The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-07 00:00:00

SECTION G.—MaIIIANICAL SCIENCE

President.—Mr. G. Rennie, F.R.S. Vice-Presidents—
Mr. J. Nasmyth, F.R.S., and Mr. J. Taylor, F.R.S.
Secretaries.—Mr. C. Atherton, Mr. 11. M. Jeffreys, and
Mr. B. Jones, jun.
The following letter, in explanation of a proposal to
change the title of one of the see'ions, addressed to the
general secretary by Mr. R. M. Milner, M.P., D.C.L.,
president of the Statistical Section at Glasgow, 1855,
was then read by Professor Phillips :
"Dear General Sabine,—At the last meeting of the Bri-
tish Association I gave notice of my intention to propose
at the Cheltenham meeting, that the Section of ' Statis-
tics' should in future be entitled the Section of Economic
Science and Statistics.'
"I am desirous that this change should be effected, be-
cause I think it will bring the objects of the section more
legitimately within the scope of the association. Political
economy is now recognised as a science, not only by the
establishment of chairs in the chief universities of Europe,
but also by confirmation which experience has given to
its principles and deductions. At the same time it is im-
portant that public attention should in every way be at-
tracted to its study at a time when its terminology, neces-
sarily imperfect from the period of its formation, is under-
going considerable revision, and when the investigations,
now in progress on the Continent and in the United States
are subjecting the doctrines of the most distinguished Bri-
tish founders to a severe and often hostile scrutiny.
"At the same time I do not wish to give up the word
statistics,' because its retention enables the section use-
fully to entertain many subjects of general interest which the
wholttsome abstinence of the association from political and
moral questions must otherwise exclude. I believe the
public has derived great advantage from the materials of
social and economical truths gathered together and pre-
sented at the meetings, and would ice with regret any
further limitation of its objects.
"I shall be glad if the general committee of the associa-
tion think fit to adopt the alteration which I propose, and
I remain, dear General Sabine, yours very sincerely,
"RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES.
"16, Upper Brook-street, July 16."
After some conversation, the committee agreed to
change the title of Section F from " Statistics" to
"Economic Science and Statistics," upon the motion of
Mr. NEWMARCH, in the absence of Mr. R. M. Milnes.
Mr. HOLLAND, M.P., on behalf of the inhabitants cf
Cirencester, invited the association to visit and examine
the Roman remains in and near that town and also the
Museum and Agricultural College on Saturday next.
The invitation was accepted, and the thanks of the
committee were given to Mr Holland and the inhabi•
tants of Cirencester.
The meeting then broke up, having sat one hour.

THE PRSSIDICNT'S OPENING ADDRESS.

Dr. DAUBENY, the ;President, delivered the usua,
opening address, taking for his subject " The Pragress
of Physical Science within the last 20 years." After
some introductory observations, the learned president
commenced his review with the science of chemistry, the
subject with which, he said, he was most familiar. He
first reminded his auditory that at a period not much
more remote than the date at which that association sat
in the city of Bristol, 20 years ago, all that could be
quoted as really worthy the name of chemical science
was comprehended within the limits of the mineral king-
dom :
"There was a world almost as little known to the
chemists of that period as was the Western Hemisphere
to the Macedonian Conqueror—a world comprising an
infinite variety of important products, called into exist-
ence by the mysterious operation of the vital principle,
and therefore placed, a 3 was imagined, almost beyond
the reach of experimental research. This was the new
world of chemistry, which the continental philosophers
in the first instance, and subsequently those of our own
country, had, during the last 20 years, been busy in
exploring, and by so doing had nut only bridged over
the gulf which had before separated by an impassable
barrier the kingahet-s of inorganic and of organic na-
ture, but also added provinces as extensive and as
fertile as those we are in possession of before to the patri-
mony of science ...
World might never have been discovered, or, at all events,
would not have been brought under our subjection, with-
out those improvements in naval architecture which had
taken place prior to the age of Columbus, so the secrets
of organic chemistry would have long remained unelicited
but for the facilities in the methods of analysis which
were introduced by Lieleig. Before his time the de-
termination of the component elements of an organic)
substance was a task of so much skill as well as labour
that only the most accomplished analysts—such men, for
instance, as his lamented friend Dr. Prout in this coun-
try, or as the great Berzelius in Sweden—could he de-
pended upon for such a work ; and hence the data upon
which we could rely for deducing any general conclu-
sions went on accumulating with extreme slowness. But
the new methods of analysis invented by Liebig have so
simplified and so facilitated the processes that a student,
after a few months' practical instruction in a laboratory,
can, in neatly instances, arrive at results sufficiently pre-
cise to be made the basis of calculation, and thus to
enable the tweeter mind, which is capable of availing it-
self of the facts before it, to breathe life into these dry
numerical details—just as the sculptor, by a few finishing
strokes, brings out the expres4ion of the statue which
has been prepared for him by the laborious chiselling of
a number of subordinate workmen Formerly
it had been the rule to set down the bodies which form
the constituents of the substances we analysed, and
vs hich had never yet under our hands undergone decom-
position, as elementary ; but the discovery of cyanogen
in the first instance, and the recognition of several other
compound radicals in organic chemistry more lately,
naturally suggest the idea that many of the so-called ele-
ments of inorganic matter may likewise be compounds,
differing from the organic radicals above mentioned
merely in their constituents being bound together by a
closer affinity. It is curious to reflect that while the
bold speculations of Democritue had been realised by
the Manchester philosopher, the reveries of the alche-
mists derive something like solid support from the minute
investigations of his successors. Indeed it is not a little
remarkable how frequently the discoveries of modern
days have served to redeem the fancies of medieval
times from the charge of absurdity. If the direction
of a bit of steel suspended near the earth can, as
General Sabine bas proved, be influenced by the posi-
tion of a body like the moon, situated at a distance from
it mere than 200,000 miles, who shall say
that there
was anything preposterously extravagant in the concep-
tion, however little support it may derive from experience,
that the stars might exert an influence over the destinies
of man 4"

Pas3ing to the practical results bearing on the arts of
life which have either been actually deduced, or might
be anticipated to accrue from chemical discovery, the
president remarked—

"Of these, perhaps, the most important is the possibi-
lity of forming by art those compounds which had been
formerly supposed to be only producible by natural pro-
cesses, under the influence of the vital principle. The
last 2 years have added materially to the catalogue of such
bodie3 artificially produced, as in the formation of several
species of alcohol from coal gas by Berthelot, that of oil
of mustard by the same chemist, and the generation of
taurine, a principle elaborated in tl-e liver by Strecker.
And if the above discoveries should strike you at first
sight rather as curious than practically useful. I would
remark that they afford reasonable ground for hope that
the production of some of those principles of high medi-
cinal or economical value which nature has sparingly
provided, or at least limited to certain districts or cli-
mates, may lie within the compass of the chemist's skill.
If quinine, for instance, to which the Peruvian bark
owes its efficacy, be, as would appear from recent re-
searches, a modified condition of ammonia, why may not
a Hellman be able to produce it for us from its elements,
as he has already done so many other alkaloids of simi-
lar constitution? And thus, while the progress of civilisa-
tion and the development of the chemical arts are acce-
lerating the consumption of those articles which kind
nature has either been storing up for the uses of man
during a vast succession of antecedent ages, or else is at
present elaborating for us in that limited area within
which alone the conditions would seem to be such as to
admit of their production, we are encouraged to hope
that science may make good the loss she has
contributed to create, by herself inventing artifi-
cial modes of obtaining these necessary materials.
In this case we need not eo much regard the exhaustion
of our collieries, although nature appears to have pro-
Yid#Xlllo menus for replenishing thew ;. nor oven be con-