736 Meeting of the British Association. — [Oct., 
his guide started off upon some special, and to him, more urgent 
business. 
It was very unkind of Sir Charles, after having tried the patience 
of the long-suffering Darwinian (who of all men looks forward to these 
meetings for an opportunity to improve his experience), whilst he dis- 
coursed ably upon the origin and character of the Bath waters, to cut 
him off with a few sentences concerning the paleontological series, 
which he said, in confirmation of Mr. Darwin’s view, it had never been 
“part of the plan of nature ” to leave perfect “for the enlightenment 
of rational beings, who might study them in after-ages.” 
And we must be permitted here to say, by way of parenthesis, with 
all deference to Mr. Darwin and his illustrious disciple, Sir Charles 
Lyell, that the conviction has been daily becoming more firmly esta- 
blished in our mind, that it did form part of the plan of that Power which 
moulded nature to leave a sufliciently complete record to enable us 
rational beings, or rather our posterity, to grasp and comprehend the 
whole of its operations from the commencement ; but we, too, must 
plead the present imperfection of that record as our reason for not 
discussing the subject. 
The Astronomer and the Chemist will equally regret that the 
President did not favour them with a résumé of the progress of their 
respective branches of science. Spectrum Analysis, the great discovery 
of the day, was referred to, it is true, but only to inform the world 
that medicinal hot springs contain Copper, Strontium, and Lithium. 
What this method of analysis has done during the past twelve months 
to reveal the composition of the heavenly bodies, or how far it has 
contributed towards the progress of Chemical Science, are items of 
information which must be sought elsewhere. 
And thus the case stands with the Mechanician, the Ethnologist, 
the Physicist. All these votaries of science must this year be content 
to seek a record of novelties in their respective branches elsewhere 
than in the President’s Address. That, restricted as it may have been 
in its scope, was one of the most valuable contributions to our scientific 
literature, and it will undoubtedly mark an era in the history of 
Geological Science. 
Nominally it treated of the origin and nature of the mineral waters 
of Bath; but virtually it dealt with the relation of the phenomena 
concerned in the production of all hot springs to changes in the level 
of the land and sea; with glacial action; with the hydro-thermal 
theory of the formation of crystalline rocks ; with volcanic phenomena, 
&c. It also touched, though very briefly, upon the antiquity of man ; 
upon the inquiry “ whether clear evidence can be obtained of a period 
antecedent to the creation of organic beings upon earth ;” and whether 
the changes which have taken place in the constitution of the earth’s 
crust have been of a comparatively speaking rapid and violent, or of a 
slow and gradual nature. 
Indeed we may repeat that, as a contribution to Geological Science, 
and a clear exposition of the views of the author and his school, the 
foremost rank of savans, the Address is perhaps without its equal in 
this branch of our scientific literature. 
