498 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



peculiar directness by psychological inquiry. 

 There is, also, a function truly philosophical 

 which only the investigator of mind is in a posi- 

 tion to discharge, the task, namely, of collating 

 and sifting the results of tbe special sciences 

 with a view alike to insight and conduct. But 

 MIND will, ftirlher, expressly seek to foster 

 thought of hold sweep sweep that can never he 

 too bold, so be that it statts from a well-ascer- 

 tained ground of experience, and looks to come 

 again there to rest." 



The first number well justifies the prom- 

 ises here made, and there is every reason to 

 believe that the succeeding issues will do 

 so in a still greater degree. 



Report of the Forty-foitrth Meeting of 

 THE British Association for the Ad- 

 vancement OF Science : held at Belfast, 

 in August, 1874. London : John Mur- 

 ray, IS'ZS. 



One of the most valuable features of the 

 yearly volumes of the British Association 

 is the publication of extended " Reports on 

 Researches in Science," which are annually 

 made on special subjects by small commit- 

 tees of eminent men who are themselves 

 working in those subjects. Tlius, in the 

 volume before us, there are no less than 

 thirty such reports, occupying about 360 

 octavo pages. The Association often aids 

 in an investigation by the appropriation of 

 a small sum of money, and in return it 

 receives a report on the progress of the 

 work, besides the gratification of having 

 assisted some research that otherwise might 

 have been long delayed. 



For instance, since 1848 reports have 

 been given upon the observations of Lumi- 

 nous Meteors, which contain nearly all the 

 known facts relating to meteorites, arranged 

 in an orderly form, and in some degree 

 sifted. This report for 18Y3-'74 contains 90 

 pages. 



Reports on Earthquake Phenomena, on 

 Tides, on the Waves of the Atmosphere, on 

 Magnetic and Meteorological Observations, 

 and many other similar subjects, are to be 

 found in the pages of the past volumes, and 

 often the facts of such reports are collected 

 nowhere else. From the present volume v.e 

 extract almost at random the titles of a few 

 of these reports, which may serve to show 

 the nature of the subjects which are yearly 

 brought to the attention of the meetings : 

 ** Report on the Recent Progress and Pres- 



ent State of Systematic Botany " (27 pages) ; 

 " On the Rainfall of the British Isles for 

 1873-'74 " (43 pages) ; " On the Treatment 

 and Utilization of Sewage" (14 pages); 

 " On Cyclone and Rainfall Periodicities in 

 Connection with Sun-spots " (23 pages) ; 

 " On the Erratic Blocks of England and 

 Wales " (8 pages) ; " On Instruments for 

 measuring the Speed of Ships " (9 pages), 

 etc. The committees making these re- 

 ports counted among their members the 

 most eminent men of England Lyell, Lub- 

 bock, Boyd-Dawkins, Bentham, W. K. Chf- 

 ford, Balfour Stewart, Clerk-Maxwell, Hux- 

 ley, Galton, Sir William Thomson, Huggins, 

 Lockyer, De la Rue, and many others 

 scarcely less known. With such subjects 

 reported on by so eminent speciaHsts, it is 

 easy to see how these reports have come to 

 have so high a value. 



The Belfast meeting was attended by 

 nearly 2,000 members, and over 2,000 was 

 received from fees, etc. ; 1,080 was appro- 

 priated for scientific purposes ; 400 for 

 various works of the section of mathemat- 

 ics and physics (printing mathematical ta- 

 bles, rainfall and meteor reports, tliermo- 

 electricity, etc.) ; 155 for researches in 

 chemistry ; 280 for various geological ex- 

 plorations ; 170 for biology ; 100 for the 

 Palestine Exploration Fund ; 25 for sta- 

 tistics (economic effect of combinations of 

 laborers or capitalists) ; and 50 for instru- 

 ments for measuring the speed of ships. 

 This abstract will give some idea of the 

 practical benefit to science which the Asso- 

 ciation gives, and it is also instructive as 

 showing for what purposes its money is 

 spent. 



The last 232 pages of the volume are de- 

 voted to an abstract of (he proceedings of 

 the sections. We find that the section of 

 mathematics and physics occupies 44 pages, 

 the chemical section has 22 pages, geologi- 

 cal 29 pages, biological 64 pages, geographi- 

 cal 24 pages, statistical 27 pages, and final- 

 ly that the mechanical section occupies 20 

 pages. In a rough way this shows the 

 amount of attention paid to the varioua 

 branches at the 1874 meeting, and it is ac- 

 curate enough to indicate the great amount 

 of work now doing in biology in England, 

 which is a noteworthy feature of this and 

 preceding reports. 



