ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OP SCIENCE. (BRITWB.) 



37 



Head procei -ded to consider how far man was in 

 In- natural .-"iidiiioii, and luul become by aid of 

 mechanical science able to compete sucec->l'ully 

 with nilirr ami specially endowed animals, each 

 in his own sphere of action. Without mechan- 

 ical aids a man could walk from ' to 4 miles an 

 hour, but with a cycle he could go 27' 1 miles an 

 hour. Many interesting illustrations contrasting 

 the accomplishments of man with similar ac- 

 complishments i iy animals and birds were given. 

 In bringing li is address to a close he considered 

 what man had done and what he might be able 

 to do in aerial navigation by aid of contrivances 

 which, as in the case of railway locomotives and 

 ocean steamers, were propelled by a power other 

 t han his own body, and, in conclusion, referred 

 to the consequences that might result from the 

 eventual exhaustion of fuel supply. Mechan- 

 ical appliances involving the consumption of 

 fuel had for a century at least been multiplying 

 with alarming rapidity. Terrible waste of these 

 nat u nil stores of fuel was daily going on in almost 

 every department of work. Once exhausted, 

 they could never be replaced. They had been 

 drawn upon to some extent for 1,000 years, and 

 largely for more than a century. Authorities 

 say that another thousand years will exhaust all 

 the more accessible supplies. However, assume 

 that our sources of fuel are not exhausted in 

 5,000 years. What then f As far as we can fore- 

 tell, our only motive powers will then be wind 

 and water and animals, and our only motive 

 mode of transit sailing and rowing, driving, cy- 

 cling, riding, and walking. It has been estimated 

 that in not less than 5.000,000 and not more than 

 10,000,000 years the sun will have become too 

 cold to support life of any kind in this planet. 

 Between the 5,000 years when fuel will certainly 

 be exhausted and the 5,000,000 years when all 

 life is probably to have been extinguished there 

 is still 4,995,000 years, when, according to our 

 present appearance, man will have to give up 

 his hard-earned victories over matter and ani- 

 mals, and the latter will again surpass him each 

 in his own element, because he has no fuel. 



Among the papers read and discussed before 

 this section were the following : " The Automatic 

 Balance of Reciprocating Mechanism," by Worly 

 Beaumont ; " The Utilization of Waste-Water 

 Power by Electricity," by Albion T. Snell ; " An 

 Automatic Gun Separator," by William S. Lock- 

 hart ; " On Ventilating Fans," by Mr. Walker ; 

 " Relative Cost of Conductors with Different Sys- 

 tems of Electrical Power Transmission " by Gis- 

 bert Kapp ; " Warming and Ventilating," by 

 Frank Asnwell ; " Watchmaking by Machinery, 

 by T. P. Hewett ; " Electrical Conductors," by E. 

 Payne ; and " Flashing Lights for Marine Pur- 

 poses," by O. T. Olson. Likewise descriptions of 

 various improved machinery were given, notably 

 new forms for lace and hosiery manufacture. 

 Reports of the Committees on Graphic Methods 

 and on Drvness of Steam in Boiler Trials were 

 read and discussed. Concerning the revival of 

 watchmaking in England, "Nature" says: "A 

 large factory has been built and the most im- 

 proved appliances introduced. These, of course, 

 are largely American in origin, but it is satis- 

 factory to know that the beautiful machine tools, 

 such as are used by the Waltham and Elgin 

 Watch Companies, can now be made in England, 



and are equal to the productions of the United 

 States." Examples of these machines were ex- 

 hibited by T. P. iiewett in his paper read before 

 the section. 



11. Anthropology. The presiding officer of 

 this section was Dr. Robert Munro, !'. li. >. K., 

 of Edinburgh. 



Anthropology embraces all the materials bear- 

 ing on the origin and history of man, but as the 

 materials are so comprehensive and diversified, 

 it is customary to separate anthropology into two 

 divisions, according as the accumulated informa- 

 tion relates to the structure and functions of a 

 man's body called anthropology and accord- 

 ing as the materials relate to the works he has pro- 

 ducedcalled archaeology. Then, taking up 

 the special topics of the address, Dr. Munro pro- 

 ceeded to consider, first, the mechanical and 

 physical advantages of the erect position ; sec- 

 ond, the differentiation of the limbs into hands 

 and feet ; and, third, the relation between the 

 more perfect condition of these organs and the 

 development of the brain. The human foot was 

 admirably adapted to be both a pillar for sup- 

 porting the weight of the body and a lever for 

 mechanically impelling it forward. Concern- 

 ing the hand, it was the most complete and per- 

 fect mechanical organ Nature had yet produced. 

 The position of this perfect piece of mechanism 

 gave to man a superiority in attack and defense 

 over all other animals. Hence, there was in man 

 a combination of structures and functions suffi- 

 ciently unique in its entirety to place him in a 

 category by himself. The brain, the undoubted 

 organ of the mind, gave to man's life functions 

 their most remarkable character. The act of 

 unconscious sensation invariably took place 

 through the instrumentality of a few nerve cells, 

 whose functional activity required to be reno- 

 vated in precisely the same way as the muscular 

 force expended in walking. It had been shown 

 that the homology that characterized the struc- 

 tural elements of the bodies of animals extended 

 also to the component parts of their respective 

 brains. We should therefore naturally expect 

 an increase of brain substance in every case in 

 which the functional activity of a specific organ 

 was extended. Man's brain and his intelligence 

 were certainly correlated to each other, but to 

 maintain that the amount of intelligence was 

 directly proportional to the size of the brain was 

 to strain the laws of legitimate inference. In 

 drawing any conclusion of such a nature from 

 the bulk of the brain substance there were modi- 

 fying influences which could not be disregarded, 

 such as the amount of cranial circulation and 

 the quality of the brain cells. The highest prod- 

 ucts of intellectuality were nothing more than 

 the transformation of previously existing energy, 

 and it was the power to utilize it that alone 

 found its special organic equivalent in the brain. 

 The development of the large brain of man cor- 

 responded with that of his characteristic attri- 

 butes, more especially with those consequent on 

 the attainment of his upright position. 



The following-named papers were read and 

 discussed by the section: "The Ethnographic 

 Aspect of Dancing," by Mrs. Lilly Grove: " An- 

 thropometric Work in Large Schools," by Ber- 

 tram C. A. Windle; "On the Origin and Devel- 

 opment of Early Christian Art in Great Britain 



