494 



NA TURE 



[Sept. 20, 1888 



is well known on account of his researches on the Sivalik 

 fossil Mammalia, succeeded to the post. Dr. Thomas 

 Thomson, the co-worker of Sir Joseph Hooker in the 

 collection and distribution of an extensive East Indian 

 Herbarium, was the next Superintendent. His successor, 

 Dr. Thomas Anderson, died in 1870 from disease con- 

 tracted when labouring to introduce the quinine-yielding 

 Cinchonas into the Himalayas. This latter work — that is, 

 the cultivation of the Cinchonas of the Andes — has been a 

 great success. The Garden authorities, in connection with 

 the Agri-Horticultural Society of India, made great 

 and successful efforts to improve the quality of Indian 

 cotton, and to push its sale and that of jute in the European 

 markets. The united bodies also imported better kinds of 

 sugar-cane from the West Indies, and thus improved the 

 quality and the amount of the sugar-crop in India. The 

 various Superintendents made from time to time ex- 

 periments in the cultivation of plants and products of 

 economic value, as, for instance, tapioca, india-rubber, 

 sarsaparilla, aloes, cocoa, and many others. Many of the 

 various kinds of exotics now grown in India have been 

 introduced through the instrumentality of the Garden, 

 and the authorities have shown to the inhabitants of India 

 the advantages of better systems of cultivation than they 

 previously pursued. 



In the year 1 864 the Garden was devastated by a terrible 

 cyclone, and the few plants that escaped the general ruin 

 were very much thinned by another cyclone which a few 

 years after burst over Calcutta. In fact, at the present 

 moment there are in the Garden only a few trees, including 

 the great banyan, which were there in 1867. When the 

 shade of the trees was thus removed, the weed Imperata 

 cylindrica spread rapidly over the whole Garden, and when 

 Dr. King was appointed to be Superintendent of the 

 Garden, in 1871, he found it in rather a sorry plight. By 

 the assistance that the local authorities gave him he was 

 enabled to plant it afresh, to lay it out for landscape effect, 

 to form ornamental ponds, and to build the Herbarium 

 and conservatories. The most noticeable feature from 

 a botanical stand-point is, of course, the Herbarium. On 

 Dr. Wallich dispersing in 1828 the splendid collection of 

 dried plant c , the foundations of another were laid. Almost 

 every botanical student in India has contributed to the 

 present collection, and also many specimens have been 

 sent from Europe. Of course it is above all an Indian 

 Herbarium, but there are also good collections of plants 

 from Asia Minor, Persia, Japan, and South-Eastern Asia. 

 In fact, in all but African and American plants it is a very 

 representative collection. For the last fifty years there 

 has been a constant exchange of specimens with Kew 

 Gardens, and to Sir William Hooker, and Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, and Mr. Thiselton Dyer, the Herbarium owes 

 some of its choicest specimens. Exchanges have also 

 been systematically made with the British Museum 

 Herbarium, the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, the Imperial 

 Gardens at Berlin and St; Petersburg, and with the 

 institutions at Ceylon, Java, and Saharanpore, and many 

 of the best-known botanists have been among the most 

 active contributors. 



During the past year the collection of dried plants has 

 been largely increased, the most noteworthy additions 

 baing those collected by Dr. Aitchison with the Afghan 

 Boundary Commission, and those by Dr. Giles during 

 the Gilgit expedition, the latter having been sent from 

 Kew. From Kew were also received many specimens 

 of Singapore and Penang plants. Many plants from 

 Central Asia were sent by the Director of the Imperial 

 Garden at St. Petersburg, and a Natal collection was 

 sent from Durban. Four hundred named species from 

 Mexico, a large box of dried plants from New Guinea, a 

 quantity of plants from Sikkim, trees from the Khasia 

 Hills, specimens from the North-Western Himalayas, 

 and from Southern India, were among the many collec- 

 tions presented to the Garden in the past year. The 



Government Botanist of Perak, Father Scortechini, who 

 had been sent by Sir H. Low, came to the Garden in 

 November to study, so that he might arrange his collec- 

 tions, but he died shortly after his arrival. During the 

 year 8064 plants were received and 46,109 given out; 

 903 packets of seeds were received, and 2534 distributed. 

 Dr. King concludes his Report by saying that the 

 acclimatized English' potatoes have everywhere turned 

 out badly the past season. 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 

 SECTION G. 



MECHANICAL SCIENCE. 



Opening Address by William Henry Preece, F. R.S., 

 M.Inst.C.E., &c, President of the Section. 



"Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and 

 say unto thee, Here we are ? " were pregnant words 

 addressed to Job unknown centuries ago. They express the 

 first recorded idea in history of the potentiality of electricity to 

 minister to the wants of mankind. From Job to Franklin is a 

 long swing in the pendulum of time. It was not until that 

 American philosopher brought down atmospheric electricity by 

 his kite-string in 1747, and showed that we could lead it where 

 we willed, that we were able to answer the question addressed 

 to the ancient patriarch. Nearly another century elapsed before 

 this mysterious power of Nature was fairly conquered. It has 

 been during this generation, and during the life of the British 

 Association, that electricity has been usefully employed ; and it 

 is because I have taken a subordinate position in inaugurating 

 nearly all of its practical applications, that I venture to make the 

 developments of them the text of my address to this Section. 



People are singularly callous in ma'.ters affecting their own 

 personal safety : they will not believe in mysteries, and they 

 ridicule or condemn that which they do not understand. The 

 Church itself set its face against Franklin's " impious " theories, 

 and he was laughed to scorn by Europe's scientific sons ; and 

 even now, though Commissions composed of the ablest men of 

 the land have sat and reported on Franklin's work in England, 

 France, and nearly every civilized nation, the public generally 

 remains not only ignorant of the use of lightning-conductors, 

 but absolutely indifferent to their erection, and, if erected, 

 certainly careless of their proper maintenance. I found in a 

 church not very far from here the conducter leaded into a tomb- 

 stone, and in a neighbouring cathedral the conductor only a few 

 inches in the ground, so that I could draw it out with my hand. 

 Although I called the attention of the proper authorities to the 

 absolute danger of the state of affairs, they remained in the same 

 condition for years. 



Wren's beautiful steeple in Fleet Street, St. Bride's, was well- 

 nigh destroyed by lightning in 1764. A lightning-rod was fixed, 

 hut so imperfectly that it was again struck. In July last (1887) 

 it was damaged because the conductor had been neglected, and 

 had lost its efficiency. 



As long as points remain points, as long as conductors remain 

 conductors, as long as the rods make proper connection with the 

 earth, lightning protectors will protect : but if points are allowed 

 to be fused, or to corrode away ; as long as bad joints or faulty 

 connections are allowed to remain ; as long as bad earths, or no 

 earths exist, so iong will protectors cease to protect, and they 

 will become absolute sources of clanger. Lightning-conductors, if 

 properly erected, duly maintained, and periodically inspected, are 

 an absolutesourceof safety; but if erected by the village blacksmith, 

 maintained by the economical churchwarden, and never insp cted 

 at all, a loud report will some day be heard, and the beautiful 

 steeple will convert the churchyard into a new geological 

 formation. 



We have not yet acquired that mental confidence in the 

 accuracy of the laws that guide our procedure in protecting 

 buildings from the effects of atmospheric electrical discharges 

 which characterizes most of the practical applications of elec- 

 tricity. Some of our cherished principles have only very 

 recently received a rough shaking from the lips of Prof. 

 Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., who, however, has supported his brilliant. 

 expeiiments by rather fanciful speculation, and whose revolu- 

 tionary conclusions are scarcely the logical deduction from his 



