ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 7 



has this been all : Chemistry has come in with her aid to do the work 

 of Nature, and as the supply of guano becomes exhausted, limited as 

 its production must be to a few rainless regions of the world, the im- 

 portance of artificial mineral manures will increase. Already con- 

 siderable capital is invested in the manufacture of superphosphates of 

 lime, formed by the solution of bones in sulphuric acid. Of these 

 artificial manures not less than 60,000 tons are annually sold in En- 

 gland alone ; and it is a curious example of the endless interchange of 

 services between the various sciences that geology has contributed 

 her quota to the same important end ; and the exuvice and bones of 

 extinct animals, found in a fossil state, are now, to the extent of from 

 12,000 to 15,000 tons, used to supply annually the same fertilizing 

 materials to the soil." 



The following is the conclusion of the address : 



"It is sometimes proudly asked, who shall set bounds to Science, 

 or to the widening circle of her horizon? But why should we try to 

 do so, when it is enough to observe that that horizon, however it 

 may be enlarged, is an horizon still a circle beyond which, however 

 wide it be, there shine, like fixed stars without a parallax, eternal 

 problems in which the march of science never shows any change of 

 place. If there be one fact by which science reminds us more per- 

 petually than another, it is that we have faculties impelling us to ask 

 questions which we have no powers enabling us to answer. What 

 better lesson of humility than this what better indication of the 

 reasonableness of looking to a state in which this discrepancy shall 

 be done away when we shall ' know, even as we are known!' " 



The annual meeting of the German Association of Scientific !Men 

 and Physicians for 1855, called at Vienna, was postponed to another 

 year, on account of the disturbances caused by the prevalence of 

 the cholera in Germany. 



The Scientific Congress of France held its twenty-second annual 

 session at Le Puy, on the 16th of September. 



Some time since, the British Association appointed a special par- 

 liamentary committee to inquire whether any measures could be 

 adopted by the Government or Parliament, that would improve the 

 position of science or its cultivators in this country. A report pre- 

 pared by this committee, founded upon the opinions of various persons, 

 eminent in science, has been published, and contains the following 

 recommendations:!. That reforms shall take place gradually in the 

 system of any university which do not at present exact a certain pro- 

 ficiency in physical science as a condition preliminary to obtaining a 

 degree. 2. That the number of Professors of Physical Science at the 

 universities shall be increased, where necessary, but that, at all events, 

 by a redistribution of subjects, or other arrangements, provision should 



