1865.] DAWSON — THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 413 



business. The proceedings open with a public address by the 

 president for the year. The Association then divides into sections, 

 each taking up a special subject, and organising itself with a presi- 

 dent, vice-presidents, and committee. The sections at the Bir- 

 mingham meeting were those of mathematical and physical science ; 

 chemical science ; geology ; zoology, botany and physiology ; geo- 

 graphy and ethnology ; economic science and statistics ; and lastly 

 mechanical science. These sections are known respectively by the 

 letters A to G. Each has its own room, and the meetings take 

 place simultaneously, so that persons interested in different sub- 

 jects are often sorely perplexed by the claims of rival papers ; and 

 it is not uncommon, after a popular paper, to see a section-room 

 almost emptied, by the rush to be in time for some other topic of 

 interest, in another section. 



The committees of the sections meet every morning to arrange 

 the business for the next day. The section meetings usually 

 extend without intermission from 1 1 to 3 or 4 in the afternoon,, 

 and the evenings are occupied with social entertainments and lec- 

 tures. It has of late years been the practice to organise excursions 

 to local objects of interest on the Saturday, instead of the close of 

 meetings as formerly, keeping the sections, or some of them, open 

 at the same time. At the Birmingham meeting there were several 

 interesting excursions of this kind ; but there was much difference 

 of opinion as to the propriety of having such excursions on a regular 

 day of meeting : some objecting to this, others saying that the 

 sections should adjourn ; the result being that those which did not 

 adjourn were very thinly attended. Those who come for scientific 

 purposes would prefer the sections ; those who love pleasure, the 

 excursions ; and the local authorities do not wish to postpone the 

 excursions to the end, knowing that, in this way, they lose most 

 of the leading men. 



The evening entertainments are not merely great crushes 

 of well-dressed people ; but they furnish an opportunity for meet- 

 ing friends, and they are made the occasion of exhibiting many objects 

 of interest in art, in manufactures, and in natural history. One 

 of the evenings at Birmingham was occupied with an interesting 

 lecture by Mr. Jukes, of the Geological Survey, on the probable 

 extent and duration of the coal of South Staffordshire. 



In organising the sections, any person, who is a member of a 

 society publishing transactions, may be placed on the committees, 

 and a few leading men are appointed vice-presidents. In some 



