ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. (BRITISH.) 



Also the following reports: Report on the 

 Methods of determining Magnetic Force at Sea, 

 Report of the Committee on Electrolysis and 

 Electro-chemistry, Report of the Committee on 

 the Heat of Combination of Metals in the Forma- 

 tion of Alloys, Report of the Committee on Radi- 

 ation from a Source of Light in a Magnetic Field, 

 Report of the Committee on Solar Radiation, 

 Report of the Committee on Seismological Inves- 

 tigations, Report of the Committee on Ben Nevis 

 Observatory, Report of the Committee on Me- 

 teorological Photography, and Report of the 

 Committee on Electric Standards, were presented 

 and discussed. 



B. Chemistry. The presiding officer of this sec- 

 tion was Dr. Horace T. Brown, F. R. S., of South 

 Kensington, England. He said: "The subject 

 which I have chosen for my address is the fixa- 

 tion of carbon by plants, one which is the com- 

 mon meeting ground of chemistry, physics, and 

 biology. We have become so accustomed to the 

 idea that the higher plants derive the whole of 

 their carbon from atmospheric sources that we 

 are apt to forget how very indirect is the nature 

 of much of the experimental evidence on which 

 this belief is founded. There can be no doubt 

 that the primary source of the organic carbon 

 of the soil, and of the plants growing on it, is 

 the atmosphere; but of late years there has been 

 such an accumulation of evidence tending to 

 show that the higher plants are capable of being 

 nourished by the direct application of a great 

 variety of ready-formed organic compounds that 

 we are justified in demanding further proof that 

 the stores of organic substances in the soil must 

 necessarily be oxidized down to the lowest pos- 

 sible point before their carbon is once more in 

 a fit state to be assimilated." Then he " in- 

 dulged in a little historical retrospect," and de- 

 scribed the work of Priestley, Ingen-Housz, De 

 Saussure, Bokorny, Acton, and the recent work 

 of J. Laurent and Maze. " These facts," he said, 

 " justify what I have already said, that we ought 

 to demand more direct evidence than is at pres- 

 ent available before we accept the view that the 

 majority of chlorophyllous plants take in the 

 whole of their carbon from the atmosphere." 

 The greater portion of his address was devoted 

 to a description of the experimental work done 

 by himself in the Jodrell Laboratory, at Kew. 

 Conclusive results have not yet been obtained, 

 and he concluded with : " When we have suc- 

 ceeded in finding some simple chemical means 

 of fixing the initial products of the reduction 

 of carbon dioxide, then, and then only, may we 

 hopefully look forward to reproducing in the 

 laboratory the first stages of the great synthetic 

 process of Nature, on which the continuance of 

 all life depends." 



Subsequently the following-named papers were 

 read and discussed: The Solidification of Hydro- 

 gen, by James Dewar; Oxidation in Presence of 

 Iron, by H. J. H. Fenton; The Condensation of 

 Glycollic Aldehyde, by H. J. H. Fenton and 

 Henry Jackson; Some New Silicon Compounds 

 obtained from Silicon Tetraphenylamine by 

 Heating with Mustard Oil, by J. Emerson Rey- 

 nolds; Water and Sewage Examination Results, 

 by Samuel Rideal; The Place of Nitrates in tho 

 Biolysis of Sewage, by W. Scott Moncrieff; Ex- 

 cretory Products of Plants, by Prof. Hanriot; 

 On the Nature of Symbiosis, by Marshall Ward; 

 Note sur les Fermentations Symbiotiques Indus- 

 trielles, by A. Calmette ; Symbiotic Fermentation : 

 Its Chemical Aspects, by Henry E. Armstrong; 

 Proposed International Committee on Atomic 

 Weight, by Frank W. Clarke, Washington city, 



U. S. A.; The Development of Chemistry in the 

 Last Fifteen Years, by A. Ladenburg; The In- 

 fluence of Solvents upon the Optical Activity of 

 Organic Compounds and A Method for resolving 

 Racemic Ox lines into their optically Active Com- 

 ponents, by W. J. Pope; The Chemical Effect on 

 Agricultural Soils of the Salt-water Flood of 

 Nov. 29, 1897, on the East Coast, by Thoina* 

 S. Dymond; Phenomena connected with the Dry- 

 ing of Colloids: Mineral and Organic, by John 

 H. Gladstone and Walter Hibbert; Action of 

 Light upon Metallic Silver, by John Spiller; In- 

 fluence of Acids and of Some Salts on the Sac- 

 charification of Starch by Malt Diastase, by A. 

 Fernbach; A Note on the Combined Action of 

 Diastase and Yeast on Starch Granules, by G. 

 Harris Morris; Action of Hydrogen Peroxide on 

 Carbohydrates in the Presence of Iron Salts, by 

 J. M. Crofts and R. S. Morrell; Influence of Sub- 

 stitution on Optical Activity in the Bornylamine 

 Series and New Derivations from Camphor Ox- 

 ime, by M. O. Foster; Investigations in the For- 

 mation of an Intermediate Compound in the 

 Action of Caustic Soda in Benzaldehyde, by 

 Charles A. Kohn and W. Tranton; On Some Ex- 

 periments to obtain Definite Alloys of Cadmium, 

 Zinc, and Magnesium with Platinum and Pal- 

 ladium, by W. R. Hodgkinson, Capt. Waring, and 

 Capt. Desborough. 



Also the following reports: Report of the Com- 

 mittee on the Relation between the Absorption 

 Spectra and the Chemical Constitution of Or- 

 ganic Substances, Report of the Committee on 

 Isomeric Naphthalene Derivations, Report on the 

 Intermittent Bacterial Treatment of Raw Sew- 

 age in Coke Beds, and Report of the Committee 

 on the Teaching of Natural Science in Elemen- 

 tary Schools, were presented before the section. 



C. Geology. The presiding officer of this sec- 

 tion was Sir Archibald Geikie, director-general 

 of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom,, 

 a past president of the association. He said: 

 " Among the many questions of great theoretical 

 importance which have engaged the attention of 

 geologists none has in late years awakened more 

 interest or aroused livelier controversy than that 

 which deals with time as an element in geological 

 history. In offering a brief history of the dis- 

 cussion there is, I think, a practical outcome 

 which may be made to issue from the contro- 

 versy in a combination of sympathy and co-opera- 

 tion among geologists all over the world. A 

 lasting service will be rendered to our science 

 if by well-concerted effort we can place geological 

 dynamics and geological chronology on a broader 

 and firmer basis of actual experiment and meas- 

 urement than has yet been laid." Then, begin- 

 ning with James Hutton, the founder of modern 

 geology, he discussed his theory on the age of 

 the earth, together with those of Playfair and 

 Lyell. Sir Archibald then took up Lord Kel- 

 vin's famous paper of 1862, in which he declared 

 his belief that the age of our planet must be 

 more than twenty million, but less than four hun- 

 dred million years. Continuing, he discussed the 

 more recent statements by Kelvin, as well as those 

 by Huxley, Tait, and George Darwin. His own 

 conclusions were : " So far as I have been able 

 to form an opinion, one hundred millions of years 

 would suffice for that portion of the history 

 which is registered in the stratified rocks of the 

 crust. But if the palaeontologists find such a 

 period too narrow for their requirements, I can 

 see no reason on the geological side why they 

 should not be at liberty to enlarge it as far as 

 they may find to be needful for the evolution of 

 organized existence on the globe." His final re- 



