44 ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OP SCIENCE. (AUSTRALASIAN.) 



The officers of the meeting were as follow: Presi- 

 dent, Archibald Liversidge, Sydney, New South 



ARCHIBALD I.IVERSIDGE. 



Wales. Presidents of sections: A, Astronomy, 

 Mathematics, and Physics, Pietro Baracchi, Mel- 

 bourne, Victoria; B, Chemistry, W. M. Hamlet, 

 Svdney, New South Wales ; C, Geology and Miner- 

 alogy, P. W. Hutton, Christchurch, New Zealand ; 



D, Biology, Charles J. Martin, Melbourne, Victoria ; 



E, Geography, Sir James Hector, Christchurch, 

 New Zealand; F, Ethnology and Anthropology, 

 A. W. Howitt, Melbourne, V ictoria ; G, Economic 

 Science and Agriculture, R. M. Johnson, Hobart, 

 Tasmania; H, Kngineering and Architecture, A. B. 

 Moncrieff, Adelaide, South Australia ; I, Sanitary 

 Science and Hygiene, Allan Campbell, Adelaide, 

 South Australia"; and J, Mental Science and Edu- 

 cation, John Shirley, South Brisbane, Queensland. 

 Permanent secretary, Archibald Liversidge, Syd- 

 ney. New South Wales. General treasurer, II. C. 

 llti-sell. Sydney. New South Wales. Assistant 

 general secretary, Alexander Morton, Hobart, Tas- 

 mania. 



Opening Session. The formal opening of the 

 Sydney meeting began on Jan. 6 with meetings of 

 tin- sectional foinmiitees to arrange for the pro- 

 grammes of the session. Immediately afterward 

 the General Council convened, with II. C. Russell, 

 the senior past-president, in the chair. The principal 

 bii-iness was the confirmation of the action of the 

 local committee and the election of new members. 

 Other business included the naming of a committee 

 to advise action to perpetuate the memory <>f Huron 

 von Mueller, the botanist and former president. 

 Later in the week the committee reported that a 

 n-M.lution was passed to the effect that the associa- 

 tion place on record its M-IISI- of the deep loss sus- 

 tained by it owing to the death of the late Baron 

 von Mueller, and its high appreciation both of his 

 personal character and of the distinguished services 

 rendered by him to science. President Liversidge 

 and J. II. Maiden were appointed to officially repre- 

 sent the association upon the Baron von Mueller 

 National Fund Committee. At the first meeting a 

 committee was appointed to recommend action in 

 regard to the International Catalogue of Scientific 

 Literature, which is to be inaugurated in England 

 with the beginning of the new century. Subse- 

 quently this committee recommended that some 



recognized society in each colony should collect all 

 necessary matter and forward it to the central 

 bureau, London. 



The place of meeting was the University of Syd- 

 ney, and the grand hall of that institution was the 

 gat hering place for the general sessions. 



President's Address. Vice-President Ralph 

 Tait, of South Australia, briefly introduced Presi- 

 dent Liversidge as one who " had two great claims 

 upon them. First of all there was his claim as a 

 scientist, and they must appeal to the records of 

 European literature to know how much he was 

 honored among the scientific men of the world. 

 Last year he was elected one of the vice-presidents 

 of the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, whose efforts they sought to copy here. 

 But apart from his scientific abilities, which had 

 spread far beyond the narrow scientific center 

 which they called Australia, he had also a great 

 claim upon them as the earnest administrator who 

 had governed this association to the grand position 

 which it now held in the annals of the scientific 

 world." President Liversidge, in opening, referred 

 to the deaths of two past presidents who had died 

 since the last meeting, namely. Sir Robert G. C. 

 Hamilton and Baron von Mueller, after which he 

 discussed the objects of the association, pointing 

 out how the British Association was instituted in 

 1831 at a meeting held at the suggestion of Sir 

 David Brewster, at York, in the hall of the Philo- 

 sophical Society of Yorkshire, with the title of " The 

 British Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence," and its objects were to give a stronger im- 

 pulse and a more systematic direction to scientific 

 inquiry ; to promote the intercourse of those who 

 cultivate science in different parts of the British 

 Empire with one another and with foreign philoso- 

 phers ; and to obtain a greater degree of national 

 attention to objects of science, and a removal of 

 any disadvantages of a public nature which impeded 

 its progress. Mention was also made of the Inter- 

 national Catalogue of Scientific Literature soon to 

 be taken up in London under the auspices of the 

 Royal Society and with the co-operation of the 

 Smithsonian Institution in the United States. The 

 usefulness of the Imperial Institute in London was 

 discussed, and he pointed out that it was " not only 

 of a commercial value, but of a scientific value. ' 

 Chemistry is the special field of President Liver- 

 sidge, and in the final portion of his address he dis- 

 cussed the chemistry of the ancients, referring to 

 the recent magnificent publications of Berthelot on 

 alchemy, and he mentioned two recent notorious 

 claims in the United States of persons who reported 

 their ability to transmute the baser metals into 

 gold. The teaching of chemistry was discussed and 

 the conclusions of the special committee of the Lon- 

 don Technical Education Board on this subject were 

 given. A description of recent progress in chemis- 

 try, including the history of the discovery of the 

 elements argon, helium, and asterium. together with 

 the work done in the liquefaction of gases, formed 

 the concluding portion of his address. 



Proceedings of the Sections. A. Astronomy. 

 J/<ifln'inficx, and Physics. This section was pre- 

 sided over by Mr. Pietro Baracchi, who is the Gov- 

 ernment astronomer in Melbourne. His address 

 was on the subject of " Astronomy and Terrestrial 

 Physics." 



He mentioned the four great observatories of 

 Australia, namely, those of Sydney, Melbourne, 

 Adelaide, and Perth, as the best places for carrying 

 on observations of the highest precision. The work 

 of the observatories, lie thought, was much under- 

 rated and little understood by the general public, 

 and he would confine himself to pointing out what 

 was likely to be accomplished in the future. At 



