PROCEKDINGS OF THK MJSBTING. XV 



was the utility of the proposed undertaking, that, in the very- 

 infancy of the Association, there were found several distinguished 

 individuals, and chiefly from the University of Cambridge, who 

 had not even been present at the first meeting, but who volun- 

 teered to undertake some of the most valuable of those reports 

 which appeared in the first volume of the Proceedings of the As- 

 sociation. As Mr. Whewell enumerated these in his last year's 

 address, I will not further allude to them. It ought, however, 

 specially to be observed, that these reports diifer entirely from 

 the short systematic treatises on scientific subjects with which 

 the press teems. They are not primarily intended for the gene- 

 ral reader — they are not meant for the purpose of popularizing 

 technical subjects ; their main object is so to classify existing 

 discoveries as to lead the individual who is prepared to grapple 

 with its difficulties, to start with the most complete and accurate 

 knowledge of what has already been done in any particular sci- 

 ence, — not intended itself to contain that knowledge, but merely 

 to serve the purpose of a catalogue raisonnee, by means of a 

 lucid analysis and arrangement, at the same time (and here is 

 the great necessity of securing the cooperation of persons di- 

 stinguished in the several departments,) that the report should 

 point out the most important questions which remain for solu- 

 tion, whether by direct experiment or by mathematical investi- 

 gation. 



" The second volume of Reports has amply justified the ex- 

 pectations with which it was hailed ; and whilst the first was 

 chiefly occupied with reports upon great and leading divisions 

 of science, we have here several happy specimens of a still 

 greater division of labour, by the discussion within moderate 

 limits of some particular provinces. Thus, Mr. Taylor has 

 treated of one particular and most interesting question in Geo- 

 logy, the formation of Mineral Veins, — one of the most impor- 

 tant, in a theoretical point of view, which could have been stated, 

 and which, from its intimate connexion with commercial specu- 

 lation, might have been expected in a country like ours to have 

 been more specifically treated of than it has been. It strictly 

 belongs to the dynamics of the science, to which, since the time 

 of Hutton, but little attention has been paid until very recently. 

 By the exertions, however, of Mr. Carne, of Dr. Boase, and Mr. 

 Henwood of Cornwall, whose researches are to form one point 

 of discussion in the Geological Section at the present meeting, 

 the question of the origin of mineral veins, though probably by 

 no means decided, has been brought prominently forward. 



" That electric agency was concerned in the disposition of 

 metalliferous veins can scarcely be doubted ; and the connexion 



