30 



ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. (BRITISH.) 



be compelled to modify the view that all oscilla- 

 tions of the sea-level are due to movements of 

 the lithosphere alone. That is a very heretical 

 suggestion ; but that a great deal can be said for 

 it any one will admit after a candid perusal of 

 Suess's monumental work, ' Das Antlitz der 

 Erde.'" 



Among the papers presented before this sec- 

 tion were : " The First Ascent of Oraefa Jokull," 

 by F. W. W. Howell; "Place Names," by J. 

 Burgess; "Effects of Rainfall in Formosa." by 

 John Thompson; "The Windings of Rivers," 

 by J. Y. Buchanan ; " Lesser Tibet," by Mrs. 

 Bishop ; " The North Atlantic," by the Prince 

 of Monaco; "Detailed Oceanography and Me- 

 teorology," by J. Y. Buchanan ; " The Desert of 

 Atacama," by Mrs. Lilly Grove ; " Photography 

 and Surveying," by Col. Tanner ; " Determina- 

 tion of Longitude by Photography," by Dr. H. 

 Schlichter; and "A Proposed New Map of the 

 Globe," by E. G. Ravenstein. The whole of one 

 day was devoted to the reading of papers bear- 

 ing on Africa, almost all of which had reference 

 to South Africa. A joint meeting of Sections B 

 and E was held, under the presidency of J. Y. 

 Buchanan, in order to listen to and discuss a 

 number of papers on oceanography. 



F. Economic Science and. Statistics. This 

 section was presided over by Sir Charles Free- 

 mantle, Deputy Master of the Mint and also 

 chairman of the Charity Organization Society. 

 His address dealt with two topics with which 

 he had been largely associated. The first of 

 these was the restoration of the gold coinage, a 

 question which had for many years past exer- 

 cised the minds of successive chancellors of the 

 exchequer and had been a stumbling-block to 

 bankers and the commercial world. After dis- 

 cussing this subject in its different aspects he 

 took up the main topic of his address old-age 

 pensions. He concluded with : " Children and 

 other relations, who under a loose system of 

 poor relief are too apt to consider that in one 

 shape or other their parents and aged kinsfolk 

 may naturally be left to the tender mercies of 

 the Poor Law. are brought together and induced 

 to contribute to their support ; and pension so- 

 cieties, such as the Tower Hamlets Pension 

 Committee, the local pension committees of the 

 Charity Organization Society, and the like, are 

 willing and anxious to come to the rescue. Nor 

 is this organized assistance to those whom the 

 late Duke of Albany called the ' aristocracy of 

 the poor' of use to the recipients only. In hun- 

 dreds of cases which have come under my own 

 knowledge in East London, for instance, it has 

 been the means of inspiring in men and women 

 a holy zeal for charity which, without any hateful 

 feeling of patronage on the one side or of cring- 

 ing dependence on the other, gives a scope, such 

 as none other can supply, for a true friendship be- 

 tween rich and poor, and blesses both the giver 

 and the receiver. I have endeavored to show, 

 in these few and necessarily brief remarks about 

 one of the great social questions which occupy 

 men's minds to-day, that for the promotion of 

 the best interests of our aged poor there may be 

 a ' more excellent way ' than a vast organization 

 of state-aided pensions. May we work out this 

 and other similar problems, as Englishmen do, 

 calmly, wisely, and to good effect." 



Among the papers read before this section 

 were : " Methods of Social Inquiry," by P. Ged- 

 des ; " La Science Sociale et sa Methode," by 

 M. Dernolins; " Some Notes on the Compilation 

 of Monographs on the Statistics of Large 

 Cities," by James Mavor ; " The Slums of Man- 

 chester,' by C. W. Smiley; "Parliamentary Re- 

 turns on Social and Economic Subjects," by C. 

 S. Loch; "The Relations of Ethics to Eco- 

 nomics," by J. S. Mackenzie ; " Old- Age Pen- 

 sions," by W. Moore Ede ; ' The Poor-Law and 

 the Friendly Societies," by T. W. Fowle ; " Old- 

 Age Pensions and Friendly Societies," by W. 

 Frome Wilkinson ; " Adam Smith and his Re- 

 lations to Modern Economics," by L. L. Price; 

 " The Effects of Consumption of Wealth on Dis- 

 tribution," by William Smart ; " Copyright and 

 Patents," by Robert A. Macfil ; " A Plea for the 

 Study of Railway Economics,'' by W. M. Ac- 

 worth ; " Legislation on Behalf of Destitute Chil- 

 dren," by Miss Rosa M. Barratt ; " Illegitimacy in 

 Banffshire," by W. Cramond ; " On the Taxa- 

 tion of Building Land," by Mark Davidson ; and 

 " The Continuance of the Supply of Wheat from 

 the United States with Profit to the Western 

 Farmers," by Edward Atkinson, of Boston. 



G. Mechanical Science. This section was 

 presided over by Prof. W. Cawthorne Unwin, of 

 the Central Technical Institute at South Ken- 

 sington. He said : ' The year just passed is not 

 one unmemorable in the annals of engineering. 

 By an effort remarkable for its rapidity, and as 

 an example of organization of labor, the broad- 

 gauge system has been extinguished. It has 

 disappeared like some prehistoric mammoth, a 

 large-limbed organism, perfect for its purpose 

 and created in a generous mood, but conquered 

 in the struggle for existence by smaller but 

 more active rivals. If we recognize that the 

 great controversy of fifty years ago has at last 

 been decided against Brunei, at least we ought 

 to remember that the broad-gauge system was 

 one only of many original experiments due 

 to his genius and courage experiments in every 

 field of engineering, in bridge building, in loco- 

 motive design, in ship construction, the successes 

 and failures of which have alike enlarged the 

 knowledge of engineers and helped the progress 

 of engineering." 



He described various engineering projects 

 under construction, and in reference to Ameri- 

 can enterprises he said : '' Few persons can have 

 seen Niagara Falls without reflecting on the 

 enormous energy which is there continuously 

 expended, and for any useful purpose wasted. 

 The exceptional constancy of the volume of 

 flow, the invariability of the levels, the depth of 

 the plunge over the escarpment, the solid charac- 

 ter of the rocks, all mark Niagara as an ideally 

 perfect water-power station ; while, on the other 

 hand, the remarkable facilities of transport, both 

 by steam navigation on the lakes and by four 

 systems of railway, afford commercial advan- 

 tages of the highest importance. From a catch- 

 ment basin of 240,000 square miles, an area 

 greater than that of France, a volume of water 

 amounting to 265.000 cubic feet per second de- 

 scends from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, a verti- 

 cal distance of 326 feet in 37-J- miles." Also 

 " supposing the whole stream could be utilized, 

 it would supply 7,000,000 horse power. This is 



