26 



ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OP SCIENCE. (BRITISH.) 



Rochester, N. Y. Secretaries of the Sections, A. 

 Andrew W. Phillips, New Haven, Conn. ; B, W. 

 Le Conte Stevens, Troy, N. Y. : C, J. U. Nef, 

 Chicago, 111. ; D, David S. Jacobus, Hoboken, N. 

 J E, Robert. T. Hill, Washington, D. C. ; F, L. 

 O. Howard, Washington, D. C. ; G, F. V. Coville, 

 Washington. D. C. ; H, Warren K. Moorehead, 

 Xenia, Ohio; I, Nellie S. Kedzie, Manhattan, 

 Kansas. Treasurer, William Lilly, Mauch Chunk, 

 Pa. At the final session 65 members were raised 

 to the grade of Fellow. 



British. The sixty-second annual meeting of 

 the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science was held in Edinburgh during the week 

 beginning Aug. 3. The officers of the associa- 

 tion were : President, Sir Archibald Geikie. Sec- 

 tion Presidents : A, Mathematics and Physics, 

 Dr. Arthur Schuster ; B, Chemistry, Prof. Her- 

 bert McLeod ; C, Geology, Prof. C. Lap worth ; 



SIR ARCHIBALD GEIKIE. 



D, Biology, Prof. William Rutherford ; E, Geog- 

 raphy, Prof. James Geikie; F, Economic Science 

 and Statistics, Sir Charles W. Freemantle ; G, 

 Mechanical Science, W. Cawthorne Unwin; H, 

 Anthropology, Dr. Alexander Macalister. Gen- 

 eral Secretaries, Sir Douglas Dalton and Ver- 

 non Harcourt. General Treasurer, Arthur VV. 

 Riicker. 



General Meeting 1 . A preliminary meeting 

 of the general committee was held on Aug. 8, 

 when the report of the council was received and 

 approved. It included action on the following 

 resolutions, which were passed by the Austral- 

 asian Association for th-v Advancement of Science 

 at the meeting held in 1891 : (1) That it is deir- 

 able to secure greater uniformity in biological 

 nomenclature, especially in the department of 

 morphology. (2) That in order to secure such 

 uniformity the following steps be taken : (a) The 

 appointment of an international committee to 

 define terms of general importance e. g., terms 

 common to botany and zoology, terms relating to 

 position, etc. ; (b) the preparation of an authori- 

 tative historical glossary of biological terms ; (c) 

 the systematic record of new terms in the various 

 recording publications. (3) That copies of these 

 resolutions be transmitted to the British and 

 American associations and to the Anatomische 

 Gesellschaft. A committee of the council re- 



ported : " After considering the resolutions sub- 

 mitted by the Australasian Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, we think from the con- 

 text that by the word 'nomenclature' in the 

 first resolution is meant ' terminology.' Assum- 

 ing this to be the case, we quite agree that it 

 would be desirable to secure greater uniformity 

 in the biological terminology, but we doubt 

 whether the appointment of an international 

 committee would tend to secure that object. As 

 regards the recommendation (b) in the second 

 resolution, we also quite agree that the prepara- 

 tion of a good glossary of biological terms 

 would be of great advantage, if a qualified per- 

 son could be induced to undertake the task of 

 editorship. We also agree that the glossary 

 ought to be supplemented from time to time by 

 records to be kept up in the various recording 

 publications." This report was ordered trans- 

 mitted to the Australasian Association. 



The names of the new members of the council 

 were proposed and submitted to the association. 

 The first general meeting of the association was 

 held in the hall of the United Presbyterian 

 Synod. The retiring president, Dr. William 

 Huggins, opened the proceedings by introduc- 

 ing his successor, who then delivered the usual 

 address. 



The President's Address. In beginning his 

 addross Sir Archibald Geikie referred to Edin- 

 burgh as a scientific center, and said : " We shall 

 find a peculiar appropriateness in the time of 

 this renewed visit of the association to Edin- 

 burgh. A hundred years ago a remarkable group 

 of men was discussing here the great problem of 

 the history of the earth. James Hutton, after 

 many years of travel and reflection^ had commu- 

 nicated to the Royal Society of this city, in the 

 year 1785, the first outlines of his famous ' The- 

 ory of the Earth.' In choosing from among the 

 many subjects which might properly engage your 

 attention on the present occasion, I have thought 

 that it would not be inappropriate nor uninter- 

 esting to consider the more salient features of 

 that ' Theory,' and to mark how much in certain 

 departments of inquiry has sprung from the 

 fruitful teaching of its author and his associates. 

 A theory of the earth so simple in outline, so 

 bold in conception, so full of suggestion, and 

 resting on so broad a base of observation and re- 

 flection, ought, we might think, to have com- 

 manded at once the attention of men of science, 

 even if it did not immediately awaken the inter- 

 est of the outside world." 



After a somewhat elaborate discussion of the 

 views of Hutton and those of Werner, he passed 

 to the second part of his address, and said : 

 " Thus a hundred years ago, by the brilliant the- 

 ory of Hutton and the fruitful generalization of 

 Smith, the study of the earth received in our 

 country the impetus which has given birth to 

 the modern science of geology. To review the 

 marvelous progress which this science has made 

 during the first century of its existence would 

 require not one but many hours for adequate 

 treatment. The march of discovery has advanced 

 along a multitude of different paths, and the do- 

 mains of Nature which have been included with- 

 in the growing territories of human knowledge 

 have been many and ample. Nevertheless, there 

 are certain departments of investigation to which 



