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ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. (BRITISH.) 



ner; "On the Stability of Periodic Motions," by 

 Lord Kelvin ; " On the Specific Conductivity of 

 Thin Films," by Profs. Reinold and Riicker ; " A 

 Contribution to the Theory of the Perfect Influ- 

 ence Machines," by J. Gray: "Experiments with 

 a Ruhmkorff Coil," by Mr. Magnus and A. Gait ; 

 " The Application of Interference Methods to 

 Spectroscopic Measurement," by Prof. Albert A. 

 Michelson, formerly of Clark University, Worces- 

 ter, Mass. ; " On Graphic Solutions of Dynamical 

 Problems " and " Reduction of every Problem of 

 Two Freedoms in Conservative Dynamics to the 

 Drawings of Geodetic Lines on a Surface of Given 

 Specific Curvature," by Lord Kelvin ; " A Mag- 

 netic Curve Trace," by Prof. Ewing ; " The Vol- 

 ume of Magnetism," by Dr. C. G. Knott ; and 

 " On the Dielectric of Condensers," by W. II. 

 Preece. 



B. Chemical Science. This section was pre- 

 sided over by Prof. Herbert McLeod, F. R. S., 

 F. C. S., who in his opening address considered 

 the desirability of a uniform nomenclature in 

 chemistry. After treating the subject historic- 

 ally he closed this portion of his address with : 

 " I fear we are driven to the conclusion that, not- 

 withstanding all the progress that has been made 

 in chemical science during the last fifty-eight 

 years, we have not yet reached a method of no- 

 tation that would have satisfied Dr. Dalton in 

 1834. But since that time we have learned that 

 our formulae ought to show even more than the 

 number and position of the atoms of a com- 

 pound ; we should like them to indicate the 

 amount of potential energy residing in a body, 

 and our equations ought to indicate the amount 

 of heat generated by a chemical change. Let us 

 hope that before the next meeting of the British 

 Association in Edinburgh these desirable devel- 

 opments will have been accomplished. Happily, 

 catalytic actions are being explained one after 

 another, so that soon the name itself may be- 

 come obsolete.'' He then discussed the teaching 

 of chemistry, and said : " In this city the first 

 public chemical laboratory was started in 1823 

 by Dr. Anderson, the assistant of Prof. Hope." 

 The concluding portion of the address dealt with 

 microbes as chemical agents, in which he urged 

 some of the younger chemists to work at the 

 chemical aspects of bacteriology. His final re- 

 marks had to do with the great loss experienced 

 by chemistry in the death of Prof. A. W. von 

 Hofmann. closing with : "This seems to me the 

 true spirit of the scientific investigator. In many 

 cases the reward consists solely in the conscious- 

 ness that the investigator has done his duty. In 

 some cases the reward may take a more substan- 

 tial form, and I have just been informed that 

 Prof, von Hofmann has left a large fortune, the 

 result of the applications of his discoveries in 

 technical chemistry." 



The following papers were read before the 

 chemical section : " Electrolytic Synthesis," by 

 Prof. Crum Brown; "Impurities in Chloroform," 

 by Prof. Ramsey ; " Luminosity of Hydrocarbon 

 Flames," by Prof. V. B. Lewes : " Experiments 

 on Flame." by Prof. A. Smithells ; " The Reac- 

 tion of Hydrogen with Mixtures of Hydrogen 

 and Chlorine," by J. A. Harker ; " Molecular Re- 

 fraction and Dispersion of Metallic Carbonyls 

 and of Indium, Gallium, and Sulphur," by Dr. J. 

 H. Gladstone ; and " Impurities of Town Air," 



by Dr. G. H. Bailey. An arrangement was made 

 for a joint meeting between this section and Sec- 

 tion G, Mechanical Science, to discuss the " Ef- 

 fects of Small Quantities of Foreign Matter on 

 the Properties of Metals," by Prof. Roberts-Aus- 

 ten, but Section G failed to attend the meeting. 

 Also a discussion to consider the ' Chemical As- 

 pects of Bacteriology " with Section D, Biology, 

 was equally unsuccessful. 



C. Geology. The president of this section was 

 Prof. C. Lapworth, LL. D., F. R. S., F. G. S., who 

 reviewed the discoveries that had raised geology 

 to a science. " Geology," he said, " is yet in her 

 merest youth, and to justify even her very exist- 

 ence there can be no rest until the whole earth crust 

 and all its phenomena, past, present, and to come, 

 have been subjected to the domain of human 

 thought and comprehension. There can be no 

 more finality in geology than in any other sci- 

 ence ; the discovery of to-day is merely the step- 

 ping-stone to the discovery of to-morrow ; the 

 living theory of to-morrow is nourished by the 

 relics of its parent theory of to-day." He then 

 inquired into the formations which constitute 

 the study of the geologist. 



A large portion of his address was devoted to 

 the special objects of study of the stratigraphical 

 geologist. He illustrated the formation stratig- 

 raphy of rocks as follows : " Many of the move- 

 ments which take place in a rock sheet which is 

 being folded, or, in other words, those produced 

 by the bending of a compound sheet composed 

 of many leaves, can be fairly well studied in a 

 very simple experiment. Take an ordinary large 

 note-book, say an inch in thickness, with flexible 

 covers, rule carefully a series of parallel lines 

 across the edges of the leaves at the top of the 

 book about one eighth of an inch apart and ex- 

 actly at right angles to the plane of the cover ; 

 then, holding the front edges loosely, press the 

 book slowly from back and front into an S-like 

 form until it can be pressed no further. As the 

 wave grows it will be noticed that the cross lines 

 which have been drawn on the upper edge of the 

 book remain fairly parallel throughout the whole 

 of the folding process, except in the central third 

 of the book, where they arrange themselves into 

 a beautiful sheaf-like form, showing how much 

 the leaves of the book have sheared or slidden 

 over each other in this central portion. It will 

 also be seen when the S is complete that the book 

 has been forced into a third of its former breadth. 

 It is clear that the wave the book now forms must 

 be regarded as made up of three sections viz.. a 

 section forming the outside of the trough on the 

 one side, and a section forming the outside of the 

 arch on the other, and a central or common sec- 

 tion, which may be regarded either as uniting: or 

 dividing the other two." He concluded by illus- 

 trating his remarks by reference to the conti- 

 nent of America and the shores of Japan. 



Nearly fifty papers were presented before this 

 section, among which were : " The Cause of the 

 Ice Age," by J. W. Gray and P. F. Kendall ; 

 " The Devon and Cornish Granites," by W. A. E. 

 Ussher ; " On a Bone Cave in the Limestone of 

 Assynt," by B. N. Peach and J. Home : " A Gran- 

 ite Junction in Mull " and " The St. Bees Sand- 

 stone and its Associated Rocks." by J. G. Good- 

 child ; " Grampian Series (Pre-Cambrian Rocks) 

 of the Central Highlands," by -Henry Hicks ; 



