The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-24 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY E;vt7ENING, SEPTEMBER 24, 1858.

HANWELL COLLEGE SCHOOL, MIDDLE•
SEX. MICHAELMAS TERM, OCTOBER 4th.

BOARD AND RESIDENCE. A Superior
Home is offered to a Gentleman of steady habits, en-
gaged during the day, by a family residing near Regent's-
Park. For a young man coming to London for the first time
this would be found a desirable residence. Terms moderate.
References to be exchanged. Address, J. I'., Wright's
Dairy, Granby-street, Hampstead-road, N.W.

GLENFIELD PATENT STARCH,
USED IN THE ROYAL LAUNDRY,
AND PRONOUNCED BY HER MAJESTY'S LAUNDRESS to be
THE FINEST STARCH SHE EVER USED.
Sold by all Chandlers, Grocers, &c., &c.

GEORGE HOBSON begs to call the attention
of Gentlemen to his New Autumnal Trousers, 21s. to
255. Also his New Partridge Mixture Shooting Coats.
Excellence with Economy.
GEORGE HOBSONish,
ed 57,
17L ombard-street.
Establ 9ti.

GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.
WINDSOR and back for 2s. 6d., from Paddington.—
Week days at 8.45 and 10.30 a.m.. returning at 6.35 and 8.5
p.m. On Sundays, from Paddington at 9 a.m.,-returning at
7 p.m. Taplow and back, on Sundays, for 2s. 6d., from Pad-
dington at 9 a.m., returning at 6.57 p.m. Henley and back
for 35., from Paddington, at 9 a.m., returning at 8.55 p.m.

GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.
CHEAP EXCURSION to Oxford, Banbury, Leaming-
ton, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Shrewsbury, Llangollen
Itoad,Chester, Birkenhead, and Liverpool, &c., from Padding-
ton, on MONDAY, September 27, at 7 a.m., returning on Satur-
day, the 2d of October, from Liverpool -(Landing, Stage) at
8.30 a.m., and intermediate stations as per handbills. Fares
—Oxford, Os. 6d. and 4s. ; Banbury, Bs. and ss. ; Leamington
or Warwick, 10s. 6d. and 6s. ; Birmingham, 12s. and 7s. ;
Westbromwich, Wednesbury, or Bilston, 12s. 6d. and 7s. 6d. ;
Wolverhampton, 13s. and Ss. ; Wellington or Shrewsbury, 17s.
and 10s. ; Llangollen Road or Chester, 18s. 6d. and lls. ; Bir-
kenhead or Liverpool, 21s. and lls. Children under 12, ball-
price.

ROME AND FRASCATI RAILWAY
COMPANY.
The Half-year's Interest on the Bonds of this Company,
Nos. 1 to 120, due on the 22d of September and Ist of October,
1858, will be paid at the Agency of the Banque Generale
Suisse, 2, Royal Exchange Buildings ; or at the Suecursale of
the same Bank, 30, Rue Louis le Grand, Paris.
By Order, F. FRIRLIGRATH,
Manager of the London Agency of
the Banque Generale Suisse.

THORLEY'S FOOD FOR CATTLE.-
It is only a short time since this singularly efficacious
article of animal diet first made its appearance ; and already
its celebrity is world-wide. It has been a subject of wonder,
and has puzzled many a brain to explain how this has been
brought about. Yet when we are acquainted with a few facts
concerning the food, our wonder will cease. A few days since,
a gentleman wrote, stating that he had a horse which was a
" perfect bag of bones." He tried all kinds of things to get
the animal into condition, but in vain. He then bought sonic
of Thorley's food; and he says the effect was wonderful. The
horse rapidly grew fat, and in the course of a few weeks had
gained no less than 12 stones. Again we find at the late agri-
cultural shows at Birmingham, Cardiff, &e., the animals which
earned off the highest prizes had been partly fed with Thor-
ley's food for cattle. Such- facts speak for themselves, and we
are forced to the conclusion that its celebrity arises solely
from its own intrinsic merits, and the great demand for it can
proceed alone from the good opinion and testimony of those
who have tried it. All parties interested in horses and cattle
will do well to apply to 77, Newgate-street, London, for a
pamphlet which is sent post-free.

had declined during his tenure of office ; but such
a supposition would have been disproved by the
valuable and important reports which had been
presented to the general committee. (Hear, hear.)
It only remained for him to return thanks for the
kind consideration which he had received from
the present officers of the wsmacia tion, as well
as from every member with whom it was his duty
to co-operate,- and to resign the chair to one whose
name would add lustre even to the British Associa-
tion and whose high talents would no doubt be de-
voted to the advancement of its interests, and to the
promotion of the objects for which it was founded.
Professor OWEN, who was received with loud
applause, then proceeded. to read his inaugural ad-
dress, a very prolix document, which occupied full
three hours in its delivery. He commenced by say-
ing,—We are here met, in this our 2Sth annual as
sembly, having accepted, for the present year, the
invitation of the flourishing town and firm seat of
British manufacturing energy, Leeds, to continue
the aim of the Association, which is the promotion
of science, or the knowledge of the laws of nature ;
whereby we acquire a dominion over nature, and
are thereby able so to apply her powers as to ad-
vance the wellbeing of society and exalt the Condi-
tion of mankind. It is no light matter, therefore,
the work that we are here assembled to do. God
has given to man a capacity to discover and compre-
hend the laws by which his universe is governed ;
and man is impelled by a healthy and natural im-
pulse to exercise the faculties by which that know-
ledge can be acquired. Agreeably with the relations
which have been instituted between our finite facul-
ties and the phenomena that affect them, we arrive
at demonstrations and convictions which are the
most certain that our present state of being can
have or act upon. Nor let any one, against whose
prepossessions a scientific truth may jar, confound
such demonstrations with the speculative philoso-
phies condemned by the apostle,—ascribe to arro-
gant intellect soaring to regions of forbidden mys- '
teries the acquisition of such truths as have been
or may be established by patent and inductive re-
search. For the most part the discoverer has been
so placed by circumstances, rather than by prede-
termined choice, as to have his work of investiga-
tion allotted to him as his daily duty, in the ful-
filment of which he is brought face to face with
phenomena into which he must inquire, and the re-
sult of that inquiry he must faithfully impart. The
progress of natural as of moral truth has been and
is progressive ; but it has pleased the author of all
truth to vary the fashion of the imparting of such
parcels thereof as he has allotted, from time to time,
for the behoof and guidance of mankind. Those
who are privileged with the faculties of discovery
are therefore to be regarded as pre-ordained instru-
ments in making known the power of God, with-
out a knowledge of which, as well as of Scripture,
we are told that we shall err. Great and marvellous
have been the manifestations of this power im-
parted to us of late years, not only in respect of the
shape, motions, and. solar relations of the earth,
but also of its age and its inhabitants. In regard
to the period during which the globe allotted to
man has revolved in its orbit, present evidence
strains the mind to grasp such sum of past time
with an effort like that by which it tries to realise
the space dividing that orbit from the fixed. stars
and remoter nebulae. Yet, during all those auras
that have passed since the Cambrian rocks were
deposited which bear the impressed record of crea-
tive power, as it was then manifested, we know,
through the interpreters of these " writings on
stone," that the earth was vivified by the sun's
light and heat, was fertilised by refreshing
showers, and washed by tidal waves. No stagna-
tion has been permitted to air or ocean. The vast
body of waters not only moved, as a whole, in or-
derly oscillations, regulated, as now, by sun and
moon, but were rippled and agitated by winds and
storms. The atmosphere was healthily influenced.
by its horizontal currents, and by ever-varying
clouds and vapours, rising, condensing, dissolving,
and falling in endless vertical circulation. With
these conditions of life, we know that life itself has
been enjoyed. throughout the same countless thou-
sands of years; and that with life, from the begin-
ning, there has been death. The earliest testimony
of a living thing, whether shell, crust, or coral, in
the oldest fossiliferous rock, is at the same time
proof that it died. At no period has the gift of life
been monopolised by a few contemporary indivi-
duals through a stagnant sameness of untold time ;
but it has been handed. over from generation to
generation, and successfully enjoyed by the myriads
that constitute the species. And herein we discern
the greater beneficence and wisdom - that through
death, whether sudden or preceded by a brief
decay, the individual enjoys the various phases of
life—healthy, assimilative growth, active youth,
and vigorous maturity, with the procreative facul-
ties and instincts to boot—and as life rises in the
scale, even to the present highest form, foreknow-
ing of his end, death is still the condition on which
are enjoyed. man's purest pleasures—the reveren-
tial love of parents—the holy affections of wedlock
—the fond yearning towards offspring. (Applause.)
It has further been given us to know, that not only
the individual but the species perishes ; that as
death is balanced by generation, so extinction has
been concomitant with creative power, which has
continued to provide a succession of species; and
furthermore, that as regards the varying forms' of
life which this planet hathwitnessed, there has been
"an advance and progress in the main," Geology
demonstrates that the creative force has not
deserted this earth during any of her epochs of
time; and that in respect to no one class of
animals has the manifestation of that force been
limited to one epoch. Not a fish that now lives but
has come into being, during a comparatively recent
period ; the existing species were preceded. by
other species, and these again by others still more
different from the present. No existing genus of
fishes can be traced beyond a moiety of known
creative time. So the creation of every class of
animals, reptiles, birds, or beasts, has been succes-
sive and continuous, from the earliest times at
which we have evidence of their existence ; crea-
tion ever compensating for extinction. Such is a
brief summary of facts most nearly interesting us
which have been demonstratively made known re-
specting our earth and its inhabitants ; and when
we reflect at how late and in how brief a period of
historical time the acquisition of such knowledge
has been permitted, we must feel that, vast as it
seems, it may be but a very small part of the patri-
mony of truth destined for the possession of future
generations. The President observed that review-
ing the proceedings, aims, and objects of the British
Association during the last 27 years was like rea-
lising.the grand philosophical dream or pre-figura-
tive vision of Francis Bacon, recounted in his " New
Atlantes," in which, for instance, certain, members
of the " six days' college" were deputed as "mer-
chants of light; to make " circuits or visits of divers
principal cities of the kingdom." The observa-
tories, Royal and other scientific societies, British
Museum, 2oological, Botanical, and Horticultural-
gardens, now- combine to realise what Bacon fore-
saw in distant perspective. The universal law of
gravitation, the circulation of the blood, the analo-
gous course of the magnetic influence, the develop-
ment and progress of chemistry, geology, and
palaeontology ; the invention and practical appli-
cation of gas, the steam-engine, photography,
telegraphy—such, in the few centuries since Bacon
wrote, have been the rewards of the faithful
followers of his rules of research. Dr. Owen
then commenced his survey of the recent progress
in the various kingdoms of science, with astro-
nomy and the physical sciences, touching suc-
cessfully on the laws of motion, gravitation,
and light ; and he observed that in Bacon's time
some of the natural sciences had not germinated.
Chymistry was then alchymy ; geology and palaeon-
tology were undreamt of ; while magnetism and
electricity had begun to be observed, and their
phenomena comprehended. and defined. About a
century later the phenomena of repulsion as well
as of attraction of lightbodies by electric substances
were noticed; and Dufay in 1733 enunciated the
principle that " electric bodies attract all those
that are not so, and repel them as soon as they are
become electric by the vicinity of the electric body."
(Applause.) Passing on to the discoveries of elec-
tricity and magnetism and the progress of the know-
ledge of their operations and laws, he said—My
estimable predecessor adverted last year to the fact
that it was in the committee rooms of the British
Association that the first step was taken towards
that great magnetic organisation which has since
borne so much fruit. Thereby it has been deter-
mined that there are periodical changes of the mag-
netic elements depending on the hour of the day, the
season of the year, and on Intervals of about ten
years. Also, that besides these regular changes
there were others of a more abrupt and seemingly
irregular character Humboldt's " magnetic
storms"—which occur simultaneously at distant
parts of the earth's surface. Major-General
than whom no one has dATIP Wire in Oils Ohl q'
research sine@ Halley first attempted (i to explain
the change in the variation of the magnetic needle,"
has proved that the magnetic storms also ,observe
diurnal, annual, and undecennial periods. But with
what phase or phenomenon of earthly or heavenlA.
bodie 3 it ma be asked, ills t o nla qet}e ileFiS

10 years to do ? The coincidence which points to,
if it does not give, the answer, is one of the most
remarkable, unexpected, and en couraging to patient
observers. For 30 years a German astronomer,
Schwabe, had vet himself the task of daily observing
and recording the appearance of the sun's disc ; in
which time he found that the spots paised through
periodic phases of increase and decrease, the length
of the period being about 10 years. A comparison
of the independent evidence of the astronomer and
magnetic observer has shown that the decennial
magnetic period coincides both in its duration and
in its epochs of maximum and minimum with the
same period observed in the solar spots. After re-
ferring to some further steps in this science, Pro-
fessor Owen said that the generalisation was estab-
lished, and with a rapidity unexampled, regard
being had to its greatness, that magnetism and
electricity are but different effects of one common

cause. This has proved the first step to still grander
abstractions, to that which conceives the reduction
of all the species of imponderable fluids of the che-
mistry of our student days, together with gravita-
tion, chemicity, and neuricity, to interchangeable
modes of action of one and file same all-pervading
life-essence. Referring to the experiments of Gal-
vani and Volta, and what had subsequently been
done in the same line, the Professor continued—

From the present state of neuro-electricity, it may
be concluded that nerve force is not identical with
electric force, but that it may be another mode of
motion of the same common force ; it is certainly a
polar force, and, perhaps, the highest form of polar
force :

" A motion which may change, but cannot die ;
An image of some bright eternity."
(Applause.) The learned Professor next proceeded
to speak of Chemistry, and observed that the present
tendency of the higher generalisations of chemistry
seems to be towards a reduction of the number of
those bodies which are called " elementary ;" it
begins to be almost more than suspected that certain
groups of So-called chemical elements are but modi-
fied forms of one another. Already natural pro-
cesses can be more economically replaced by artifi-
cial ones in the formation of a few organic com-
pounds, the " valerianic acid," for example. It is
impossible to foresee to what extent chemistry may
not ultimately, in the produCtion of things needful,
supersede the present vital agencies of nature " by
laying under contribution the accumulated forces of
past ages, which would thus enable us to obtain in.
a small manufactory, and in a few days, effects
which can be realised from present natural agencies
only when they are exerted upon vast areas of land,
and through considerable periods of time." (Ap-
plause.) Since Niepce, Herschell, Fox, Talbot,
and Daguerre founded photography, year by year
some improvement is made—some advance achieved
in this most subtle application and combination in
photicity, electricity, chemistry, and magnetism.
Last year M. Poiteven's production of plates in re-
lief, for the purpose of engraving by the action of
light alone, was cited as the latest marvel of photo-
graphy. This year has witnessed photographic
printing in carbon by M. Pretschi. Professor Owen
continued by alluding to the application of photo-
graphy for obtaining views of the moon, of the
planets, of scientific and other phenomena. After
referring to the discoveries in electro-magnetism the
lecturer continued—Remote as such profound con-
ceptions and subtle trains of thought seem to be
from the needs of every-day life, the most astound-
ing of the practical augmentation of man's power
has sprung out of them. Nothing might seem less
promising of profit than Oersted's painfully pursued
experiments, with his little magnets, voltaic pile,
and bits of copper wire. Yet out of these has
sprung the electric telegraph ! Oersted himself
saw such an application of his convertibility of
electricity into magnetism, and made arrange-
ments for testing that application to the instanta-
neous communications of signs through distances of
a few miles. The resources of inventive genius
have made it practicable for all distances, as we
have lately seen in the submergence and working
of the eleetro-magnetic cord connecting the Old
and the New World of the geographers. (Applause.)
On the 6th of August, 1858, the laying down of
upwards of 2,000 nautical miles of the telegraphic
cord, connecting Newfoundland and Ireland, was
successfully completed ; and on that day a message
of 31 words was transmitted in 35 minutes along
sinuosities of the submerged hills and valleys form-
ing the bed of the vast Atlantic. (Applause.) This
first message expressed " Glory to God in the
highest ;on earth peace, good-will towards men."
Never since the foundations of the world were laid
could be more truly said, " The depths of the
sea praise Him !" (Applause.) The practic-
ability of bringing America into electrical com-
munication with Europe has been demon-

strated ; consequently a like power of instantaneous
interchange of thought between the civilized
inhabitants of every part of the globe.becomes, in
my opinion, only a question of time. The benefits
thence to ensue for the human race can be but ina-
dequately foreseen. Some results stand out more
prominently. than others. (Applause.) The strides
made in various branches of natural history were
next passed in review. Since Bacon's day the chief
steps by which natural history had advanced to the
dignity of a science are associated with the names
of Ray, Linnmus Jussieu, Buffon, and Cuvier. By
the first two the phenomena were digested and
classified according to artificial, but conveniently
applicable methods—of necessity the precursors of
systems more expressive of the natural affinities of
plants and animals. To perfect the natural system
of plants has been the great aim of botanists since
Jussieu ; to obtain the same true insight into the
relations of animals has stimulated the labours of
zoologists since the writings of Cuvier. Three prin-
ciples (of the common ground of which we may
ultimately obtain a clearer insight) are now recog-
nised to have governed the construction of animals
—unity of plan, vegetative repetition, and fitness
for purpose. In maintenance of this proposition
the President took a wide range of illustration and
proofs, from every class of living animal, and related
many interesting experiments tending to throw
light on the mysteries of organic life. The micro-
scope and microgeology were passed under notice ;
then the President glanced at the geographical dis-
tribution of plants, with respect to which the sum
of the relations rested, he said, on the assumption
that each species had been created but once in time
and space • and that its diffusion was the result of
the law of influenced chiefly by tem-I
perature and moisture. Botany, at this phase, be-
came intimately related to climatology. Observa-
tions on the geographical distribution of indigenous
plants were generalised by dividing the horizontal
range of vegetation into zones bounded by annual
isothermal lines ; by classifying plants according
to the regions of altitude ; and by classifying them
by regions defined by the proportion of plants
species peculiar to them. The modes of enun-
ciating the laws of the geographical dis-
tribution of marine animals were very analogous
to those which had been applied to the vegetable
kingdom, which was as diversely developed on land
as was the animal kingdom in the sea. Certain
horizontal areas or provinces had been characterised
by the entire assemblage of animals and plants con-
stituting their population. The same physical con-
ditions were associated with a certain similarity be-
tween the animals of different provinces. A second
mode of expressing the ascertained facts of the geo-
graphical distribution of marine animals was by
tracts called " Homoizoic belts," bounded by cli-
matal lines. But the most interesting form of ex-
pression of the distribution of marine life was that
which paralleled the perpendicular distribution of
plants. Very much remained to be observed by
naturalists in different parts of the globe under the
guidance of these generalisations. The restrictive
laws of geographical distribution seemed least ap-
plicable to birds, yet, like the plants and marine
animals, they were similarly restricted. The laws
of geographical distribution, as affecting mamma-
lian life, had been reduced to great exactness by
observations continued since the time of Buffon.
The most important extension of this branch of
zoology had been due to recent researches and dis-
coveries of extinct species of the class mammalia.
The learned professor then proceeded to remark
upon the modifications of zoological ideas which
had been produced by palaeontology, It would seem
that the deeper we penetrated into the earth, or, in
other words, the further we receded in time, the
more completely were we absolved from the present
laws of geographical distribution. The considera-
tions arising from the modifications Afßeographical
distribution of particnlor forms or groups of animals
warned is llow inadequate must be the phenomena
connected with the present distribution of land and
sea to guide to the determination of the primary
ontological divisions of the earth's surface. But
might they not, in aiming to define the primary
zoological province of the globe, lie 40101144 g upon
a province of knowledge 14w:ald. the present capaci-
ties After §toinv observations on the probable causes
of the extinotion of species, Professor Owen re-
marked that the aboriginal laws of geographical
distribution of plants and animals had been modit
fled from of old by geological and climatal changes ;
but they had been much, mon titsiurbe_d by,mau
u43,3,1,t,,, globe, The varieties
of ;lA4 Ind wAct Akeg aistributkon ITas then consi.