NATURE 



34J 



THURSDAY, AUGUST ii, 1892. 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



Edinburgh. 

 "PHE Edinburgh meeting has not been remarkable for 

 a large turn-out of members. Probably the greatest 

 number of members are present on the Friday, when 

 practically all have come and none have left. At 

 this high-water mark the number of members, asso- 

 ciates, and holders of transferable ladies' tickets, was 

 2009, and although the tickets sold were increased to 

 2068 by Wednesday, the total attendance probably never 

 i^juite reached 2000, which, although greater than last 

 year's meeting at Cardiff, is much less than that twenty- 

 cine years ago at Edinburgh. Year by year the number 

 of ladies taking part in the proceedings mounts steadily, 

 and on several occasions the "popular" sections of 

 anthropology and geography, which were frequently 

 crowded, showed a great preponderance. Everything has 

 not gone quite smoothly in spite of the efforts of the 

 local secretaries. Edinburgh society is inelastic in its 

 traditions, and Edinburgh institutions are ruled by rigid 

 laws, which even a meeting of the British Association 

 finds difficulty in relaxing. For the first day or two the 

 reading and writing rooms and other apartments were 

 closed at 5 p.m., as they occupy part of the Advocates' 

 Library, while the reception-room being in Parliament 

 House remained open for the usual time. Unqualified 

 praise can be given to the commissariat arrangements. 

 The main luncheon-room in the Students' Union was 

 deservedly busy from i to 3. The handsome building 

 containing these commodious rooms was greatly admired, 

 and the enterprise of the students to whose efforts alone 

 its construction is due, and by whom alone it is managed, 

 was the subject of frequent comment. Passing between 

 the section rooms and the Union members availed them- 

 selves of frequent opportunities to inspect the great 

 MacEwen Hall of the University, now approaching com- 

 pletion, the prospective use of which, by the way, was 

 one of the considerations that led the deputation from 

 Edinburgh to defer to that from Cardiff in arranging 

 the order of the Association's visits to the respective 

 towns. 



Rarely is it the privilege of the mixed multitude who 

 throng the hall on the opening night of the meeting to 

 listen to so comprehensible and attractive an address as 

 the President delivered on this occasion. Sir Archibald 

 (ieikie's lucid exposition was crowned by a characteristic- 

 ally happy speech by Lord Kelvin in moving the vote of 

 thanks. Altogether the first gathering dealt a blow at 

 the belief, still amusingly common, that the true scientific 

 man is a being of terms and formulae, and that true 

 science is colourless and unsympathetic. The other 

 evening discourses were highly appreciated, and main- 

 tained the high character which the Association lec- 

 tures have made for themselves. Prof. Milnes Marshall 

 layed upon his vague title of " Pedigrees " until the 

 cintillations lit up a great part of the theory of evo- 

 lution ; while Prof Ewing on Magnetic Induction 

 threw a flood of light on what has hitherto been to 

 ordinary minds one of the obscurest recesses of physics. 



NO. I 189, VOL. 46] 



The lecture to the working classes, from which members of 

 the Association are excluded — unless they attend on false 

 pretences — turned out a great success. Mr. Vernon Boys 

 showed and explained his wonderful experiments on 

 photographing bullets and the waves they produce in 

 traversing the air with point and brilliancy. The work 

 in some of the Sections has been of a high order of excel- 

 lence ; in Section A especially very few British physicists 

 were absent, and some of the discussions alone justified the 

 existence of the Association as a means of bringing men 

 together from different working centres. The reading of 

 the various reports in the different Sections in some 

 cases gave rise to suggestions of high value for future 

 work. Unfortunately, in consequence of the illness of the 

 President, the address in the Geological Section was not 

 read till Monday. It was not then quite complete, so its 

 publication is postponed for the present. 



Edinburgh, if possible, exceeded its old reputation for 

 hospitality, and meetings of a purely social character 

 were unusually numerous, and the two conversaziones 

 proved thoroughly enjoyable. 



Excursions practically took up the whole of Saturday, 

 and an unusually large number took advantage of the 

 opportunity for visiting the many scenes of historical, 

 archaeological, geological, and engineering interest which 

 lie around Edinburgh. The range was by no means 

 restricted to the immediate vicinity, the excellent railway 

 arrangements permitting of visits to Glasgow, Dundee, 

 and the land of Scott, with no greater expenditure of 

 time than the carriage parties demanded for visiting the 

 Forth Bridge and Roslin, or the pedestrians for geolo- 

 gizing in the Pentlands and on Arthur's Seat. The weather 

 for the first few days was favourable, being dry and free 

 from excessive heat. But Monday was a most unfortu- 

 nate sample of Edinburgh's weather at its worst, strong 

 east wind and cold continual showers ; even this state of 

 matters failed to empty the section-rooms where papers 

 of popular interest were being read. Afternoon receptions 

 both public and private, were particularly well managed, 

 perhaps the most enjoyable being that given by 

 the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in the 

 spacious halls of the National Portrait Gallery, 

 where the Antiquarian Museum is now worthily 

 housed. A special reception of foreign members was 

 also given by the University in the Library Hall. The 

 number of distinguished foreigners present marked out 

 this meeting from most others of recent years. The 

 Prince of Monaco, who, with the princess, lived on 

 board his new yacht the Princesse Alice, was perhaps 

 the greatest attraction, and he succeeded in bringing 

 together one of the largest audiences to listen to his 

 papers in Section E. He also showed his yacht to a 

 select party of members specially interested in marine 

 studies, and took endless trouble in explaining the 

 ingenious original devices for deep-sea research with which 

 she is fitted. Profs, von Helmholz, Wiedemann, von 

 Richthofen, Ostwald, and Goebel worthily represented 

 the science of German Universities, and many of their 

 somewhat less distinguished colleagues were also 

 present. Baron de Guerner, MM. de Margine, Demolins, 

 Bertrand, Manouvrier, Guillaume, and Richard came 

 from France, the Abbd Renard and Profs. Errera 

 and Hulin from Belgium, Drs. Arrhenius and Pet- 

 tersson from Sweden, Prof Fritsch and others well 

 known in the scientific world from Austria, while the 

 United States, Holland, Russia, and Switzerland were 

 also represented. The brilliant young physicist, Nikola 

 Tesla, appears in the list as a visitor from America. 



A small meeting unfortunately means a small sum 

 available for grants to scientific workers, and on account 

 of the large sums asked for by the various Sections, the 

 work of the Committee of Recommendations was no 

 sinecure. 



