Fe eeece 
ADDRESS. xli 
colleagues, is an explosive substance, which is stated to exercise a stronger 
projectile force than gunpowder, to possess the great advantages over it of 
producing little or no smoke or noise, and of scarcely soiling fire-arms ; whilst 
no amount of wet injures this new substance, which is as serviceable after 
being dried as in its first condition. The mere mention of these properties, 
to which our associate lays claim for his new material, is sufficient to sug- 
gest its extraordinary value in warlike affairs, as also in every sort of sub- 
terranean blasting, and may well lead me to say, that this discovery, which 
may almost rival the inyention of the substance which it is destined to sup- 
plant, will signally mark this meeting at Southampton. But, as if British 
chemistry were not to be outdone, here also there will be promulgated, for 
the first time, the very remarkable discovery of our countryman Mr. Grove, 
of the decomposition of water by heat. 
Professor Matteucci of Modena, who joined us at the York meeting, and 
then explained his various new and delicate investigations in electro-phy- 
siology, again favours us with a visit, as the representative of the Italian 
Philosophical Society of Modena and of the University of Pisa. This 
ingenious philosopher, who has measured the effect of galvanic currents in 
exciting through the nerves mechanical force in the muscles, doubtless brings 
with him such interesting contribution as will add great additional interest 
to the proceedings of the Physiological Section. 
Among these sources of gratification, no one has afforded me sincerer 
pleasure than to welcome hither the undaunted Siberian explorer, Professor 
von Middendorff. Deeply impressed as I am with the estimation in 
which science is held by the illustrious ruler of the empire of Russia, I 
cannot but hope that the presence of this traveller, so signalized by his 
enterprising exploits, may meet with a friend in every Englishman who is 
acquainted with the arduous nature of his travels. To traverse Siberia 
from south to north and from west to east; to reach by land the extreme 
northern headland of Taimyr; to teach us, for the first time, that even 
to the latitude of 72° north, trees with stems extend themselves in that 
meridian ; that crops of rye, more abundant than in his native Livonia, grow 
beyond Yakutsk, on the surface of that frozen subsoil, the intensity and 
measure of cold in which he has determined by thermometric experiments ; 
_to explain, through their language and physical form, the origin of tribes now 
far removed from their parent stock; to explore the far eastern regions of 
the Sea of Ohkotsk and of the Shantar Isles; to define the remotest north- 
eastern boundary between China and Russia; and finally to enrich St. Peters- 
burgh with the natural productions, both fossil and recent, of all these wild 
and untrodden lands, are the exploits for which the Royal Geographical So- 
ciety of London has, at its last meeting, conferred its Gold Victoria Medal on 
this most successful explorer. Professor von Middendorff now visits us to con- 
verse with our naturalists most able to assist him, and to inspect our museums, 
in which, by comparison, he can best determine the value of specific cha- 
racters before he completes the description of his copious accumulations; and 
I trust that during his stay in England he will be treated with as much true 
hospitality as I have myself received at the hands of his kind countrymen. 
It is impossible for me to make this allusion to the Russian empire, without 
assuring you that our allies in science on the Neva, who have previously sent 
to us a Jacobi and a Kupffer, are warmly desirous of continuing their good 
connexion with us. It was indeed a source of great pleasure to me to have 
recently had personal intercourse in this very town with that eminent scientific 
navigator Admiral Liitke, in whose squadron His Imperial Highness the 
_ Grand Duke Constantine was acquiring a knowledge of his maritime duties. 
