The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1856-08-27

Il
| That's all.
The Scientific Association at Albany.
The American Association for the Advance
ment of Science have by this time nearly closed
their anniversary exercises. We have published
from day to day very full account of their pro-
ceedings, notwithstanding the immense
pressure upon our columns-have devoted q
large portion of space to the reproduction Of the
more important papers that have been read.
| The public win understand that the comrnunica-
| tioIE made to body of this character naturally
divide themselves into two classes: the one tech
meal, such as. for instance summaries of local
| geological surveys. special archaeological dis
QUESTIONS, dissertations specific controverted
questions in zoology, problems in transcendental
mathematics exercises in the theory of astrono-
my ard aritbmetical examinations Of astronomi-
cal instruments, special chemical essays and
generally such papers as are limited in their
scope to y single point or knot in science and in
tended for the information Of the erudte: the
other more general, consisting Of broader gene
ral!zatons, theories and discoveries. which
though in many cases tolerably garnshed with
spirit which persons Of common understanding
and average education may grasp. Keeping this
distinction in view, and feeling persuaded that
brief summaries Of papers Of the former class,
were more likely, from obvious reasons, to be
deceptive than instructive, we have given them
hut little attention, while we have devoted to the
second category Of papers an amount of space
such as no daily journal has ever yet spared for
such purpose.
The most important paper presented to the As
ISOLATION at this session-if indeed il be possible
to institute strict comparison among perform
ances Of such varied character and often of
such marked excellence-is that of Professor
Agassiz ON animal Development, which is not
yet concluded. To speak in this manner a. lay
men, and not as scientific professors the subject
Of animal Development, which has engaged the
attention Of practical philosophers from the days
Of Aristotle downwards, may yet be considered
as being in an embryonic state. For we presume
that the nonsense and vagaries which were
uttered or printed on the subject up to the close
Of the eighteenth century rather Injured than
helped the cause Of truth; while even Button,
who first found solid ground in the unknown
qucksands, made no more progress than
might have been expected Of the frat dis
coverer, and moreover on more than one occa-
sion sacrificed philosophical accuracy for the sake
Of finely rounded period Bair, who since OBJ
tanned nobility as some reward for his invaluable
discoveries, made prodigious step by the detec-
ton Of eggs in mammalia; but as though, In this
oil important matter. every step must cost the
labor Of generation, the period which has
elapsed since BARS disclosures has been as IN
fruitful as that which interviewed between Button
and himself At length, the thread OF science has
been taken up anew by the greatest living natu- |
ralist Louis Agassiz; and row, we may conf |
IDENTIFY assume that he will carry the lamp Of
knowledge as far beyond Bair as Bair was be- |
yond Button His paper will doubtless lie an |
epoch in the history Of the science Of animal life
To pass from the study Of animated beings TO
that Of physics, we should say that the first place
among the papers Of this category that have been
read before the association belongs to Professor
Henry's Essay on Acoustics, as applied TO pub |
lie buildings We published this paper in full last
week: and we concur with our correspondent in
suggesting that every architect and builder should
lay il aside carefully for future reference. We
have no hesitation in saying that il supcrsedes
and renders useless oil that has been written on
the subject Of acoustics up TO the present time
II contains ideas novel and striking such. for
instance. as the review Of architecture OF Greece
which our blind builders have so insanely endea
vorcd to copy. And il lays down with such
cleafness and precision the rules that arc to b
followed in the construction Of buildings intended
for public assemblies that hereafter no builder
can he held legally blameless If his structures
err in this respect
Among the papers which commend themsalve
to public favor more by the interest Of the theoie
and speculations they contain than by any prac.
tical benefits they confer we must mention DR..
Winslow's essays on volcanoes and Professor
Danas disquistion on geological Development.
We will not venture to assert an implicit faith in
the soundness Of the theories 50 boldly advanced
in the former but, without doubt. il contains
more facts. and more close reasoning
than any other paper on the matter
that II extant. There are in existence |
three or four special works on the subject of vol
canoes and earthquakes, dhd host Of papers in
the various collections Of philosophical transac-
Iion7i bit we dovb! whether any Of them con