The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-07 00:00:00

Meeting a

.ssociation

BIRMINGHAM, Sept. 6.
The proceedings in connexion with this meeting of
the Association commenced to-day. The President
arrived in town this morning, and is the guest of
the mayor at Metchley Grange.
A meeting of the general committees was held at I
o'clock at the Midland Institute, Sir Chas. Lyell in
the chair. Among thosepresent were Sir R. Murchi-
son, Sir H. Rawlinson, Lord Stanley, Sir J. Bowling,
Mr. Crawfurd, Professor Phillips, Dr. Lee, Mr. J.
P. Gassiott, Sir E. Belcher, Dr. Hunt, &c.
A great deal of routine business, such as the read-
ing of financial and other reports, and the appoint-
ment of vice-presidents and secretaries of sections,
was transacted. The receipts of the association for
the past year £3,831, and the expenditure leaves an
available balance 0f.£759 in thehands of the treasurer.
After the formal proceedings concluded, a length-
ened discussion took place on the motion of Dr.
Hunt, and seconded by Sir E. Belcher, to the effect
that a separate section be formed, entitled H, to be
devoted solely to the subject of Anthropology.
Sir RODERICK MURCHISON strongly opposed the
proposition, on the ground that a further multiplica-
tion of the sections would render the association un-
workable. Similar claims might be put in on behalf
of the votaries of other special branches of science,
and at present there were few towns that could pro-
vide accommodation even for their present number
of simultaneous meetings. Herecommended the An-
thropologists to follow the precedent of the Royal
Agricultural Society and found a separate association
for the cultivation of their favourite science.
Dr. Hunt's motion was ultimately negatived, as
were also two others having a similar object.
The first general meeting was held in the Town-
hall this evening. The doors were opened at 7 o'clock,
and the spacious building was speedily filled. Pro-
fessor Phillips entered the hail accompanied by the
mayor and other gentlemen, at a few minutes before
8, and was well received.
The PRESIDENT immediately rose and delivered
an inaugural address, of which the following
is a summary :—Assembled for the third time
in this busy centre of industrious England,
amid the roar of engines and the clang of hammers,
where the strongest powers of nature are trained to
work in the fairy chains of art, how softly falls upon
the ear the accent of science, the friend of that art,
and the guide of that industry ! Here, where Priestly
analysed the air, and Watt obtained the mastery
over steam, it well became the student of nature to
gather round the standard which they carried so far
into the fields of knowledge. And when, on other
occasions, we meet in quiet colleges and academic
halls, how gladly welcome is the union of fresh dis-
coveries and new inventions with the solid and vener-
able truths which are there treasured and taught !
Long may such union last—the fair alliance of
cultivated thought and practical skill ; for by it
labour is dignified and science fertilised, and the
condition of human society exalted. Through this
happy union of science and art, the young life of
the British Association—one-third of a century—
has been illustrated by discoveries and enriched by
useful inventions in a degree never surpassed. Life
in every form, of every grade, in every stage ; man
in every clime and under all conditions ; the life
that now surrounds us, and that which has passed
away, these subjects of high contemplation have
been examined often, if not 'always in the spirit of
that philosophy which is slowly raising, on a broad
security of observed facts, sure inductions, and re-
peated experiments, the steady columns of the temple
of physical truth. Few great branches of the study of
of nature on which modern philosophy is intent
were left unconsidered in the schools of Athens ;
hardly one of them was, or, indeed, could be made
the subject of accurate experiment. The precious
instruments of exact research—the measures of
time, and space, and force, and motion--are of
very modern date. Having proceeded at some
length to refer to the astronomical discoveries of
modern times, he observed :—To our country-
men, in particular, belongs the honour of suc-
cessful experiments on the rose-coloured flames
which extend from certain points of the sun's border
during an eclipse, as well as of valuable contribu-
tions through the same agency to that enlarged
survey of the physical aspect of the moon which,
singe 1852, the association has striven to promote.
By another application of the same beautiful art, in
connexion with clockwork, the momentary changes
of magnetic force and direction, the variations of
temperature, the fluctuations of atmospheric pressure,
the force of the wind, the fall of rain, the proportion
of ozone in the air are registered in oar observatories,
and thus the inventions of Ronalds and hissuccessors
have engaged the solar rays in measuring and com-
paring contemporaneous phenomena of the same
order over large parts of the globe—phenomena some
of which are occasioned by those very rays. As we
ascend above the earth, heat, moisture, and mag-
netic force decrease, the velocity of wind augments,
and the proportion of oxygen and nitrogen remains
the same. The decrease of heat as we rise into the
air is no new subject of inquiry, nor have the views
respecting it been very limited or very accordant.
Leslie considered it mathematically in relation to
pressure Humboldt gave the result of a large in-
quiry at points on the earth's surface unequally ele-
vated above the sea : and finally, Mr. Glaisher and
Mr. Coxwell, during many balloon ascents to the
zones of life-destroying cold, far above our mountain
tops, have obtained innumerable data, in all seasons
of the year, through a vast range of vertical height.
The result is to show much more rapid decrease near
the earth, much slower decrease at great elevations

thus agreeing in general with the view of Leslie, and
yet throwing no discredit on the determinations of
Humboldt, which do not refer to the free atmo-

spheric ocean, but to the mere borders of it where i

touches the earth and is influenced thereby. Re-.
searches of every kind have so enriched meteorology
since our early friend, Professor J. Forbes, printed
his suggestive reports on that subject, and so great
have been the benefits conferred on it by the electric
telegraph, that at this moment, in M. Leverrier's
observatory at Paris, and the office so lately presided
over by Admiral Fitzroy in London, the messages
are arriving from all parts of Europe to declare
the present weather, and furnish grounds for
reasonable expectation of the next probable
change. Hardly now within the seas of Europe can
a cyclone begin its career of devastation before the
warning signal is raised in our sea-ports, to restrain
the too confident sailor. The gentle spirit which
employed this knowledge in the cause of humanity
has passed away; leaving an example of unselfish
devotion in a work which must not fail through any
lack of energy on the part of this Association,. the
Royal Society, or the Government. We must
extend these researches and enlarge these benefits
by the aid of the telegraph bringing the ends of the
world together. Soon may that thread of commu-
nication unite the two great sections of the Anglo-
Saxon race, and bring and return through the
broad Atlantic the happy andmututd congratulations
for peace restored and friendship renewed. After
some observations on crystals the President
ceeded : the s
The greater our progress in tudPyrooi
the economy of nature the more she unveils herself
as one vast whole ; one comprehensive plan ; one ,

universal rule, in a yet unexhausted series --o—f

individual peculiarities. Such is the aspect of this
moving, working, living system of force and law ;
such it has ever been, if we rightly interpret the
history of our own portion of this rich inheritance

of mind, the history of that earth from which we
spring, with which so many of our thoughts are

co-ordinated,and to which all but our thoughts and
hopes will again return. How should we prize this
history !and exult in the thought that in our own

days, within our own memories the very founda-
tions of the series of strata, deposited in the begin-
ning of time, have been explored by our living
friends, our Murchison and Sedgwicic, while
the higher and more complicated parts of the
structure have been minutely examined by our
Lyell, Forbes, and Prestwich. Ilow instructive the
history of that long series of inhabitants which re-
ceived in primeval times the gift of life, and filled
the land, sea, and air with rejoicing myriads,
through innumerable revolutions of the planet,
before in the fulness of time it pleased the Giver
of all good to place man upon the earth
and bid him look up to Heaven. Wave suc-
ceeding wave, the forms of ancient life