1866. ] Guab21. ») 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT 
OF SCIENCE. 
MEETING AT NOTTINGHAM, Aveusr, 1866. 
Tue annual gathering of British philosophers may be regarded 
from a twofold point of view. By some it is looked forward to as 
a meeting where scientific papers of special interest are read and 
discussed, whilst by others it is treated as a holiday. To the former 
class the sections gave ample gratification, whilst to the other and 
more numerous class, including as it does the majority of the 
eminent scientific men present, who naturally embrace this oppor- 
tunity of enjoying a holiday in company with friends of their own 
intellectual calibre, the numerous excursions which were arranged 
to different places of interest in the neighbourhood, afforded an 
agreeable relaxation from the scientific labours, which they visited 
Nottingham to get relief from, rather than to augment. 
Writing after the close of the meeting we may pronounce it a 
moderately successful one ; the numbers present having been 2,221, 
being about 200 more than at Birmingham, 580 less than at Bath, 
and 1,100 less than at Newcastle. There is no doubt that much, if 
not all of this falling off, is due to the most exorbitant price which 
was demanded for lodgings. Long before the meeting, scientific 
men were startled at bemg asked nearly seven times as much as 
they had been in the habit of paying for similar accommodation at 
Birmingham, Bath, or Newcastle, and during the meeting complaints 
of extortion were repeatedly heard in the reception-room. In 
many cases as much was asked to lodge a family for the time of the 
meeting as would pay the rent of the house for the year, and the 
result has been that a great number of scientific men who had 
intended going were frightened by the demands and went elsewhere, 
whilst not more than a fraction of the lodgings put down on the 
official list were tenanted. It is to be hoped that at future meetings 
of the Association this point will be properly attended to, and that 
the vital subject of lodging accommodation for the guests invited 
to a town be not left entirely to the discretion of a chairman and 
committee of the inhabitants, whose chief work in the present 
instance appears to have been to fix a prohibitory tax upon the 
letting of the apartments. We are very confident that had the 
deputation, which attended last year at Birmingham for the purpose 
of inviting the Association to meet at Nottingham, told the general 
meeting that it was their intention to fix the price of decent 
