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ASSOCIATIONS FOR ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. (BRITISH.) 



For gun-cotton, on which he has done so much 

 work himself, he said : "- So far as smokelessness 

 is concerned, no material can surpass gun-cot- 

 ton." p]xplosives for shells, the advances made 

 in the manufacture of high explosives, and their 

 u-i' in torpedoes, were each considered in turn, 

 and then he discussed mine explosions and safety 

 lamps, on which topic he is perhaps the best au- 

 thority in England. He referred to the im- 

 proved explosives and, in blasting, to the able 

 and safe portable electric lamps used in mines, 

 and the general abandonment of the unprotected 

 Davy and similar safety lamps. Explosions in 

 ships and mills, and the investigations of their 

 causes with means for their prevention formed the 

 final part of this branch of his address. The 

 development of the petroleum industry in the 

 United States, from the production of 5,000 bar- 

 rels in 1859 to that of 31,000,000 in 1882, was de- 

 scribed. Other petroleum fields were mentioned, 

 and during 1889, he said, " the imports of kero- 

 sene into London and the chief ports of the 

 United Kingdom amounted to 1,116,205 barrels of 

 American oil and 771,227 barrels of Russian oil. 

 From petroleum, he passed to the consideration 

 of natural gas and water gas, their application, 

 development, and uses. His closing remarks 

 were on the advantages of technical education 

 and the value of natural history and natural sci- 

 ence museums, illustrating the latter by a de- 

 scription of the Imperial Institute, which is to 

 contain the natural science collections made as 

 an imperial memorial of the Queen's Jubilee. 



Addresses of the Presidents of Sections. 

 A. Mathematics and Physics. Dr. J. W. L. 

 Glaisher, in his address, confined himself to a 

 few general considerations relating to pure math- 

 ematics, by which expression he meant " the 

 abstract sciences that did not rest upon experi- 

 ment in the ordinary sense of the term, their 

 fundamental principles being derived from ob- 

 servations so simple as to be more or less axio- 

 matic. To that class belonged the theories of 

 magnitude and position, the former including all 

 that relating to quantity, whether discrete or con- 

 tinuous, and the latter including all branches of 

 geometry. The science of continuous magnitude 

 was alone a vast region, containing many beauti- 

 ful and extensive mathematical theories. Among 

 tho more important might be mentioned the 

 theories of double and of multiple periodicity, 

 the treatment of functions of complex variables, 

 the transformation of algebraical expressions 

 (modern algebra), and the higher treatment of al- 

 gi-braical and differential equations as distin- 

 guished from their mere solution. It was that 

 kind of scientific exploration which fascinated 

 and rewarded the pure mathematician, and upon 

 which his best work was spent." He made a 

 strong plea for the study of pure mathematics, 

 closing with the hope " that the apathy of so 

 ma ii v years might lead to a splendid awakening 

 in f his country, and that our past neglect of this 

 most beautiful theory might be atoned for in 

 the future by special devotion and appreciation." 

 A paper on the " Spectra of the Metals " was read 

 by Pro! Henry A. Rowland, and A. L. Roch, of 

 Boston, gave a description of an observatory re- 

 cently erected on Mont Blanc. 



It. Chemistry. The subject of Prof. Thomas 

 E. Thorpe's address was Priestley. He told of 



his early life and how, living near a brewery, he 

 became interested in the gases produced during 

 fermentation, from which he made researches 

 leading to " the extraordinary succession of dis- 

 coveries which earned for him the title of the 

 Father of Pneumatic Chemistry." A recent book 

 on " La Revolution Chimique," by Berthelot, 

 perpetual secretary of the French Academy, 

 claims for Lavoisier the discovery of oxygen, and 

 much of Prof. Thorpe's address was taken up in 

 showing the priority of Priestley's discovery and 

 establishing from Lavoisier's own writings the 

 fact that he admitted Priestley's priority. His 

 conclusion was : " It would be heaping Ossa on 

 Pelion to show what Lavoisier's contemporaries 

 thought of his claims. It would be more pleas- 

 ant to dwell upon his virtues than on his faults ; 

 but M. Berthelot's book required a public answer, 

 and in no place could that answer be more fit- 

 tingly given than in Leeds, which saw the dawn 

 of that work out of which these grand discoveries 

 arose." The report of the committee on the pres- 

 ent method of teaching chemistry was presented 

 before the section and produced considerable dis- 

 cussion, in which Sir Henry E. Roscoe took part 

 and said : " The fact that the sum of 700,000 

 was being appropriated to technical education 

 showed that the legislature was now fully alive 

 to the importance of the spread of technical and 

 scientific education. 



C. Geology. The president of this section was 

 Prof. A. H. Green, who spoke of the value of ge- 

 ology as an educational instrument. He deplored 

 the fact that too often scientists were prone to as- 

 sume conclusions from geological evidence when 

 the facts were capable of more than one interpre- 

 tation. " Inferences based on such incomplete 

 and shaky foundations must necessarily be very 

 largely hypothetical. That such was the charac- 

 ter of a great portion of the conclusions of geol- 

 ogy, all were ready enough to allow." As to the 

 study of geology : " One way to make a geologist 

 is not to teach him any geology at all to begin 

 with to send him first into a laboratory, to give 

 him a good long spell at observations and meas- 

 urements requiring the minutest accuracy, and 

 so saturate his mind with the conception of ex- 

 actness that nothing shall ever afterward drive it 

 out." The best way to teach geology is by prac- 

 tical experience both in the field and in the labo- 

 ratory. A scheme was outlined in which during 

 the first year the lectures and book work should 

 deal with physical geology and include laboratory 

 work on minerals with blow-piping. During a sec- 

 ond year stratigraphical geology should be taught 

 with practical work in palaeontology. A third 

 year should be given to widening and strength- 

 ening the knowledge already acquired, while the 

 practical work should extend to the field, where 

 mapping should be taught. 



Prof. Othniel C. Marsh, of Yale University, 

 gave an account of his discoveries of the gigantic 

 Ceratopsidce, or horned dinosciurs. 



D. Biology. The development of animals 

 formed the theme of the remarks upon which 

 Dr. A. Milnes Marshall addressed the section. 

 His own specialty of embryology was fully dis- 

 cussed. He referred to the imperfection of the 

 geological records, and further said : " Natural 

 selection, though consistent with and capable of 

 leading to steady upward progress and improve- 



