224 Proceedings of the BHtish Association for [Sept. 



12 Mr. Stevelly described a self-registering barometer; 

 The principle of this instrument is to suspend the mercurial 

 cistern by a mercurial hydrometer, so that it may move 

 downwards by arithmetical distances, for equal additions 

 to its weight, and vice versa. Hence, if a scale be fixed be- 

 side it, an index carried by the cistern as it falls and rises, 

 will mark the corresponding positions.* 



General Meetings. — The first general meeting was held in the 

 Rotunda, on Monday, at 8i p.m., at which it is calculated above 

 2,000 persons were present. 



Sir Thomas Brisbane, in resigning the Chair of President of the 

 Association, referred to the benefits which had already proceeded 

 from the institution of the Association. He begged to propose, as his 

 successor. Provost Lloyd, who took the Chair and addressed the meet- 

 ing at considerable length, in reference to the importance of Science, 

 and the certainty that the word and works of the Creator would 

 be found, when duly understood, to correspond with each other. 



Professor Hamilton then read the annual address. We regret 

 that want of space prevents us from inserting the whole of his elo- 

 quent speech in reference to the published reports of the Association. 

 He observed, " they belong to our own age ; they are the property 

 of ourselves as well as of our children. To stimulate the living, not 

 less than to leave a record to the unborn, was hoped for, and will be 

 attained, through those novel and important productions. In holding 

 up to us a view of the existing state of science, and of all that has 

 been done already, they show us that much is still to be done, and 

 they rouse our zeal to do it. Can any person look unmoved on the 

 tablet which they present of the brilliant discoveries of this century, 

 in any one of the regions of science ? Can he see how much has 

 been already built up, and is still in process of building, without 

 feeling himself excited to give his own aid also to the work, and to 

 be enrolled among the architects, or at least, among the workmen ? 

 Or can any one have his attention guided to the many wants that re- 

 main, can he look upon the gaps that are still unfilled, even in the most 

 rich and costly of those edifices, like the unfinished window that we 

 read of in the palace of eastern story, without longing to see those 

 wants supplied, that palace raised to a still more complete perfection, 

 without burning to draw forth all his own old treasures of thought, 

 and to elaborate them all into one new and precious offering." 



He then took a brief view of the reports in the last volume of 

 Association Reports, beginning with the paper of Professor Rogers 

 on the Geology of America. 



The object proposed by Professor Rogers was to convey a clear 

 summary of what had been ascertained concerning the geology of 

 America, whether the knowledge acquired had been communicated 

 to the public or not. This is not very difierent from the object con- 

 templated by other reporters ; but in the execution of the report it 



* The reports of the remaining sections will be given in the'su'cceeding number. 



