46 ASSOCIATIONS, SCIENCE. 



ASTRONOMICAL PROGRESS. 



vances in this science, more especially as re- 

 garding the filling up of former gaps in the se- 

 quence of animal and plant forms and types. 

 He insisted that the Darwinian theory was re- 

 ceiving additional confirmation. Treating of 

 the question of time in geology, he stated his 

 belief that all attempts to express geologic time 

 in terms of years were failures. 



Biology. Prof. Thistleton Dyer began by 

 alluding to the loss biological science had 

 sustained in the deaths of the great botanists 

 Asa Gray and Anton De Bary. Fie then 

 spoke of the outlook presented by the world 

 for the development of systematic botany. 

 London, he said, possessed the best facilities 

 for the work. England, the United States, 

 and Russia were the most active in the prose- 

 cution of the laborious task. He pleaded for 

 more workers and for increased accuracy in 

 nomenclature. After reviewing the work done 

 in different portions of the globe, and describ- 

 ing the areas covered by different investiga- 

 tors, he spoke of the Darwinian theory. Prof. 

 Weisman's theory of the continuity of the 

 germ-plasm and the increased difficulty it might 

 throw on the acceptance of the Darwinian hy- 

 pothesis were spoken of, and the recent school 

 of the new Lamarckism was described. The 

 speaker's tendency was to adhere to Darwin, 

 yet it is interesting to note how in the present 

 day of discussions Darwin's own doubts are so 

 clearly brought forward. This is very noticea- 

 ble in Prof. Thistleton Dyer's address. Physi- 

 ological botany, putrefaction, and bacterial in- 

 oculation for disease were finally treated in 

 some detail. The address was long and very 

 able. 



Geography. Col. Wilson reviewed the his- 

 tory of cormnarce and the various centers and 

 paths which it had chosen in the past. The in- 

 fluence of the Suez Canal was considered, and 

 the immense importance it had given to Eng- 

 land in the world of commerce was explained. 

 For the Panama Canal the speaker predicted far 

 less important changes and results. African 

 geography and the retardation of the develop- 

 ment of the continent by its deadly climates 

 were, in conclusion, touched upon. 



Mechanical Science. Mr. Preece, in his ad- 

 dress, described the development of practical 

 electricity. He spoke of Prof. Oliver Lodge's 

 brilliant experiments in electrostatic discharge, 

 and noted the discussion which was to take 

 place upon the subject of lightning-conductors. 

 The history of the telegraph and its most re- 

 cent improvements and achievements were 

 next in order. One hundred and ten thou- 

 sand miles of cable have been laid by English 

 ships, and 40,000,000 have been invested in 

 the same by English capitalists. Thirty-seven 

 ships are maintained to carry on repairs and 

 lay new cables. In 1875 it was thought won- 

 derful to transmit 80 words a minute to Ire- 

 land, while now 461 words a minute can be 

 sent. The economic features ot electric light- 

 ing and the history of its development, the 



transmission of energy by electricity, and other 

 practical applications were described. Finally, 

 the distinction was drawn between the physi- 

 cist's and engineer's conceptions of electricity, 

 the first treating it as a form of matter, the 

 latter as a form of energy. 



Attendance, etc. The attendance at the meet- 

 ing was nearly 2,000. Public lectures, excur- 

 sions to points of interest, and exhibitions by 

 Col. Gourand and Mr. Henry Edmunds, of the 

 phonograph and graphophone, were features of 

 the occasion. The president for 1889 was an- 

 nounced as Prof. William Henry Flower. 



Appropriations. The grants for scientific re- 

 search, divided among all the sections, aggre- 

 gate 1,645. 



ASTRONOMICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 

 Instruments. The Royal Observatory of Green- 

 wich, England, has had constructed a new per- 

 sonal-equation machine, to be used with the 

 transit-circle. An object-glass 7^ inches in 

 aperture, is fastened in front of the object- 

 glass of the transit- circle telescope, when this 

 telescope is made horizontal and pointed north. 

 In the focus of the outer lens (51 feet away) is 

 placed the vertical plate of the personal-equa- 

 tion machine. This plate can be made to show 

 an artificial star or sun. The plate is moved 

 by suitable apparatus at any desired speed, and 

 the star's transit is observed over the wires 

 in the transit circle. The true times of transit 

 over the wires are registered automatically by 

 means of contacts between two sets of plati- 

 num studs, properly constructed and adjust- 

 ed. The special point aimed at in this instru- 

 ment was to reproduce the same conditions 

 as when the heavenly bodies were observed 

 with the transit circle. The results obtained 

 are said to be very satisfactory. 



In the June, 1888, number of the "Monthly 

 Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society," 

 Sir Howard Grubb describes a new arrange- 

 ment of electrical control for driving-clocks of 

 equatorials. The apparatus was devised for 

 the stellar photographic instrument of the 

 Mexican (Chapultepec) Observatory. The novel 

 part of the apparatus is the governor. In this 

 particular governor he uses, instead of the or- 

 dinary balls, a brass ring loaded with lead and 

 cut into eight segments : and in addition to 

 gravity, springs are applied, one to each seg- 

 ment, tending to supplement the force of grav- 

 ity. By this arrangement the speed of the 

 governor may be increased from 90 to 135 

 revolutions. A number of ingenious devices 

 are employed for controlling the motion, de- 

 tecting the errors, and correcting them. 



The new heliometer mounted at the Cape 

 Observatory by Dr. Gill, employs electric illu- 

 mination only for all the scales, circles, etc. 

 Accumulators were first used, the charging 

 being done by Grove batteries: but this was 

 found to be so troublesome, dirty, and ex- 

 pensive, that they now employ a dynamo run 

 bv a steam-engine. 

 "Herr E. V. Gothard, in the "Zeitschrift fur 



