Meeting of British Association, 387 



The appearance of spots on the sun's disc is also another interest- 

 ing feature in this enquiry, in connection with the Magnetism of 

 the Earth. 



At an early period of Electrical investigations, Priestley enquired, 

 11 if the empty space above the clouds might not always be filled 

 with Electricity ? and he asks may not Thunders, Earthquakes be 

 owing to the re-establishment of an equilibrium ?" 



It remains for modern investigations to answer these important 

 questions. 



St. Martin, Isle Jfisus, 

 1st October, 1859. 



BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF 

 SCIENCE, ABERDEEN, SEPTEMBER 14, 1859* 



A large and pleasant Meeting of the Members of the British 

 Association began on Wednesday, at Aberdeen, under the im- 

 mediate auspices of the Prince Consort, whose speech occupied 

 the evening, and whose presence was rendered still more gracious 

 by an invitation of the Members to an excursion and lunch at 

 Balmoral during the week. The old Scottish loyalty broke out in 

 the counties adjoining Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire. Two 

 thousand tickets were speedily sold, and by Tuesday morning 

 every available nook in the Music Hall being filled, the sale of 

 Associate tickets had to be stopped. Here was a flush of pros- 

 perity ! The local arrangements were admirable — reviving dreams 

 of that old Scottish hospitality so amusingly celebrated by Ben 

 Johnson and Taylor, the Water Poet. The Clubs and News- 

 Rooms were generally thrown open to the scientific visitors. Non- 

 resident Members of the Association got admission to the Northern 

 Club, and the Union Club, Market Street, without the forms of 

 introduction. The Committees of the Athenaeum News Rooms 

 and of the News Rooms, Corn Exchange, opened their rooms to 

 all Members of the Association on producing their tickets. A 

 crowd of Exhibitions also were open to Members on producing 

 their tickets : — such as the Exhibition of Historical Portraits and 

 Objects of Antiquity, in the Music Hall Building, — the Photo- 

 graphic Exhibition, in the Music Hall Buildings, — Collections 

 illustrating the Geology of the North of Scotland, in the Museum 



* Cited from the Athenaeum. 



