SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS OF CARLSRUHE. 357 



however, arrived too late to exhibit to the greater number of the 

 physicists, already departed, the beautiful apparatus of induction 

 which he had brought with him, whose effects considerably surpass 

 those of the apparatus which he had presented on the occasion of his 

 competition for the prize of the electric pile, and which had procured 

 for its author well-merited encouragement and a prize of the Academy 

 of Sciences. 



The Congress was formally opened Thursday, October 16, at half 

 after ten in the forenoon, in the presence of their royal highnesses the 

 Grand Duke and Duchess, at the botanic garden of the Orangery, a 

 magnificent structure decorated for the occasion, and surmounted by 

 the national flags of the different savants present at the Congress. 

 After addresses of welcome and inauguration from the "Geschaefts- 

 fuhrer," Drs. Eisenlohr and Volz, one might have expected that the 

 general session would have been adjourned in order to proceed to the 

 installation of sections and the formation of bureaus; but, though the 

 thermometer marked 104° Fah., and the heat, as well as the fatigue 

 of their recent journeying, greatly incommoded the assistants, first 

 one and then another, and finally a third orator were to be listened to, 

 descanting on the generalities of science, chiefly on the question so 

 much debated, of the alliance of faith with reason, until those present, 

 who under other circumstances might have been disposed to acknow- 

 ledge the great ingenuity with which the topics were treated, found 

 themselves in the situation of men who, worn down in body and mind, 

 aspire only after an adjournment which seems forever to flee before them 

 like a mirage. Meanwhile the Orangery was crowded, and a heavy 

 atmosphere, of which the orator alone seemed insensible, weighed upon 

 the auditory. Still their royal highnesses maintained their place, and 

 alone appeared to share nothing of the general fatigue, though the 

 Grand Duche'ss had been obliged to have recourse to her parasol as a 

 shelter from the solar rays. 



This continued till three in the afternoon, when we were, at last, at 

 liberty to withdraw to our respective sections ; the bureaus were formed, 

 and the order of the ensuing day was arranged. 



The first day was terminated by a banquet, followed (by order of 

 the government, and in honor of the members of the Congress) by a 

 representation of the Antigone of Sophocles. Similar alternations of 

 scientific conferences with festive reunions, of which latter, it may 

 be said, that they were allowed to entrench to too great an extent on 

 the precious time due to the former, occupied the succeeding days of 

 the Congress. Thrice only was a general session convened, on which 

 occasions ^the author was too much occupied with the special pursuits, 

 in which he bore a part, to attend, and shall only mention that, in 

 the second of these sessions, Koningsberg was designated as the place 

 of assemblage for the year 1859. 



Having given these details, as characteristic features of the late 

 Congress, we gladly pass to a consideration of its labors. 



The group of sciences represented on this occasion was divided into 

 ten sections, in the following order: Geology and mineralogy ; Botany 

 and vegetable physiology ; Mathematics, astronomy, and mechanics; 

 Physics; Chemistry ; Anatomy and Physiology ; Zoology, (this science, 



