The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-27 00:00:00

~~~

THE B.R.MISII ASSO,

ON.

NORWICH, WEDNESDAY.
To Speak for the nonce without due regard to the classi•
calities, the executive committee are thrown on their beam
ends. The corporation won't vote supplies! The customary
thing when the Association visits a particular town is for
the municipal body to grant a sum from the public funds
towards defraying the heavy expenses incurred. The
application of the committee, upon whom the whole of the
trouble of making and carrying out the necessary arrange.
ments has devolved, has been point blank refused. With not a
stiver will the corporation part, pleading that there is ne
precedent in their history for such an expenditure. This
is pleasant for the executive, and especially for the mayor,
who I am told has hitherto paid for everything out of his
own pocket. To say the least of it, the refusal of the cor-
poration is ungenerous, for the sojourn for more than a
week of so large a number of visitors as have attended the
meeting this year must have given a perceptible impetus
to the trade of the city.
Of the efforts made by the committee for the accommoaa-
tion of the Association it is impossible to speak too highly.
We shall thank them heartily enough at the general meet-
ing presently, but thanks will do little to recoup them
their loss. I believe it was fully expected that the Town
Council would have contributed a couple of hundred pounds.
As one of the local secretaries feelingly remarked, they
cheerfully voted the sum of £BOO towards the expenses
incurred by the visit of the Prince of Wales, and now
object to give a shilling for the entertainment of the Asso-
ciation. This would seem to skew that the members of
the corporation are more loyal than learned.

Had itnotbeen for the experiments, Dr. Odling's lecture
on "Reverse Chemical Actions" last night, clever as it
was, would have been voted somewhat slow. There was
a very fair attendance in the Drill Hall, quite as large as
could4have been expected, considering the festivities going
on at St. Andrew's Hall. Dr. Hooker introduced the lecturer,
modestly saying that he himself was totally ignorant of
the subject, which was indeed so new that he had not been
able to obtain any information upon it from his chemical
friends. Dr. Odling then took possession of the
rostrum behind a very formidable array of retorts
and other appliances of the laboratory, and for
an hour -and a half discoursed very learnedly on the
mysteries of chemical combinations, and demonstrated by
a series of brilliant experiments the immense degree of heat
produced by the union of oxygen and hydrogen gases.
This led the doctor to explain what we were to under•
stand by reverse chemical actions—viz., those actions
which did not take place by themselves, but were pro-
duced by external force, which force became stored up in
the products themselves. The delight of the ladies at the
experiments was immense, a sentiment which was shared
by the reporters, who, sitting immediately under
the platform, felt that while they were taking
notes for the benefit of the public, they were in danger of
becoming victims to science from flying sparks and escape
ing flints. The Mayor, who, it may be stated, is an
almost universal benefactor—for is he not the maker
of Colman's patent mustard ?—raised a good laugh
at the end of the lecture by stating that the
local secretaries had effected an extra insurance on the
building, under the anticipation that it would be burnt to
the ground, and expressing the gratitude of those' on the
platform that it had passed off without a blow-up. Such
a catastrophe would certainly have been most disastrous,
for sitting immediately behind the lecturer were the bishop
of the diocese and the president of the Association. The
men whose forte is chemistry, I noticed, retired to
a greater distance. No sooner was the chemical disser•
tation concluded than a rush was made to the soirée, the
arrangements of which were a reproduction of those on
Thursday, excepting that the officials of the cloak-room
were changed, and we felt, in confiding our hats and
coats to their keeping, that we were not consigning
them to a bourne whence they might never return. The
band happening to strike up a popular piece of dance
music, a dozen enterprising couples soon cleared a space
in the ball and figured away to their hearts' content.

This afternoon the Mayor entertains the principal mem-
bers of the Association at a banquet in St. Andrew's Hall,
and in the evening Professor Huxley delivers his lecture
to the working classes on "A piece of chalk." This, how-
ever, is not connected with the Association, the official
programme of which concluded with the proceedings at
the general meeting reported below, to-morrow being
devoted solely to excursions.

PHOTOGRAPHS OF PLANTS.
Professor KARL KocH called the attention of the mem•

hers of the department of Zoology and Botany to the
necessity for having photographs in order to carry out
the systematic comparison of placts, for some plants when
dead gave only a bad idea of physiognomy. The pro.
fessor pointed out that in the Botanic Gardens at Berlin
there was a collection of photographs of plants, and the
possessors of gardens and greenhouses were invited to con-
tribute photographs of interesting trees and plants.

OC.TATD