Sept. 2, 1875] 



NATURE 



371 



up into atmospheric vortices of speculation, about things 

 organic or inorganic, about mind or matters beyond the 

 reach of mind, but one who, struggling, Anta^us-like, with 

 his subject here to-night, will know how to maintain 

 throughout a refreshing contact with his mother earth, I 

 have looked forward lor some time to the crowning act 

 still in prospect of his professional career, to give our 

 perturbed spirits rest in crossing the Channel in visiting 

 our fair sister France. But pending that great achieve- 

 ment, it is his enviable lot to steer this British Association 

 through calm waters to a haven of, at all events, tempo- 

 rary rest — rest all the more sweet and needful from the 

 tempestuous weather which rasher navigators who pre- 

 ceded him thought it their duty to encounter rather than 

 to avoid. To his strong hand I commit the helm of our 

 noble barque, wishing him not only success, but triumph 

 in that task he has undertaken, and which I now call 

 upon him to fulfil." 



Both papers and discussions have been of very high 

 interest. Some of the papers mark epochs in science : 

 such as Prof. Cayley's, on the theory of chemical com- 

 binations. The Transit of Venus, the proposed flooding 

 of the Sahara, the Deep-sea Fauna, oceanic circulation, 

 Murchison's classification of Palasozoic strata, the ethno- 

 graphy of races at the commencement of civilisation, the 

 Channel and Severn tunnels, the coal question, and rail- 

 way safety, may be mentioned among the chief subjects 

 of wide interest. Social subjects have had a full share of 

 attention, considering the pre-scientific stage in which 

 most of them are. 



Some of the personally interesting scenes have been 

 rather notable — as when Sir W. Thomson, in relation to 

 Mr. Croll's assault on Dr. Carpenter's doctrines of 

 oceanic circulation, pronounced that Dr. Carpenter's 

 demonstration was most conclusive and his reasons irre- 

 fragable ; when Prof. Hull, criticising Prof. Hughes, said 

 he had never before heard so many heresies in so few 

 minutes ; if it were possible for his hair to stand on end 

 it would immediately begin to friz out from the centre to 

 the circumference ; and when Mr. John Evans, Canon 

 Tristram, and Canon Rawlinson combined to give a 

 wholesome exposition of sound doctrine in ethnological 

 subjects and of the relative value of various kinds of 

 evidence, after the reading of a paper which was destitute 

 of scientific principles. 



Dr. Carpenter was as happy as ever in his lecture to 

 working men, on "A Piece of Limestone." He had a 

 great audience of unmistakeable working men, with whom 

 he placed himself in most cordial rapport. 



Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P., after the lecture, said the 

 subjects of the Association meeting were those in which 

 working men were deeply interested, for the competition 

 of manual labour must give way to the competition of 

 intellect. Men who wanted to get on, and masters who 

 wished to hold their own, must unite in promoting, by 

 their own investigation, the knowledge and the philosophy 

 which were to be found in, or connected with, their various 

 manufactures. Mr. Bramwell's lecture was of a useful 

 kind, but defended engineers and railway directors perhaps 

 too much. 



Mr. Spottiswoode's lecture on the Colours of Polarised 

 Light was very successful both in exposition and in 

 experimental illustration. The lecturer used a splendid 

 instrument, in which two Nicol's prisms of great size, 

 and beautifully cut, serve the purpose of polariser 

 and analyser, with which he was able to secure the 

 maximum of illumination with a large field of view. 

 The meeting was made more interesting by Sir John 

 Hawkshaw's announcement that the President of the 

 French Association sitting at Nantes had that day tele- 

 graphed an expression of their good will and of their 

 wishes for the success of the Bristol meeting. His call 

 for a manifestation of their hearty reciprocation of those 

 feelings was responded to with enthusiasm. 



Since no other sectional address was delivered on 

 Friday morning. Prof. Rolleston had a crowded audience 

 to hear his address to the Anthropological Department of 

 Section D. His auditors had one of the greatest treats 

 the meeting has afforded, and the vigorous individuality, 

 the vivacity of thought and action, the boldness and fear- 

 lessness, and the wit, scholarship, and research of the 

 Professor must have been vividly impressed on many. 

 At the commencement of the address, when he had to 

 give directions for the opening of an extra door in order 

 to allow a crowd of persons in the corridor outside to 

 hear him, his sudden sally describing their desire to enter 

 " for reasons inscrutable to me " was highly characteristic 

 and appreciated ; and the passages in which he spoke of 

 the relative capacity of female crania compared to men's 

 in former and present days, the toleration of nuisances 

 and epidemics, the deterioration and improvement of 

 races, and the value of missionary labours, were listened 

 to with deep attention. 



The microscopical soiree on Thursday evening was a 

 very great success, and the Association owes its hearty 

 thanks to Messrs. W. Tedder and J. W. Morris, the 

 secretaries respectively of the Bristol and Bath Micro- 

 scopical Societies, and to the members of those societies. 

 A bold idea was well carried out, viz., that of exhibiting 

 chiefly living objects. The 1 10 microscopes were arranged 

 in classified divisions, devoted to Crustacea, Arachni- 

 dans, Insecta, marine and fresh-water fauna, ciliary 

 action, vertebrate circulation, vegetable circulation, fer- 

 tilisation of flowers, Cryptogamia, microspectroscopes, 

 &c. The idea of practically illustrating Sir John Lub- 

 bock's " Fertilisation of Flowers by Insects " was novel, 

 and so far carried out as to give a vivid idea of the pro- 

 cesses to those who were previously unfamiliar with them. 

 The geological division included an exhibition of the 

 perennial Eozoon canadcnse, which must be exhibited 

 again and again to live down the hostility to its animal 

 nature. Altogether the exhibition was a great evidence 

 of scientific enthusiasm, which had led many ardent stu- 

 dents to make special dredging and fishing expeditions 

 both in inland and marine waters. 



The Museum of the Bristol Museum and Library 

 Society has been a very considerable attraction. Bris- 

 tol is exceptionally fortunate in its museum, to which 

 the local Naturalists' Society, the Chfton Zoological 

 Society, and many travellers and sea-captains have 

 contributed. In Zoology it contains many valuable 

 specimens, such as the large Gorilla from the River 

 Gaboon, W. Coast of Africa, both the skeleton and 

 stuffed skin being well preserved ; the fine skeletons of 

 Manatus atistralis and otaria from the Chilian coast ; 

 the ancient Peruvian human skulls from Arica and Islay ; 

 the very large Green Turtle's skeleton from Ascension 

 Island. The fossil collection is still more notable, for it 

 contains many unique and type-species of carboniferous 

 fishes. The grand collection of Ceratodus teeth, rescued 

 recently from purchase by Americans, is placed close to 

 a specimen of Ceratoctus forsteri from Australia, with jaws 

 and teeth detached. The additions to the Museum 

 buildings now in course of erection, which include the 

 fine lecture-theatre in which Section C is accommo- 

 dated, have enabled the local committee to find room for 

 a local loan collection of natural history, in which Bris- 

 tol ornithology and entomology are specially well repre- 

 sented. 



The rich local flora is well represented by the efforts of 

 the botanical members of the Naturalists' Society. Sixty 

 comparatively rare species are exhibited. A convenient 

 handbook to the local museum and temporary additions 

 has been published, Messrs, Tawney, Stoddart, Wheeler, 

 Derham, and many others have worked zealously to make 

 this one of the most successful of the ei ceteras at this 

 meeting. 



The temporary museum of objects illustrating papers 



