The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-09 00:00:00

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THE CHURCH ASSOCIATION AT,
!MANCHESTER.
•
The Unirch Xesociatiou at its Confetti-fa o 9 tile-au-TA
Congress, has been considering the question of o'
hoods." Dr. Wm. Ogle, who introduced the matter, atih,
Whose remarks were received with grei4 favour..tal4
he bad visited home of these institutions, `fait
corresponded with others, and, without exception,
fonnd that they were not Open, and not straiglatforl
ward ; for any question he put to them was alwaie,
evaded. If ho asked for the report it was out of print; or
for the rules, he was told that the rules only applied to
religious life. If he received letters from them they were
signed ".Mother Superior," or "Sister Susan." There
were many crooked points about them; and should
bo condemned; but in the self-devotion of their indivi-
dual agents there was something for them to learn.
None of these institutions or nursing associations would
stand the test he Lad proposed. Ile was bound to ndmit
that there was an eatnestuess and comprehensiveness in
them, Lut ho would not say thoroughness, and in some
respects they had much to learn from the way
they were conduct() 1. Re had beard that there were
matins, terses, and vespers to Jo braid in them, but as
a common sense Christian and as an Englishman, ho
did not consider that to mean a spirit of prayer. 11l
they could get a good institution conducted in a proper and
straightforward manner, and have rules in black and white,
for nurses not sisters of mercy—for be believed they ought
to call a spade a spade, and a nurse a nurse—he thought that
a great work would be accomplished.
The question of the position of the laity in the Church was also
discussed, and the association seems to have been pretty
unanimous in its opinion that the safety and welfare of the
Church in the future depended upon the introduction of the
lay element into her councils.
The first subject kept before the meeting was that Ritua-
lism must be put down—the first object of the association.

OCCLUSION.
Nt,4

It is stated that the Master of the Mint -has
recently discovered an entirely new property of metals.
Haying occasion to minutely analyse one of those curious
messengers from the skies termed meteorites, he
noticed that in addition to certain common metallic
substances it contained hid up or occluded among its
particles the gaseous element hydrogen. Following
up this observation, he soon found that the metals
palladium, platinum, and iron, though well hammered
and, in common language, perfectly compact, absorbed
many times their volume of various gases in which
they were placed. Not only were these gases not
driven off when the pieces of metal were heated, but
exposure to high temperatures greatly facilitated
absorption. This seemed to indicate that the gas
was not in a mere condition of condensation
within the pores of the metal, but had passed into some
solid state of combination, an assumption that was con.
firmed on exposing palladium containing hydrogen for two,
months in a tube from which the air had been pumped,
not a trace of gas escaping from the metal
into the vacuum during that period. That this
property of occlusion is something tangible and
powerful may be gathered from the statement
that, under favourable circumstances, a piece of
of metal can be made to take up several hundred—in one
case nearly a thousand—times its bulk of a gas. To speak of
the value of this discovery would be premature. Let it
stand as a great fact of nature, the application of which
to the wants of man and the incidents of every-day life,
will follow in due time. Meanwhile we would honour its
discoverer, Thomas Graham, Master of the Mint, and
high priest of science.