X54t Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



and present state of various branches of science, which had been pre- 

 sented at the Meeting of last year : he noticed summarily the publi- 

 cation of those Reports, and the contents of some of them, dwelling 

 particularly on those of Mr. Whewell's own Report on the Progress 

 of Mineralogy : and, finally, announced that His Majesty and the 

 Government, wishing to manifest their attachment to science, and to 

 confer some mark of royal favour upon an illustrious philosopher, have 

 conferred upon Dr. Dalton a pension out of the Civil List. 



Mr. Whewell then addressed the assembly at great length, in re- 

 ference to the objects of the Association, and read his exposition of 

 its preceding transactions. This he subsequently printed, and pre- 

 sented to the Members. 



The President then rose, and expressed his personal thanks to Mr. 

 Whewell for that Report. He (the President) had addressed the 

 Meeting, he observed, as Members of the British Association ; but 

 many of them were not as yet Members at all. The Committee had 

 the power of admitting new Members ; but that admission must be 

 ratified by the General Meeting. Now if the proposition were made to 

 this Meeting by some gentleman, they could confirm what the Com- 

 mittee had done. This might be carried by acclamation, by a show 

 of hands, or, if they pleased, they could call for a scrutiny upon every 

 vote ; but if they dare trust their delegates, and carry the motion at 

 once by acclamation, they would, by that act, create three or four 

 hundred new philosophers; which would be doing a' great work. 



It was then moved by Mr. John Taylor, seconded by Professor Airy, 

 and carried, — "That the persons whose names had been enrolled by 

 the Committee since the last Meeting, be elected Members of this 

 Association." 



The President then offered another suggestion to the Meeting, 

 which was, "That the Council shall have authority to elect Members 

 of this Association ; eacli case being subject to the approbation of the 

 next General Meeting." 



Mr. Murchison moved, and Professor Buckland seconded, this Re- 

 solution, which was adopted. 



After the appointment of the Auditors, it being half-past 3 o'clock, 

 the Meeting was adjourned till the evening. 



The Association met again in the evening, at 8 o'clock, in the 

 Senate- House. 



Mr. John Taylor read a Report on the subject of Mineral Veins ; 

 in which he went largely into the history of the science, and the dif- 

 ferent theories which have been propounded by philosophers on this 

 subject. There are three leading hypotheses : first, that which sup- 

 poses metallic veins to have been open fissures, caused by some erup- 

 tion, and filled up with various matters, by aqueous solution, from 

 above : the second theory is, that these fissures were formed by vio- 

 lence done to the strata, and filled up by matter from within the earth, 

 forced up by heat, and becoming a mineral substance j the third theory 

 is, that the whole formation was contemporaneous with the rocks 

 themselves. Each of these theories was investigated in the Report, 



