The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-22 00:00:00

BRITISH ASSOCIATIO2I:

LEEDS, MONDAY AFTERNOON.
As has been already announced, the 28th annual
meeting of the British Association for the Advance-
ment of Science will be held in Leeds this week.
The first general meeting will be held on Wednes-
day evening, when the opening address will be de-
livered by Professor Owen. The sectional meetings
will commence on the following (Thursday) mornin.
The whole of the sectional meetings will be held
in different apartments of the Town-hall, the general
and aggregate meetings being held in the large hall
of that building. From the names of the distin-
guished parties who have promised to attend, and
the authors and subjects of the chief papers to be
read, there is every reason to believe that the anni-
versary will be a very successful one. The first list
of arrivals will not be published till Thursday morn-
ing ; but besides Professor Owen, the president
elect, the following have promised to attend :—Sir
David Brewster, Professor Faraday, Sir Roderick
Murchison, Dr. Whewell, Professor Wheatstone,
Professor Airy, Sir Wm. Hamilton, Sir B. Brodie,
Robert Stephenson, M.P., Gen. Chesney, Mr. Hop-
kins, Mr. Darwin, Gen. Sabine, Professor
Sir Philip Egerton, Mr. W. Fairbairn. Mr. James
Nasmyth, Rev. W. V. Harcourt, Sir William Jar-
dine, Professor Baden Powell, Professor Volcker,.
Dr. Alison, Rev. Dr. Booth, Dr. Lloyd, Earl Brown=
low, the Earl of Carlisle, Earl Enniskillen, Lord
Monteagle, Lord Goderich, Lord Wrottesley, Mr.
Edwin Chadwick, Mr. Robert Chambers, Dr. Lan-
kester, 111 r. W. Lassell, Mr. Baines, M.P., Mr. R.
M. Milnes M.P., Colonel Sykes, M.P., Mr. J. G.
Marshall, Mr. Sopwith, Mr. Newmarch, Professor
Cairnes, Dr. Hamel, member of the Imperial Aca-
demy of Science, St. Petersburg, Rev. Dr. Hook,
Mr. W. Beckett, Mr. H. M. Ineram. Professor
Phillips, assistant-general secretary, and the Leeds
Local ommittee, with a numerous staff, are now
busy in the Town-hall making the arrangements
for this great gathering of sarans as complete as
possible.

The Leeds Mercury of yesterday says :
" The communications to the various sections, of
which a large number have already been announced,
embrace not only the most recent points of research
which are interesting to philosophers, but also sub-
jects of universal interest and of the greatest prac-
tical importance. We trust none will suppose that
only abstruse papers, unintelligible to the general
mind, are brought before the sections. No doubt a
large number of the communications presented will
deal with difficult problems in abstract science, but
a large proportion of the papers, especially in some
of the sections, will be such as cannot fail to be
deeply interesting to every intelligent man or
woman. It is right, too, that we should recognise
the value of the more abstruse researches, which,
though at first they may seem not to connect them-
selves with any practical result, so often lead to the
most important applications. Who would have
thought that when Oersted, by a very simple appa-
ratus, exhibited the true relation between elec-
tricity and magnetism, his little bit of copper wire
over a small compass box would one day be magni-
fied into the Transatlantic Telegraph ? Or, again,
who could have foreseen that the discovery of the
fact that muriate of silver is blackened by exposure
to light would lead to all the marvels of photo-
graphy and the stereoeope ? Among the commu-
nications already promised we may direct attention
in a paper by Sir David Brewster, entitled Addi-
tional Contributions on the Structure and Func-
tions of the Eye,' as an example of curious re-
search. Of more general interest —indeed, of
interest to be Professor B. Powell's Re-
port on Fallinr, Stars and Meteors ;' and Mr.
'Whitehouse's ' Notes on the Atlantic Telegraph.'
" In the Chemical Section an account is expected
from the Rev. W. V. Harcourt of some new kind,
of glass for optical purposes ; and from Dr. Edward
Smith a communication on the quantity of carbonic
acid gas in the air ; while our townsman, Mr.
Huggon, will present a ' Report on the alkaline
waters of Leeds'

"In the Geological Department, Principal Daw-
son (of Canada) will bring forward some ' New
observations on vegetable structures found in coal e
and Mr. Clifton Sorby (of Sheffield), some examples
of his ingenious researches into the minute structure
of rocks and minerals. Mr. Bailey will have a

paper On the Fossil Ferns of the Carboniferous
Series,' and there will be various communications
on the position of the ironstones in the Yorkshire
and other coal fields.

"In the Natural History Section, Sir John
Richardson will offer some observations On the
Fishes of the Lake District ;' Mr. Alder and. the
Rev. Thomas Hincks, 8.A., will make contributions
to the history of the beautiful tribe of zoophytes ;
and several reports on the results of dredging for
the discovery of new animals, will be presented by
some of the zealous Irish naturalists. We may
also specify a paper by Tegelmeier ' On the For-
mation of the Cells of Bees.

" The Physiological sub-section will no doubt be
strongly supported by the medical profession, which
numbers so many eminent members in Leeds.
" In the section of Ethnology and Geography a
large amount of generally interesting matter may
be expected, and we may direct special attention
to the opening address of its president, Sir Roderick
Murchison, which will probably be a popular in-
troduction to the business of the section.
" In the section of Statistics and Social Science
reports on some of the trades of Leeds will be
brought forward, and many important social ques-
tions will be discussed. The president, Mr. E.
Baines, will present a report on the woollen trade
of this town. _

" For the Mechanical Section—in which Leeds
may be supposes to be peculiarly interested—com-
munications have been promised by Mr. Crosskill,
On machinery for reaping corn ; ' by Mr. T. W.
Leather, 'On the flow of water in some of _ our
Yorkshire rivers and streams ;' and by 3lr. Whit-
worth, 'On recent improvements in railway signals.'
Mr. J. Kitson, jun., will also report from statistics,
&c., of the iron trade.

" We give the foregoing as a sample, to show the
rich variety of interest which the sectional business

will offer. 6

THIS DAY YS MARKETS.