1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 219 



hugged to the breasts of those responsible for this happy condition 

 of affairs. Then passing to more famihar ground, the President 

 dealt with the chemistry of the ancients as recently discussed 

 by Prof. Berthelot ; passed an eulogy on the London County 

 Council, which views a little chemistry pure and simple as a valu- 

 able means of education, and expressed the hope that Australia 

 would follow suit. The conclusion of his address was taken up 

 with a review of Argon and Helium, and the recent remarkable 

 advances in the liquefaction of gases. 



Other Australian Addresses 



Professor Hutton, the President of the Geological and Mineralogi- 

 cal Section, took for his theme " The early life on the Earth," 

 imagining that the first living organisms were evolved near the 

 surface of a warm ocean, which contained abundance of hydro- 

 carbons and atmospheric air in solution, and which was agitated by 

 wind and other meteorological agencies. Plants formed the army 

 of invasion that conquered the land. Prof. C. J. Martin, who, 

 on the lamented death of Prof. Jeffrey Parker, undertook the 

 delivery of the Presidential Address on Biology, dealt with the 

 relations of morphology and physiology. We are unable to give the 

 points of his address, as neither of our authorities report it owing to 

 its " highly technical character." Sir James Hector, as President of 

 the Geographical Section, called attention to the great advances made 

 of recent years in submarine geography, laying particular stress on 

 the Nansen expedition, the results of which he summed up, while wait- 

 ing for the full scientific reports, as follows : — That the North Polar 

 Ocean was not a shallow sea with scattered islands distributing ice- 

 bergs, but a profound ocean basin ; and that there were definite move- 

 ments of the great ice-cakes, which crossed and did not merely 

 circulate round the Pole. He also referred to the great value of 

 the Elder and Home expeditions to Central and Western Australia, 

 and the steady and considerable extension of the Artesian well 

 system, which was of great promise to the future advancement of 

 Australia. Mr E. H. Mathews, in the section of Ethnology, dealt 

 with the various pictographs of the Australian aborigines and with 

 Australian initiation ceremonies. The Government statist of Tas- 

 mania, Mr R. M. Johnston, President of Economic Science, took as 

 the subject of his address " Consumable Wealth." 



Earthquakes in Australia 



Mr George Hogben, in presenting the report of the Seismological 

 Committee to the Australasian Association, referred to the work 



