NOTES BY THE EDITOK 



ON THE 



PROGRESS OF SCIENCE FOR THE YEAR 163. 



THE thirty-third annual meeting of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science was held at Newcastle-on-Tyne, Sir William 

 Armstrong (the gun-maker) being in the chair. The meeting was 

 above the average, as respects the numbers in attendance and the 

 interest of the papers brought forward. Sir Charles Lyell was se- 

 lected as the President for 1864. 



From the annual address of the President, reviewing the recent prog- 

 ress of Science, we make the following extracts. Referring to the 

 district of Newcastle as the birth-place of Stephenson, and of locomo- 

 tives and railways, he said , " The history of railways shows what 

 grand results may have their origin in small beginnings. When coal 

 was first conveyed in this neighborhood from the pit to the shipping- 

 place on the Tyne, the pack-horse, carrying a burden of three hun- 

 dred-weight, was the only mode of transport employed. As soon as 

 roads suitable for wheeled carriages were formed, carts were introduced, 

 and this first step in mechanical appliance to facilitate transport had 

 the effect of increasing the load which the horse was enabled to carry, 

 from three hundred-weight to seventeen hundred-weight. The next 

 improvement consisted in laying wooden bare or rails for the wheels of 

 carts to run upon, and this was followed by the substitution of the four- 

 wheeled wagon for the two-wheeled cart. By this further application 

 of mechanical principles the original horse-load of three hundred-weight 

 was augmented to forty-two hundred-weight. These were important 

 results, and they were not obtained without the shipwreck of the for- 

 tunes of some men whose ideas were in advance of the times in which 

 they lived. The next step in the progress of railways was the attach- 

 ment of slips of iron to the wooden rails. Then came the iron tramway, 

 consisting of cast-iron bars of an angular section; in this arrangement, 



in 



