to the arts the unfailing enterprise of the corn-
mereial anti inenufacturing classes takes it upand exhausts
every resource of capital and skill in giving to that applice.-
tint' the lamest possible development. But, so long ea
science is still petrel- abstract, it has often to be prosecute-I
with slender resources, and speoially respires fostering
care and a helping hand. But I rejoice to believe that the
conviction of this truth is sensibly gaining ground. The
fonieletiou of the geological museums, b nth in England
and in Scotland, and the cerrying out of a complete geo-
lessical concurrently with a geographies! survey by pubic
authority, and at the public cap inse,were erect steps in the
right direction. Another such ease was the investineut of
1,0 'O/. annually in ailing eeperimental research. through
the agency of the Royal Society, which uudertook the
trouble of its epochal el looation. It is the intention of my
noble friend, Lord Palmerston, to brine the principle of
some expenditure in this direction spesi7ally smiler the no-
tice of Parliament for the future ; end it is worthy of re-
mark, as illustrating how far a small sum may go in aid of
abs' :act science, and how cheaply the largest and most
fruitful results may thereby be attained, that, as I have
been informed on very high authority, this apparently
trivial sum has been felt as a moat imp Tteet help in num-
berless instances, sometimes in the conduct of experiments,
!sometimes in the publication of their results, and some-
times in secarine accurate artistic delineations. The rade-
tiens now established between the Board of Traee and
various branches of scientific ievestieetion are such as to
lay the foundation for further progress in the serne direc-
tion. lam happy to Rey that, in cosine item with the new
national museum which is being organised for Scotland,
there is to be a special branch devoted to the industrial
applications of science, and that anew professorship—one
which has long existed in almost all the continental Uni-
versities, that of technology—has just been instituted by
the Government. Tam not less happy in being able to an-
menace that to thet chair Dr. George Wilson has been ap-
pointer!. The writings which we owe to the pen of Dr.
Wilson, and °smell elly his beenti mernoirsof Cavendish
anti of Dr. Reil. are among the happiest "reductions
of the literature of science. 1 trust also that the aid of
the State may he secures! in providing a house and home
for the !scientific bodies in the metropolis. lam die-
posed to agree with those whosaltacb no small import-ince
to this consummation. When rise Royal Society alone
adequately represented or nearly tall, who were engaged
in physical science, 'that great body ulfilled all the neces-
sary conditions of a scientific council. But now, when
almost every separate division of science has a separate
societeeof its own, it has become almost indispensable that
some new arrangement should be come to, in order that
abstract science may have that degree of organisation with-
out which its interests will never receive the public atten-
tion which they ought to have. The influence, if not the
authority of the State, may also, I think, be most benefi-
cially exerted on behalf of science throne!' the educational
rules and principles of administration of the Privy Coun-
cil. But the Committee of Council, in the adoption of these
rules, is necessarily governed to a certain extent by the
feeling!' and opinions of the various churches and bodies
which are the primary supporters of oar existing educa-
tional system. In the last report of the Council of the
Geographical Society they announce a communication from
the Committee of Prieyeouncil, requesting the society to
appoint an examiner in geography, to be ass aciated with
other examiners on other branches of education. It may
be well worthy of consideration whether the same expe-
dient might not be usefully adopted in reference to other
branches of science which have hitherto formed a less ad-
mitted part of ordinary instruction. And this, gentlemen,
brings me to say that the advancement of science depends,
above all things, on securing for it a better and snore ac-
knowledged place in the education of the young. There are
many signs that the time is corning when our wishes in
this respect will be fulfilled. They would be fulfilled, per-
haps, still snore rapidly hut for the operation of obstruct.
ing causes, some ef which we should do well to notice.
How often do we find it assumed that those who urge the
claims of science are desirous of depreciating come one or
more of the oiler and more sacred branches of education !
In respect to elementary schools we are generally opposed,
srs :aiming at the dieplecenient ef religious teaseling ; wbile
in respect to the higher schools and colleges, the cudgels
are taken up in behalf of classical attainments. A remark-
able example of the influence of these feelings will he
found in a speech delivered by Lord Lyndhurst during
the late session of Parliament.. With ell the power of
his dignified and commending eloquence. be asserted
the right of the elder studies to their time-hoeonred
pre-ernmence , ' • and in the keen pursuit of this argument
even he was almost tempted to speak in a tone of some de-
preciation of this noble pursuits in which the University
of which he is a distinguished ornament has won no small
portion of her fame. But surely no enlightened friend of
the natural sciences would seek to challenge this imaginary
competition. Perhaps, indeed, like other zealous advocates,