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

LONDON, rIiURSDAY EVENING, AUGCST 7, 1856.

BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR TriE AD-
VANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.

CHELTENHAM, AUG. G.
The 26th annual meeting of this eminent bo3y com-
menced i s sittings this day at Cheltenham, under the
presidency of Dr. Daubeny, F.R.S. The meeting pro-
mises to be one of the most sincessful and interesting of
any which the association has yet held, and it is indeed
gratifying to find that every year brings with it an in-
creased amount of interest in connection with the objects
and movements of the association. The directors of
Cheltenham College have placed that building at the
disposal of the officers of the association, and the most
active preparations have, for some days past, been made
to render the different school-rooms suitable for the sit-
tings of the various sections. The two largest of these
rooms have been assigned to the Geological and
Geographical Sections. Both these rooms have been
lighted with gas, it being intended that the in-
augural meeting and the evening lectures of Colonel
Sir H. Rawlinson and Mr. Grove shall be held
there. Cheltenham College is admirably adapted for the
purposes of the association, and the various class-rooms
have been most judiciously arranged and elegantly de-
corated under the direction of Mr. Hugall, one of the
local secretaries.

The Duke and Duchess of Argyll arrived at Chelten-
ham this morning, and, though there is a large attend.
ance of members of the association and a considerable
influx of visitors, there is no lack of accommodation in
the town, owing to the absence of so many of the resi-
dents, and the lodgings are better and cheaper than at
any place the society has previously visited. The follow-
ing are among the number of arrivals :—Earl of Ellen-
borough, Earl Ducie, Sir R. J. Murchison, Lord Wrot-
tesley, Lord Stanley, Sir J. Kay Shuttleworth, Sir H.
Rawlinson, Professor J. D. Thomas, Dr. M'Adam, Mr.
J. E. Appold, Dr. W. Gladstone, Mr. H. C. Sorby,
Professor Corbett, Professor Ramsey, Mr. J. P. Gas-
siott, Professor Harknese, Dr. N. Shaw, Mr. J. T.
Dawson, Dr. W. N. Hancock-, Mr. It. Cull, Profes-
3or S'eveley, Dr. Lankester, Dr. Booth, Dr. Lee, Dr.
Danbeny, Professor Sedgwick, Professor Lloyd, Mr.
T. Tooke, Dr. Anderson, Colonel Yorke, Mr. Tite,
M.P., Professor Phillips, Mr. J. Yates, &c.

Tile proceedings of the association commenced this
morning by a meeting of the general committee in the
College at 1 o'clock ; Dr. Daubeny in the chair.

Professor PHILLIPS, the assistant general secretary,
read the minutes of the previous meetings, and the re-
port of the council of association, which was ordered to
be printed.

Mr. J. P. Gessior moved that the cordial thanks of
the General Committee of the British Association be
offered to Lord Wrottesley and the officers and council
of the Royal Society, for the promptitude with which
they have responded to the request of the Committee of
the British Association, in granting the sum of 2501. for
the purpose of lighting the Kew Observatory with gas.
The motion, having been seconded by Mr. J. TAT-
Lon, was carried unanimously.
Lord WROITESLEY, on behalf of himself and the offi-
cers and council of the Royal Society, acknowledged
the vote of thanks.

The General Treasurer (Kr. J. Taylor) then read the
following account

THE GENERAL TREASURER'S ACCOUNT, FROST SEPT. 12,
1855 (GLASGOW MEETING), TO AUG. 6, 1856, AT CHEL-
TENHAM.

RECEIPTS.

To balance brought on frotni7lSCaccount £Bl7 1 S
Life compositions at Glasgow, and sines 35) 0 0
Anneal subscriptions, ditto
Associates' tickets, ditto
Ladies tickets, ditto
Composition or future publications
Dividend ou stock, 12 mouths l6l 11 0
Received for sale of 7691. 10s., 3 per Cent
Consols, at 954 leaving 5,0001. 3 per Cent
Consols invested
From sale of publications, viz.—
Reports of meetings £99 13 0
CataloguesofstarsaudDoveslines 42 2 9

141. 10 9

£:4,27G 1 10

PAYMENTS.
By paid expenses of Glasgow meeting, sundry
printing, binding, advertising, and inciden-
tal payments by general treasurer and 'veal
treasurers £3l9 6 7
Printing report of the 21th nesting, engrav-
ing, &c.... 607 19 2
Paid for 2,2691. 103. 3 per Cont. Consols at 83 2,000 0 0
Salaries for 12 months
Engraving, &c., for report of 25th meeting 26 0 0
Maintaining the establishment of Kew Obser-
vatory—
Balance of grant, 1854
Balance of grant, 1855

5'5 0 0

Ornithological synonyms .
Chemical action of light
Periodical phenomena
Strength of iron p1ate5......,......
Dredging and dredging forms....
Propagation of salmon
Balance at the bankers £192 5 5
Balance in the hands of the gene-
ral treasurer hnd local treasurers 15 16 II

10) 0 0
20 0 0
10 0 0
10 0 0
9 13 9
10 0 0

208 2 4

£4,216 1 10
The Rev. R. WALKER read the report of the Parlia-
mentary Committee to the meeting of the British Asso-
ciation, which was as follows :

" We have the pleasure of announcing that ono very im-
portant subject to which our labours have been directed has
been materially advanced since the date of our last report.
We allude to the juxtaposition of the scientific societies of
London in a convenient and central locality. The main
building at Burlington-house has been placed by the Go-
vernmentstandig t
ha
at
tt ht
be
edyi sal:ice:o%l omf
otdh
ate
Royal
the oLine!!
ee
at yn ,
aonna t
ch eb ue
nin
cear
1-
icSoone
vi eetriteesa wi ttho rao
co
ampsa
ctihoeurse ibna
1,•1 awn db
etbh eis
to
oe s
bt
ewoicnegn
pwi
ei ldl
by
the Royal Society at all times when it is not required for the
examinations and public meetings of the University of Lou-
den. We trust that the period is not far distant in which
cpiepraml as no
ieenntt
iaccommodationb.o be a firde d t
dl
ing
st o
be erected
all
ntheeaprri
then-
same site, and in pursuance of some general plan. Your
committee, however, anticipate most important advantages
to science from the present partial adoption by the Go-
vernment of the principle of juxtaposition; and our
chairman has, in his address to the Royal Society, on the
occasion of their last anniversary, alluded to the benefits
likely to accrue from this salutary measure. In the same
address also will be found a summary of our labours since
our complete organisation in 1851, a perusal of which will
show to what extent the proceedings of our committee
have justified the anticipations of those who promoted its
formation. During the past year two subjects have been
referred to us, viz.—first, the question of the expenses in-
curred by scientific institutions not incorporated in ap-
pointing new trustees of their property when vacancies
occur ; and, secondly, we were requested by your council,
in January last, to support an application to Parliament in
reference to lighting Kew Observatory with gas, when. , made by the Chief Commissioner of Woods. The first sub-
ject above adverted to has been considered by us, and we
shall resume its discussion when an opportunity offers for
remedying the evil. With respect to the second, we must
refer to the report of the Kew Committee for an expla-
nation of the reasons which have made it impossible for
us to render that species of assistance which was contem-
plated at the time when the reference was made to us. The
most important subject of our last report—viz., the ques-
tion ' Whether any measures could be adopted by the Go-
vernment or Parliament that would improve the position
of science or its cultivators ?' has Since its discussion at
Glasgow been again considered by us, and during the last
session of Parliament it was brought before the House of
Commons by Mr. Heywood, as an individual member of
the house, and not as representing your committee. The
discussion of our report by the Committee of Recom-
mendations at Glasgow in September last, the result of
the debate which took place in the House of Commons
on the occasion last referred to, and subsequent communi-
cations with members of the legislature have combined to
convince ns—let, that men of science have as yet formed
no definite opinion on the important question raised_in
the report ; and, 2,11 y, that, Until such a result be attained,
it is improbable that any important improvement will be
effected in the position of science or its cultivators either
through the agency of the Government or Parliament. It
is desirable, therefore, that Some measures should be
adopted which may be instrumental in inducing scientific
men generally to apply their minds to the consideration of
these questions, and to agree upon some definite proposals.
We, therefore, recommend that the subject should be again
brought before the Committee of Recommendations. Mean-
while the General Committee will be gratified on learning
that the importance of the questiony whohas havebeenreferred t
recognised
iby
theo Councilit s
Governmentconsiderationmet Grant Committee. That ,
a sub-committee consisting of the
eihe Royal Society and seven other
Presidentemtee
and
ha ov ft
oeo theefi atp
c b p
oeeofficers
Royalnotfe (tl
members, who will meet on the 7th of October for thepur-
pose of discussing the subject prior to the re-assembling of
the society after the recess. Your committee recommend
for the consideration of the General Committee, whetherit
would be expedient to relax the rule by which vacancies in
our committee must be filled up exclusively from members
of the British Association, so far as to admit members of
either House of Parliament who have advanced the inte-
rests of science. Tour committee also recommend that two
vacancies in our body, caused by the non-attendance of the
Earl Cathcart and Sir J. V. B. Johnstone, Bart., during
two consecutive years, be filled by the election of the Earl
of Burlington and Lord Stanley, Member of Parliament
for King's Lynn. " WROTTRSLET, Chairman."
A vote of thanks having been given on the motion of
Sir R. J. MURCHISON to Lord Wrottesley and the mem-
bers of the Parliamentary Committee for their unceasing
attention to the interests of science in the Legislature,
Lord WrcorrEsrar, in acknowledging the compliment,
stated that it was most desirable that the rule should be
altered by which vacancies in the Parliamentary Com-
mittee were only allowed to be filled up by members of
the association, and concluded by a formal motion to
that effect.

Professor PHILLIPB seconded the motion, which Was
adopted.

Oa the motion of Lord WA9TWOLIAX the Earl °t au-

lington and Lord Stanley were elected to fill the vacan-
cies in the committee occasioned by the deaths of Ea
Cathcart and Sir John Johnstone.
Professor PHILLIPS moved the appointment of the fol-
lowing officers of the different sections :
SECTION A.—MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE.
President—Rev. It. Walker, F.R.S. Vice• Presidents
—Rev. IL P. Price, F.R.S., Sir W. Snow Harris, F.R.S.,
Rev. W. Whewell, F.R.S., and the Rev. H. Lloyd.
Secretaries—Professor Stevelly, Mr. C. Burke, F.R.S.,
Rev. T. A. Southwood, Rev. J. C. Turnbull.
SECTION B.—CHEMICAL SCIENCE.
President —Mr. B. C. Brodie, F.R.S. Vice-Presidents
—Mr. N. S. Ma3kelyne, F.G.S , Mr. W. Gregory,
F.R.S., Mr. Lyon Playfair, F.R.S., the Master of the
Mint, Dr. Miller, and Dr. Anderson. Secretaries—Mr
P. Worsley, Professor Voelker, and Mr. J. Horsley.
• SECTION C.—GEOLOGY

President_ Mr. A. C. Ramsey, F.R.S. Vice-Press
dents—Rev. Professor Sedgwick, Mr. J. Hamilton, and
Mr. J. P. Jukes. Secretaries—Rev. S. B. Brodie, Mr.
T. Wright, and Mr. J. Scougall.
SECTION D.—ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, INCLUDING PHY-
SIOLOGY.
President —Mr. T. Bell, F.R.S. Vice-Presidents—
Rev. L. Jenyns, Dr. Robert Ball, Mr. J. E. Grey,
F.R.S. ; Professor Balfour, and Professor Henslow.
Secretaries—Mr. E. Lankester, F.R.S.; Mr. J. Buck.
man, F.G.S. ; and Dr. J. Abercrombie.
SECTION 4.—GEOGRAPHY AND ETHNOLOGY.
President—Sir H. C. Rawlinson, F.R.S. Vice-Presi-
dents—Sir J. Davies and Sir R. J. Murchison, F.R.S.
Secretarie,. —Dr. Norton Shaw, Mr., Richard Bull, Mr.
F. D. H
Saitland, 4,.51,-..,11. W. Ramsey,
RC..

cerned at the rapid destruction of the trees which yield
the Peruvian bark, limited though they be to a very
narrow zone aid to a certain definite elevation on either
side of the equator. Already, indeed, chemistry has
given token of her powers by threatening to altar the
course of commerce, and to reverse the tide of human
industry. Thus she has discovered, it is said, a substitute
for the cochineal insect iu a beautiful dye producible
from guano. She has shown that our supply of animal
food might be obtained at a cheaper rate from the anti-
podes by simply
boiling down the juices of the flesh of
cattle now wasted and thrown aside in those countries,
and importing the extract in a state of concentration.
Sue has pointed out that one of the earths which consti-
tute the prin4al material of our globe contains a metal
as light as glass, as malleable and ductile as copper, and
as little liable to rust as silver; thus possessing proper-
ties so valuable that, when means have been found of
separating it economically from its ore, it will be capable
of superseding the meta's in common use, and thus of
rendering metallurgy an employment not of certain dis-
tricts only, but of every part of the earth to which
science and civilisation have penetrated. And may I not
also say that she has contributed materially towards the
advancement of those arts in which an agricultural coun-
try like this is especially interested ? It is not often that
the same individual has reaped a high reputation at once
by establishing general principles in science and by ren-
dering popular their application to practice.
But Barou Liebig stands equally distinguished for. his
ingepuity in devising new methods of azalysi, for his I
originality in propounding great theoretical principles in
science, and for his happy talent in applying these prin-
ciples to purposes of practical utility."
Referring to the discnis stone which havetaken place for
some time past between this distinguished foreigner and
certain experimental agriculturists in England with
regard to the principles that ought to regulate the
manuring of land, Dr. Daubeny proceeded :
" In so far as concerns the relative advantages of
mineral and ammoniacal manures, I presume there is
little room for controversy ; for, although most soils
may contain a sufficiency of the inorganic constituents
required by the crop, it by no means follows that the
latter are always in an available condition ; anti hence
it may well happen that in most cases in which land has
been long under cultivation, the former class of manures
becomes, as Baron Liebig asserts, a matter of paramount
necessity. Now, that the same necessity exists for the
addition of ammoniacal manures can hardly be con-
tended when we reflect that, at the first commencement
of vegetable life, every existing species of plant must
have obtained its nourishment, solely from the gaseous
constituents of the atmosphere, and from the mineral
contents of the rock in which it vegetated. The only
divergence of opinion, therefore, that can arise relates
to the degree of their respective utility in the existing
state of our agriculture, and to the soundness of Baron
Liebig's position, that a plant rooted in a soil well
charged with all the requisite mineral ingredients, and
in all other respects in a condition calculated to allow of
healthy vegetation, may sooner or later be able to draw
from the atmosphere whatever else is required fo: its full
development. And does not, I would ask, this latter
position derive some support from the luxuriant vegeta-
tion of the tropics, where art certainly contributes no-
thing towards the result? And is it not also favoured by
such experiments as those carried on at Lois Weedon in
Northamptonshire, where the most luxuriant wheat crops
have been obtained for a number of consecutiveyears with-
out manure of any kind, simply by following out the Tul-
ban system of stirring up and pulverising the soil ? How,
too, are we to explain that capacity of subsisting without
any artificial supply of ammonia which Mr. Lawns is led
by his experiments to attribute to turnips and other
plants of similar organisation, unless we assume that the
power residing in the leaves of absorbing ammonia from
the air may render plants, in some cases at least, inde-
pendent of any extraneous aid ? . . . Still the prac-
tical question remains whether, admitting the theoretical
truth of Baron Liebig's position, a larger expenditure of
capital will not be required for bringing a given farm
into a condition to dispense with ammoniacal manures
than for procuring those materials which contain that
ingredient ready for use. And here experimental re-
searehea such as those conducted on so extended and
liberal a scale by Mr. Lawns and Dr. Gilbert, come in
aid of theory. They stand, as it were, midway between
the abstract principles which science points out to the
farmer and the traditional usages with respect to his art
which have been handed down to him from one genera.
tion to another. They bear the same relation to the
farmer which the records of the clinical practice in a
large infirmary do to the general principles of medicine
expounded by the modern physiologist." Having
awarded a meed of praise to the researches carried on
in our own country, and especially those conducted
under the auspices of the Highland Society by Dr. Au-
dersan ; at our own Agricultural College, by Professor
Voelcker ; through the aid of the Royal Agricul-
tural Society by their consulting chemist, Mr. Way, the
President next approached the departments of botany
and vegetable physiology. In these branches of natural
science he observed that—

"It cannot, perhaps, be said that whole provinces
have been added to the domain of the science since the
pt•rio3 alluded to, as we have seen to be the case in our
review of the progress of chemistry. As long ago as
the year 1832 the elder Da Candolle, who, if not the
most original or the most profound of the botanists of
his day, was at least the most conspicuous for the wide
range of his information, and for his happy talent of
imparting it to others, published that admirable work
on vegetable physiology which, even at the present time,
is capable of serving as a most useful guide in many
branches of the subject. And yet what a mass of impor-
tant information has been brought together since that
period ! The improvements in the microscope which
have since taken place render us familiar with particu•
tars relating to the structure and functions of the vege-
( -NW° creation which the ruder methods of investigation
6-
fore resorted to would never have revealed to us. We
a, tto them the interesting discoveries of Brown and
Iphe Broogniart as to the mode in which the pollen
is brought into immediate contact with the ovules, by
means of the tubes which it protrudes by a prolongation
of the innermost of its two investing membranes. . .
While the researches of Brown and others have shown

there is no abrupt line or division in the vegetable king-
dom, and that one common structure pervades the
whole, the later inquiries of Sutninski, Hofineister,
Unger, Griffith, and Henfre, have pointed out several
curious and unlooked-for analogies between plants and
animals. I may mention, in the first place, as an in-
stance of this analogy between plants and animals,
the existence of moving molecules or phytosperms in the
antheridia of ferns and other cryptogams, borne out as
it has been in so remarkable a manner by the almost
simultaneous observations of Bischoff and Meissner on
the egg, confirmatory of those formerly announced by
Barry, and Newport, and by the researches of Suminski,
Thuret, and Pringsbeiro, with respect to the ovule of
plants. I may refer you also to a paper real at the
last meeting of the association by Dr. Cohn, of Breslau,
whc, in bringing this subject before the Natural History
Section, adduced instances of a distinction of sexes which
harr,coine under his observation in the lower Algwa
In like manner a curious correspondence has been traced
between the lower tribes of animals and plants in the
circumstance of both being subject to the law of what
is called alternate generation
To the elder De Candolle wo aro also indebted for
some of our most philosophical views with re-
spect to the laws which regulate the distribution
of plants over the globe—views which have been
developed and extended, but by no means sub-
verted, by the investigation of subsequent writers ;
among whom Sir Charles Lyell, in his Principles of
geology, and the younger Da Candolle, a worthy inheri-
tor of his father's reputation, in his recently published
work on Botanical Geography, have especially signalised
themselves. But it is to the late Professor Edward For-
bes, and to Dr. Joseph Hooker, that we have principally
to attribute the removal of those anomalies whirch threw
a certain degree of doubt upon the principles laid down
by De Candolle in 1820, in his celebrated article on the
Geography of Plants, contained in the Dictionnaire des
Sciences Naturelles, where the derivation of each species
from an individual, or a pair of individuals, created in
one particular locality, was made the starting-point of
all our inquiries Geology, by pointing out
the probability of the submergence of continents on the
one hand and the elevation of tracts of land on the other,
enables us to explain the occurrence of the same plants
in some islands or continents now wholly unconnected,
and the existence of a distinct flora in others too isolated
to obtain it under present circumstances from without.
• • . An inquiry has been carried on for the last
15 years under the auspices of and with the aid of funds
supplied by this associationis
, the results of which, it
but fair to say, by no moans corroborate the reports that
had been from time to time given us with respect to the
extreme longevity of certain seeds, e'icemplified, as it was
sail, in the case of the mummy wheat and other some-
what dubious instances ' • inasmuch as they tend to show
that none of the seeds which were tested, although they
had been placed under the most favourable artificial con-
ditions that could be devised, vegetated after a period of
40 years ; that only 20 out of 283 species did so after 20
years ; while by far the larger number had lost their ger-
minating power in the course of ten."
Having described some of the services rendered to
botanical science by the late Professor Forbes, Dr. J.
Hooker, and Dr. Thomson, the president continued :
" The will which confines the variations in the vege-
table structure within a certain range, lest the order
of creation should be disturbed by the introduction of an
indefinite number of intermediate forms,, is apparently
the same ire its motive as that which brings back the
celestial luminaries to their original orbits after the com-
pletion of a cycle of changes induced by their mutual
perturbations ; it is the same which says to the ocean,
thus far shalt thou go, and no further;' and to the
winds your violence, however apparently capricious
and abnormal, shall nevertheless be constrained within
certain prescribed limits
' Ni faciat, maria et terras coeiumque profundum
Qaippe feraut rapidi secum, verrantque per auras.'

"The law, indeed, seems to be nothing else than a
direct consequence of that unity of design pervading the
universe, which so bespeaks a common Creator—of the
existence in the mind of the Deity of a sort of archetype
to which His various works have all to a certain extent
been-accommodated ; so that the earlier forma of life.
may be regarded as types of those of later creation, and