556 



NATURE 



{Oct. 3, 1889 



(i) To find the length of light wave for which electrolytes are 

 opaque. 



(2) To find the rapidity of electrical vibration for which the 

 electrolytes cease to conduct. 



With reference to (2), Prof. J. J. Thomson says electrolytes still 

 conduct when the rapidity of alternation is 300 millions per 

 second. 



{d) The only immediate effect of the passage of the current 

 upon the body of a homogeneous electrolyte is to alter the tem- 

 perature, and the alteration of temperature takes place in 

 accordance with Joule's law. 



Full references to the literature of the subject are given in the 

 Report. 



Report of the Committee appointed to make a digest of the 

 Observations on Migration of Birds at Lighthouses and Light- 

 vessels which have been cai-ricd on during the past nine years by 

 the Migrations Committee of the British Association. Mr. yohn 

 Cordeaux, Secretary. — The Committee have to report that one 

 of their number, Mr. W. Eagle Clarke, of the Museum of 

 Science and Art at Edinburgh, has, with the approbation of the 

 Committee, undertaken to prepare the digest of the observa- 

 tions ; and all the materials for making the same, including 1500 

 skeleton maps of the British Islands, provided for the purpose, 

 have accordingly been placed in his hands. The labour of 

 reducing the observations, to show in a concise form and on 

 strictly scientific lines the results of the investigation which was 

 carried on from 1879 to 1887 inclusive, will be easily understood 

 to be enormous ; and when it is borne in mind that this heavy 

 work can only be carried on after official hours, your Committee 

 feel that no apology is necessary for the non-completion of the 

 digest this year. 



Report of the Committee appointed to arrange an Investigation 

 of the Seasonal Variations of Temperature in Lakes, Rivers, 

 and Esniaries in various parts of the United Kingdom in 

 co-operation ivith the I^ocal Societies represented on the Association. 

 Dr. H. R. Mills, Secretary. — It is inadvisable to attempt at 

 present to summarize the results of observations made, as 

 although more than a year's observations are available on some 

 rivers, it is only a few months since the work has been begun 

 on others. At the end of another year it is expected that 

 sufficient data will be found to justify a comprehensive repc rt on 

 the subject. Several members of the Committee have taken 

 much trouble in collecting observations. Dr. Sorby has been 

 good enough to collect and discuss a great mass of temperature 

 observations which he had made from his yacht Glimpse, in the 

 estuaries of the south-east of England during the summer 

 months of five successive years. This will be published separ- 

 ately. Prof. Fitzgerald took charge of the observations in 

 Ireland, where he induced a number of observers to take up the 

 work. Mr. Willis Bund had already inaugurated similar 

 researches on the Severn. Rev. C. J. Steward and Mr. Isaac 

 Roberts rendered important services in their districts. A 

 circular was sent to all the Corresponding Societies in connec- 

 tion with the Association, requesting their co-operation, and 

 favourable replies were received from several, intimating that 

 observations had been commenced. The instructions issued to 

 observers are given as an appendix to the present Report. 



Report of the Committee on Solar Radiation. — The actino- 

 meter devised by the late Prof. Balfour Stewart, for the continu- 

 ous measurement of solar radiation which was described in the 

 P.eport of the Association for 1887, is now ready for preliminary 

 trials, the internal thermometer with a flat bulb of green glass 

 having been made since the date of that Report. The construc- 

 tion of this thermometer occasioned a good deal more trouble 

 than had been anticipated. No attempt has at present been 

 made to render the instrument self-recording, as it would 

 obviously be unwise to incur the outlay which any construction 

 for this purpose would involve, until the result of preliminary 

 triads was such as to encourage a hope that the instrument might 

 really be useful if rendered self-recording. 



Report of the Committee appointed for the purpose of taking; 

 steps for the Investigation of the Natural History of the Friendly 

 Islands, or other Groups in the Pacific visited by H. M. S. ' ' Egeria. " 

 Mr. S. F. Harmer, Secretary. — '1 he Committee have not yet re- 

 ceived information which puts them in a position to give any 

 detailed report of the work which is being done in connection 

 with the above subject. The grant has been paid to Mr. J. J. 



Lister, who reached Tonga on March 19. After devoting two 

 months to the investigation of the natural history of that group, 

 Mr. Lister joined H.M. S. Egeria, on her arrival at Tonga, with 

 the intention of visiting Samoa, where, by the latest accounts, 

 he was carrying on his researches. 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



HP HE thirty-eighth annual meeting of this body was held in the 

 fourth week of August at Toronto, Canada. This is the 

 third time in the history of its existence that the meeting-place 

 selected has been on British territory — the first and second being 

 at Montreal in the years 1857 and 1882. 



The arrangements for the entertainment of the visitors were 

 all of that free, open-handed, generous character peculiar to 

 New- World hospitality. A large and representative Local 

 Committee was appointed, and through their instrumentality 

 many facilities for comfort and pleasure were obtained ; such, 

 for example, as reduced railway fares, the withdrawal of all 

 Customs duties on instruments, specimens, &c., for use at the 

 meetings, a daily luncheon given gratis at the place of meeting, 

 excursions at reduced rates to Niagara, to the Muskoka Lakes, 

 to the Huronian district, and even across the continent to the 

 Pacific coast. There were also the usual number, or perhaps 

 even more than the usual number, of garden parties, evening 

 entertainments, and small excursions to outlying localities of 

 geological, entomological, or botanical interest. Two public 

 lectures were also given, the subject of the first being the evolu- 

 tion of music, of the second, the geological history of Niagara. 



Among those present who took an active part in the proceed- 

 ings were Prof. James D. Dana ; Sir Daniel Wilson, the Presi- 

 dent of University College, in the Convocation Hall and Lecture 

 Rooms of which the majority of the Sections met ; Sir William 

 Dawson, of Montreal ; Dr. Charles C. Abbott ; Prof. N. H. 

 Winchell, of Minneapolis ; Major J. W. Powell, of Washing- 

 ton, the retiring President ; T. C. Mendenhall, of Washington, 

 the President for this year ; Messrs. Carpmael, Ramsay, 

 Wright, and London, of University College ; Profs. Hall and 

 Newberry, who, with Prof. Dana, were the first three Presi- 

 dents of the Association ; Mr. Macoun ; Dr. T. Sterry Hunt ; 

 Prof. Alexander Winchell, author of "World Life"; Prof. 

 Heilprin, author of "The Geographical and Geological Distri- 

 bution of Animals," &c. ; Messrs. Minot, Morse, Newton, and 

 many others of note. Nor must be omitted the names of Mr. 

 F. W. Putnam, the permanent Secretary ; and the following 

 Vice-Presidents of the Association : R. S. Woodward, H. S. 

 Carhart, W. L. Dudley, J. E. Denton, C. A. White, G. L. 

 Goodale, Colonel G. Mallery, and C. S. Hill. 



Many sincerely regretted the absence of the learned and genial 

 Professor E. J. Chapman, of University College. 



Not much time was wasted at the first meeting in the inevit- 

 able speeches and addresses of welcome, and within a couple of 

 hours of the time when the general session was called to order 

 by the venerable Professor Dana, on Wednesday morning, 

 August 28, the various Sections met to organize, preparatory for 

 the delivering in the afternoDn of the Vice-Presidential addresses- 

 — the Vice-Presidents of the Association being chosen from, and 

 acting as Presidents o^, the several Sections. 



The majority of these addresses were of a general or historical 

 character. Mr. Carhart, in the Section of Physics, reviewed the 

 theories of electrical action ; Mr. Goodale, in the Biological 

 Section, spoke of protoplasm ; in the Department of Anthro- 

 pology, Colonel Mallery dealt with the somewhat curious and 

 little heard of, though not novel, theory of the Hebrew origin 

 of the Indians of North America, discussirg the arguments in 

 behalf of that theory, especially the very pioblematical ground 

 that the plane of civilization and thought of the Indians of 

 to-day was parallel to that of the Israelites of the Old Testament. 



Section of Anthropology, 



A very large number of the papers read in the Section of 

 Anthropology quite naturally referred to the Indians of the 

 American continent. The following is a list of the more 

 important of these : — 



The Huron-Iroquois, by Sir Daniel Wilson. 



Evidences of the Successors of Palaeolithic Man in the Dela- 

 ware River Valley, by Dr. Charles C. Abbott. 



