698 



TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



decade after decade, against the bitter op- 

 position of an elsewliere powerful interest, 

 among a not particularly visionary people, 

 among a people, in fact, of more than the 

 average independence of judgment and prac- 

 tical hard common sense, must amount to 

 something. This inference I assert to be a 

 correct one. The people of Vermont have 

 sustained the prohibitory law for over thirty 

 years, and will continue to sustain it — not as 

 a lovely theory or a " barren ideality," not 

 as a panacea for all social evils, not as ne- 

 cessarily the best thing for all States and all 

 communities, in their existing conditions ; 



but as the system which is better for tliem 

 than any other they know of ; as a system 

 which in spite of the hindrances, delects, 

 and perversities which largely obstruct all 

 moral effort and must be expected, especial- 

 ly, to hinder an effort to curb the gratifica- 

 tion of an appetite as general and powerful 

 as that for strong drink, does practically, 

 here in Vermont, restrict the liciuor-traffic 

 to a greater extent, and so proves itself a 

 better ally to moral effort to resist intem- 

 perance than any other method of restriction 

 they have ever tried, or seen tried elsewhere. 

 George Grentille Benedict. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



MEETING OF TUE AMEHICAN SCIEN- 

 TIFIC ASSOCIATION. 



THE tliirty - third meeting of the 

 American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science will take place 

 this year at Philadelphia, beginning on 

 Thursday, the 4th of September, un- 

 der the presidency of Professor J. P. 

 Lesley, Chief of the Geological Survey 

 of Pennsylvania. In order to allow 

 an interchange of courtesies between 

 the American and the British Associa- 

 tions, the latter of which meets the 

 previous week in Montreal, the Ameri- 

 can meeting is put at a later date than 

 usual. The Council of the British As- 

 sociation has invited the fellows of the 

 American Association to join in the 

 meeting at Montreal on the footing of 

 honorary members ; and the American 

 Association and the local committee of 

 Philadelphia have invited the members 

 of the British Association and their 

 relatives who may be with them to take 

 part in the Philadelphia meeting. In- 

 vitations have been sent to the leading 

 scientific societies abroad, asking them 

 to send delegations to the Philadelphia 

 meeting, so tliat it is expected to be 

 largely international in its character^ 

 and it is likely that steps will be taken 

 to form an International Scientific As- 

 sociation. An International Electrical 

 Exhibition, under the auspices of the 

 Franklin Institute, will be open at the 



I same time, and the American Institute 

 of Mining Engineers and the Pennsyl- 

 vania State Agricultural Society will 

 hold sessions at Philadelphia during 

 the same week. On various accounts, 

 therefore, the occasion will be one cif 

 unusual interest, and the meeting will 

 probably be fully attended, while the 

 large local committee of Philadelphia 

 may be trusted to make every arrange- 

 ment possible to conduce to the pleas- 

 ure and profit of the visitors. 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION— INTERNA- 

 TIONAL SCIENCE. 



The British Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science holds its fifty- 

 fourth annual meeting this year at 

 Montreal, commencing on the 27th of 

 August under the presidency of Pro- 

 fessor Lord Rayleigh, of the Universi- 

 ty of Cambridge. This is, perhaps, the 

 largest and most powerful scientific so- 

 ciety in the world, and its coming from 

 Europe to America is a new departure 

 in its history, of such considerable sig- 

 nificance that we may profitably give 

 some attention to it. 



The British Association was estab- 

 lished in 1831, over half a century ago, 

 and held its first meeting in the city of 

 York. It came into existence in obe- 

 dience to a growing demand for what 

 may be termed scientific expansion, or 



