The Sun.
London, England, 1837-09-14 00:00:00

BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.

(Abridged from Courier.)
TUTESDAt
SECTION A.—MATHEMATICS AND rtitsitt:
Sir DAVID BREWSTER in the Chair.
The CHAIRMAN called upon Dr. Robertson to read his
Report on nutrition. After remarking on the degree of
perfection to t*hieli Bradley, a century ago, had brought
astronomical calculations, the Learned Member proceeded
to detail the subsequent improvements which had been in-
troduced intti this sublime science. He then produced a
series of calculations which tended to elucidate the aberra-
tions observable in the relative motions of the stars. He
instanced the observations made at the Royal Observatory,
at Greenwich, vs the most accurate on the subject of
sidereal disturbances. These observations, from their num-
ber and their exactness, were worthy of dependence in de-
ducing astronomical results. He then proceeded to com-
pare the results of the Greenwich observations with several
theories of natation, accounting for the discrepances which
presented themselves in the comparison.
Mr. BAILEY stated that the result of Bradley's observa-
tions wonderfully coincided with those just detailed.
Mr. RUSSELL next read his report on waves, the object
of which was to determine the influence exercised by the
form of channels, &c., on the tidal wave, and also to inves-
tigate the mechanism of its propagation. For the pur-
pose of ascertaining the effect which the form of a chan-
nel on the tide's wave, it was found necess to select two
channels, one simple, and the other complex, in form.
The Dee was chosen as a simple channel, direct in its
course ; the Clyde was fixed upon as one of a complex
character. Mr. Russell then detailed, with great ability
and perspicuity, the results deduced from his observations,
enumerating the various means which had been employed
for the purpose of generalising upon the tidal phenomena.
From the experiments which he had made, he came to the
conclusion that the velocity of waves was as great in their
reflection as in their progression. He then explained,
by various diagrams, the mechanism, propagation, velocity,
&c., of waves. The velocity of the tidal wave in the river
Dec was equal to the velocity acquired by a heavy body in
falling one-half of the depth of the channel. Whenever a
wave acquired a greater head than the depth of the chan-
nel, it was uniformly found to break. Mr. Russell then
noticed the circumstance that the direction of the wind very
materially affected the height of the tidal wave in the river
Clyde.
The Chairman tendered the thanks of the section to Mr.
Russell for his interesting communication.
Mr. WHEWELL here proposed certain questions to Mr.
Russell on the subject of the generation and propagation of
waves which presented phenomena of an identical character
with tidal waves. These questions led to a very interest
ing discussion.
Mr. BLACKBURNE next read a paper on geometrical theo
rems.

Professor POWELL then read a paper on the absorption
of light. In introducing the subject, the Learned Professor
dwelt upon the advantages which had resulted from the
co-operation of the different Members of the British Asso-
ciation. He then proceeded to notice the capricious phe-
nomena exhibited in the absorption of rays of light. Various
theories had been advanced to account for these pheno-
mena. Amongst others, that of Von Redi was noticed,
which supposed that different rays might be retarded in
their passage through certain media, and come out super-
posited upon other rays, and thus form complex rays. This
theory appeared to Professor Powell highly satisfactory.
The only defect to be supplied in it was some numerical
law for the facts.
Sir W. R. HAMILTON read a paper on the possibility
of resolving equations of the fifth degree. He took the
theory of Abel as a text in discussing the subject.
Mr. HANWARD read a communication on the tempera-
ture of slate and granite, giving a series of experiments
which proved that the temperature of granite was consider-
ably lower at the same depth, than that of slate.
A MEMBER gave the result of some experiments on the
temperature of rocks in mines, which differed very mate-
rially from the preceding.
The business of the section then closed for the day.
SECTION B.—CHYMISTRY AND MINERALOGY.
Shortly after eleven Professor Faraday, President of this
section, took the chair. He was supported on his right by
Professors Daniel and Apjohn, and on his left by Professor
Miller.
Mr. J. J. GRIFFIN, the author of several popular works
on, and in connexion with, chymistry, then proceeded to
lay before, and explain to, the meeting some new specimens
of chymical apparatus which he had constructed. They
consisted of glass vessels for solution, of various sizes,
from sd. to Is. in price, test tubes, Bohemian and English
retorts, vessels for containing solutions, spirit lamps, and
gas furnaces, vessels of Berlin porcelain, for the purposes
of drying, retort and tube holders, funnels, filtering paper,
test frames, test paper in books, gas holders, and pneumatic
troughs. The beauty and simplicity of this apparatus was
particularly striking, and elicited marked admiration from
the meeting.
Professor FARADAY was happy to give his testimony
upon the great value cf such an arrangement of apparatus.
—(Hear.) It was astonishing what an extreme extent of
chymistry could be taught by it. It was important to the
scientific world to think that they could furnish a laboratory
for from .51. to 10/. with vessels superior to that Dr. Wol-
laston commenced working with. They were greatly obliged
to Mr. Griffin.
Professor FARADAY then said there was a paper read at
this section on Monday in great haste, or, indeed, scarcely
read at all, by Dr. Golding Bird, on the crystallization of
metals by voltaic action. Mr. Bird, it appeared, had left
the room, as well as numerous others, who did not expect
that the paper would have been produced. He felt that it
was upon a subject of intense interest, as they all must re-
member the great excitement which prevailed at the last
meeting of the Association on discovering that artificial
crystals could be produced by means which were only then
supposed to be active agents in the mechanism of the earth.
The experiments of M. Rccenel, Mr. Cross, and Mr. Fox
were of the greatest importance to science ; but all that they
had been able to state of the mineral veins which were found in
the earth was, that they were, in all probability, formed by
chymical or electrical currents. The difficulty had been to un-
derstand how a current running round the earth should cause
the crystals to be deposited in particular and very limited
places, the currents themselves being general. It came to this,
that, supposing they sent a current round in a certain direc-
tion, and brought it to a given situation in the earth, they
should find crystals where the current made the juncture.
This was as far as the experiments of the above-named
gentleman went. Mr. Bird said, that he obtained crystals
not only at the extremities of the current, but in the in-
terval between. It was of the utmost importance to find
out whether such were really the case.—(Cheers.)
Mr. GOLDING BIRD then exhibited specimens of the
copper which he had produced by means of voltaic agency,
and proceeded to detail other experiments which he had
made in connection with the formation and crystallization
of the protixide and carbonate of copper. The oxide
had been previously obtained by M. Becquerel, by means
of a tedious process, but Mr.. Bird obtained it in a
eery perfect crystal, by the aid of the following arrange-
ment. A piece of glass tube four inches in length was
closed at one end, by means of a plug of plaister of Paris,
and immersed in a glass cylinder, filled with a solution of
copper, the tube being filled with a solution of potash :
on immersing an arc formed of zinc and copper into the
fluids in such a manner, that the zinc leg of the arc may
(lip into the alcaline solution, whilst the copper may dip into
the solution of that metal contained in the exterior cylinder.
Under these circumstances an exceedingly weak electric
current is developed, not, however, sufficiently energetic to
reduce all the copper present in solution to the metallic
state, but of sufficient intensity to cause the decomposition
of the perisalt of copper, and its reduction to the state of
protixide crystals, of which, after a few days, became de-
posited on the plate of copper which served for the negative
electrode. These crystals resembled so closely the native
forms of oxide of copper, the ruby copper of miners, that
they could scarcely, by the most experienced eye, be distin-
guished from them. Some specimens of the kind exhibited
by Mr. Bird, vied in transparency with the native ruby.
Some further discussion ensued, when
Dr. FARADAY summed up by saying that it was proved,
by careful examination, that crystals can originate inde-
pendent of the extremities of the current, there being no
nucleus formed and it be possible to demonstrate the fact
by any tangible experiment, such proof would be opening
the door to a very large addition to chemical science. Dr.
Faraday then called upon Mr. John B. Hartley to read
his paper on preventing the corrosion of cast and wrought
iron in salt water. When they considered the manner in
which cast and wrought iron was introduced into the con-
struction of vessels, as was the case at this port to a great
extent, it would be highly important to hear any means by
which it could be rendered capable of resisting the corro-
sive action which it sustained from salt water.

- - -
Mr. HARTLEY, the son of Mr. Jesse Hartley, dock sur-
veyor of the port, then said that upon clearing away the
soil from Jackson's Dam an iron sluice was discovered,
which had been immersed in salt water for the space of
twenty-five years. Upon taking it up it was found en-
crusted with barnacles, shells, and sea weed. Some of
the iron was in a- state of excellent preservation, whilst
the rest of it was entirely decomposed. The lid of
the sluice was fastened by means of a brass bolt two
and a half inches in diameter. In connexion with this
pin it was that the iron was in a preserved state. By some
inadvertance all the iron work was broken up and taken to
the foundry. In 1825 another valve was taken up, which
had been in the water the same time. The top joint of the
valve was similar to the one previously found, having an
iron pin working in a brass socket, which was again in-

closed in an iron case. All the iron in connexion with the
tifatg wa in excellent preservation, whilst that removed
from it was corroded; Mr, Hartley exhibited a part. of an
iron chain, which had been so corroded in eighteen months
as to be quite useless, as well as a piece of Iron from the
keel of the John Bull, which had been in the water nearly
twenty years,. It was as light as a piece of fir, and could
be cut with a knife like plumbago. In consequence of this
discovery, all the iron-work employed beneath the level of
the tide at dock gates, &c. had been placed in connexion
with brass, either by having brass plugs fastened into it or
by being some way worked up with it, and the result had
been the preservation of the iron.
Dr. FARADAY said, that it was decidedly proved that
cast iron could be so preserved.
Dr. ANDREWS then read his paper upon some singular
modification of the ordinary action of nitric acid on certain
metals. This gentleman showed, that by introducing a piece
of platina wire in connection with this metal whilst it was
violently acted upon by nitric acid, that the action of the
acid almost entirely ceased, but that the metal in most in-
stances changed colour. This he accounted for by sup-
posing that the platina caused a current of nitrus acid gas
to play round the metal, and by this means preserve it from
the action of the acid.
Dr. FARADAY said it was most useful to science to show
how metals could be saved from oxydation. It might have
been the same influence which had been incidental in pro-
tecting the cast-iron from the action of the sea-water. It
was a great thing to see a substance like iron, which English-
men might be said to live upon, liable as it was to the cor-
rosive action of sea-water, or nitric acid, protected from their
influence when brought into contact with other substances.
They were much obliged to Dr. Andrews for drawing their
attention to the subject. It was in this way, by observing
causes, that they were enabled to get at laws.
The meeting, which had been crowded throughout, then
adjourned at half-past one.
SECTION C—GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY.

Professor SEDGWICK having taken the chair, commenced
proceedings by reading a letter from the Bridgwater-office,
in Manchester, inviting the members of the association to
inspect the colliery tunnels at Worseley ; the rendezvous to
be Worseley Inn, about 1.50 yards from the entrance to
the tunnels. A letter was also read from Mr. Frith, of
Northwich, expressing his willingness to accommodate a
party of thirty to visit the salt mines. It was subsequently
arranged that Saturday should be set apart for these ex-
cursions ; and papers were ordered to lie till Thursday
morning for the signatures of individuals wishing to attend.
Mr. H. G. STRICKLAND then read a paper on the nature
and origin of the various kinds of transported gravel oc-
curring in England.
Sir PHILIP EGERTON remarked, that the remains of
mammalia had been found on the plain of Cheshire. In
the progress of cutting fur the Grand Junction Railway,
two grinders of the elephant had been discovered in a bed
of gravel replete with marine shells.
Professor PHILLIPHS said Mr. Strickland had opened a
very interesting subject—the distinction between deposits
made by the sea and fluviatile, or river deposits. It was
of the highest importance to know whether the country
was wholly or partially under water at the time of the de-
position. At the time of the deposition of much of the
erratic gravel, it should be remembered, England and \Vales
were two tracts of land ; between them was a large strait,
connecting the Mersey and the Bristol channels. Along
this line there would be a mixture of flint and shells, with
portions of secondary rock, arising from the action of a
great current of water sweeping the different sides of the
channel. The absence of bones was not much to be rested
upon. He had found in one of the highest wolds of York.
shire erratic gravel from Cumberland, exhibiting bones of
the elephant and other organic remains, 600 feet above the
level of the sea.
Mr. TRIMMER had seen, in the county of Carnarvon,
1,400 feet above the level of the sea, and five or six miles
distant from it, shells imbedded in granite and limestone
pebbles.
Mr. MALLET read an interesting paper on the me-
chanism of the motion of Swiss glaciers. The glaciers
sometimes moved twenty-five feet in a year—a phenomenon
for which the usual solution of the weight of the ice, and
of the superincumbent snow, given by Saussure and other
writers, was utterly insufficient to account. The great
primuni mobile was not weight alone, but hydrostatic pres-
sure, arising from the melting of the under surface of the
ice by the superior heat of the rock beneath.
Mr. WELD observed, that in 181.5 the glaciers made a
remarkable advance into the valley of Chainouni, and the
high floods which occasioned the inundations of the Rhine
took place. On the gates of Constance were marked the
heights of different inundations, some of them at intervals
of 100 to 150 years. In 1816 occurred the highest flood
ever known ; and it was observable that inundations had
generally followed a great increase of temperature, preceded
by a year of great cold.

SECTION E.—MEDICAL SCIENCE.
Dr. CARSON, this morning, took the chair at this sec-
tional meeting. The first paper read was "An investiga-
tion into the cause of death from a blow on the stomach ;
with remarks on the means best calculated to restore ani-
mation, suspended in consequence of such accident ; by
Dr. Holland."

Dr. HOLL4ND proceeded to read his paper, and after-
wards said, he was aware that the views he had introduced
were calculated to produce considerable discussion, as they
differed so widely from the views generally professed. He
had only observed one case of death from a blow on the
stomach, and that had proved fatal, and had led him to
the present inquiry. On examination, he had found that
there was rather a florid appearance immediately about the
pit of the stomach, on the mucous membrane. There was
also more or less vaseularit, but not greater than had been
observed in sudden death during the progress of digestion.
He was of opinion that the semilunar valves would not be
seriously injured.
A long discussion took place on this subject, in ‘‘hich
Dr. Copland, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Williams, and Mr. J. Mur-
ray took part.
A vote of thanks was then moved to Dr. Holland for
the very important paper which he had brought forward.
A short lecture was then given by Dr. CARLISLE on the
formation of the os sacrum in man as compared with some
of the lower animals, with a view to show that the os sa-
crum consisted originally of separate vertebra..
Some other papers were then read, thanks were given to
their respective authors, and the section then adjourned.

SECTION F.—STATISTICS. EDUCATION.
JAMES lIENWOOD, Esq., in the Chair.
Mr. W. It GREGG, Secretary to the Manchester Sta-
tistical Society, read a report on the state of education in
the city of York. In 1836 the population of York was
estimated at 28,000, of whom 7,000, or one-fourth, were
calculated to be between the ages of five and fifteen, and of
these 4,700, or 67 per cent., were under a course of no-
minal instruction in the Day and Sunday Schools ; and
2,300, or 33 per cent., were under no course of instruc-
tion at all.