The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-21 00:00:00

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

NORWICH, THURSDAY.

It was a brilliant assembly which met in the Drill Hall
last night to hear the president's address. There was not
a seat unoccupied in the long, somewhat narrow building
usually devoted, I believe, to the requirements of the City
Volunteers. The arrangements of the committee were
such that there was no necessity for crowding. Each
member of the Association desirous of being present was
able to procure beforehand a numbered ticket which
entitled the holder to a reserved seat. The
attendance of ladies was unusually large. The new pre-
sident could not have complained, either of any want of
support on the part of his brethren in science, or of the
manner in which his appearance on the platform was
hailed. All the savants at present in Norwich
were around Dr. Hooker, cordially congratulating
bins on the high position he had attained ; and when
the ex-president, the Duke of Buccleuch, rose to
introduce his successor quite a furore of applause was
created. Be it remembered that the applause was for the
new, and not for the old president, who, it must be
admitted, was slightly tedious in his address, occupying a
quarter of an hour, which lie delivered to an audience
evidently :patient, but too polite to show it. however,
though not an orator, his Grace is a courteous, kindly
man, and the amiable things he said of Dr. Hooker,
and the way in which he depreciated himself,
enabled us to forgive him his speech. Cheer after cheer
greeted the uprising of the thin, tall botanist, who com-
menced his scientific career thirty-two years ago to-clay,
after a meeting of the British Association at Newcastle,
and the only defect in whose address was the defect which
attaches to nearly all addresses,viz., that it wasbetter written
than. read. To those at the far end of the room
a large portion of what the president said must
have been entirely lost. Dr. Hooker has a
good- deal of dry humour in his composition, and
frequently raises a smile in a quiet way. lie did this,
however, quite unconsciously last night. When speaking
of the Norwich Museum, he said the city was celebrated
for " birds of prey." This caused a suppressed laugh, at
once clearly proving that some of the members of -the
Association had formed a certain opinion of the way in
which the inhabitants of the city had prepared to receive
them. Mrs. Hooker occupied a conspicuous place amongst
the audience, and was evidently very proud of her
husband.

The intelligence received here to-day that Professor
Sedgwick has met with a severe accident which will pre-
vent his appearance at the Association, has caused very
sincere regret. Professor Huxley is here, and has engaged
to deliver one of his popular addresses to the working
classes, on " A piece of chalk." I am unable to say
whether the suggestion is the professor's or was made by
the committee, hut special arrangements have been made
to afford the wives of the working men an opportunity of

Ling present.
The first soiree is to be held to-night, and, if report
speaks truly, the inhabitants of Norwich are determined
to surpass the attractions and hospitality of the two
pleasant reunions which took place at Nottingham the
year before last.

The real work of the meeting commenced this morning,
when the presidents of the various sections delivered their
opening addresses.

MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE.
In the Mathematical and Physical Science Section
the address was delivered by the president, Professor
TYNDALL, LL.D., F.R.S. Mathematics and physics,
he remarked, had been long accustomed to coalesce ;
hence their grouping in one section. The point
upon which the president desired to dilate was
the mechanism of the phenomena of nature, and
their store of force to set that mechanism going.
In illustrating his meaning, the professor reminded his
hearers that it had been supposed by some that the
Pyramids had been formed by nature. Now, however,
that idea was not entertained. They are believed to have
been erected by human beings—by external force. Now,
when a solution of common salt is slowly evaporated, the
water in the solution disappears, but the salt itself
remains behind. As evaporation continues, solidifi-
cation goes on, and we finally obtain, through the
clustering together of innumerable molecules, a finite
mass of salt of a definite form. What is this form ?
It sometimes seems a mimicry of the architecture of Egypt.
We have little pyramids built by the salt, terrace upon
terrace from base to apex, forming thus a series of steps
resembling those up which the Egyptian traveller is
dragged by his guides. How are those salt pyramids built
up? Guided by analogy, one might suppose that, swarm-
ing among the molecules of the salt, there is an invisible
population, under a master, placing the atomic blocks in
their positions. This, however, is not the scientific idea.
The scientific idea is that the molecules act upon each
other without the intervention of slave labour ; that
they attract each other and repel each other at
certain definite points, and that the pyramidal form is the
result of this play of attraction and repulsion. While,
then, the blocks of Egypt were laid down by a power
external to themselves, these molecular blocks of salt are
self-posited, being fixed in their places by the forces with
which they act upon each other. Throughout inorganic
nature we have this formative power, as Fichte would
call it—this structural energy ready to come into play, and
build the ultimate particles of matter into definite shapes.
The professor took as his second illustration a living
grain of corn. The molecules of corn, he con-
tended, were placed in position in a manner similar to
that which he had pointed out as existing in the case of
minerals. A power external to each had been at work in
producing the phenomena. In the eye of science the
animal body is just as much the product of molecular force
as the stalk and ear of corn, or as the crystal or salt of
sugar. All that has been said regarding the plant
may be re-stated with regard to the animal. Every
particle that enters into the composition of a
muscle, a nerve, or a bone, has been placed in its
position by molecular force ; and unless the existence of
law in these matters be denied, and the clement of
caprice introduced, it must be concluded that, given
the relation of any molecule of the body to its environ-
ment, its position in the body might be predicted. In
affirming that the growth of the body is mechanical,
and that thought, as exercised by us, has its correlative
in the physics of the brain, I think the position of the
materialist is stated as far as that position is a tenable
one. I think the materialist will be able finally to main-
tain this position against all attacks ; but I do not think,
as the human mind is at present constituted, that he can
pass beyond it. Ido not think he is entitled to say that
his molecular groupings and his molecular mo-
tions explain everything. In reality they explain
nothing. The utmost he can affirm is the asso-
ciation of two classes of phenomena, of whose real
bond of union he is in absolute ignorance. The problem
of the connection of body and soul is as insoluble in its
modern form as it was in the pre-scientific ages. If you
ask the materialist whence is this "matter" of which we
have been discoursing, who or what divided it into mole-
cules, who or what impressed upon them this necessity of
running into organic forms, he has no answer. Science
also is mute in reply to these questions. But if the mate-
rialist is confounded and science rendered dumb, who else
is entitled to answer? To whom has the secret been
revealed? Let us lower our heads and acknowledge our
i,e!.orance, one and all. Perhaps the mystery may
resolve itself into knowledge at some future day. Mean-
while the mystery is not without its uses. It cer-
tainly may be made a power in the human soul ; but it is
a power which has feeling, not knowledge, for its base. It
May he, and will be, and we hope is turned to account,
both in steadying and strengthening the intellect, and in
rescuing man from that littleness to which, in the struggle
for existence, or for precedence in the world, he is con-
tinually prone.