31(3 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Oct. 



and stimulus; whilst the third bag already been alluded lo as one of our best contri- 

 butors. 



If in reviewing our previous labours I have endeavoured to gain your fltteotion by some 

 incidental allusions to our present proceedinits, I have yet to assure you. that the me- 

 moirs communicated to our secretaries are sufliclently numerous to occupy our sectiona 

 (luriog the ensuing week with all the vitrour which Las marked imr opening day. Among 

 the topics to which our assembling at Souihampiuu «ives peculiar interest, I m;iv s'ill say 

 that If foreign and English geologists should lind muci to interest them in ibc Isle of 

 Wight, the same island contains a fieUl for a very curious joint discussion bi'twten the 

 iiiaiht'matieians and the geologists, with which I became acquainted In a previous visit to 

 this place. It is a discovery by Colonel Colby, the Director of the Trigonomeirica! Sur- 

 vey, of the existence of a considerable attraciion of the plumb-line to the south, at the 

 irigonometrical station called Dunnose, on Shanklin Down. The details of this singular 

 plienomenon, which has beec veriUed by numerous observations with the best zenith sec- 

 tors, will belaid before the Sections. In the mejntime, we msiy well wonder ihat this 

 low chalk range in the Isle of Wight should attract, in one jmrallel at least, with more 

 Ihiio half the Intensity of the high and crystalline mountain of Stbehallton in the High- 

 lands of Scotlanrt, whilst no other chalk bill in the South of England exhibits such a 

 phenomenon. Can those of our associates, who like Mr. Hopkins have entered the riih 

 field of Bcological dynamics, explain this remarkable fact, either by the peculiar structure 

 and distribution of the ridge of upheaved strata which runs as a back-bone from east to 

 west through the island, or by referring it to dense plutonic masses of rock ranging be- 

 neath the surface along the line of displacement of the deposits ? 



The SuuihumptoH Well. 

 Another local suhject— one indeed of positive practical interest— that stands before us 

 for discussion is, whether, by persevering in deepening the large shaft which lliey have 

 sunk so deep info the chalk near this town, the inhabitants of Southampton may expect 

 to be eventuaity repaid, like those of Paris, by a full supjily of subterranean water, which 

 shall rise to the surface of the low plateau on wbich the work has undertaLeti ?' On no 

 occasion, I must observe, could this town be furnished with a greater number of willing 

 couiisellers of divers nations whose opinions will, it is hoped, be adequately valued by the 

 city authorities. 'I he question whether this work ought to be proceeded with or not, will 

 however. I apprehend, be most effectively answered by those geologists who are best ac- 

 quainted with the sections in the interior of this country, and with the levels at which 

 the upper greensand and subcretuceous strata there crop out and receive the waters, 

 which then flow southwards beneath the whole body of chalk of the hills in the south of 

 Hampshire. 



Naval Architecture* 



Considering that we are now assembled iu the neighbourhood of our great naval arse- 

 nal— that some of its funcrionahes, incluHing the Admiral ob the station, have honoured 

 us with their support, and that, further, I am now speaking in a tuwu whose magnificent 

 new docks may compete with any for bold and successful engineering, I must say a few 

 uopds on our naval architecture, the more so as we have here a very strong Mechanical 

 Section, presided over by that ingenious mechanician Professor Willis, supported by that 

 great dynamical philosopher and astronomer Dr. Robinson. Duly impressed with the 

 vast national importance of this subject, and at the same time of its necessary depend- 

 pure on mathematical principles, the British Association in its earliest days endeavoured 

 In rouse attention to the state of ship-building in England, and to the history of its pro- 

 greps in France and other countries, through a n^emoir by the late Mr. G. Harvey. It 

 WPS then contended, that notwithstanding the extreme per!ection to which the internal 

 mechanism of vesFels ha* been brought, their external forms or lines, on which their 

 sailing so much depends, were deficient as to adjustment by mathematical theoiy. Our 

 associate Mr. Scott Uussell has, us you know, ably developed this view. Experimenting 

 upon the resistance of water, snd ascertaining with precision the forms of vessels whicb 

 would pass through it witli the least resistance, and conbequently with the greatest velo- 

 city, be has cmtributed a most valuable serws of memoirs, accompanied by a great num- 

 ber of diagrams, to illustrate his opinions and to show the dependei-ce of naval architec- 

 ture on certain mathematical lines Employed in the neantime by merchants on their 

 own account, tfi p'an the consfruction of sa- ling ships and steamers, Mr. Scott Russell 

 has been so successlul in combining theory with practice, that we must feel satisfied in 

 having at dilfeient meetings helped him onwards by several money grants; our only 

 regret being that our means should not have permitted us to publish the whole number 

 ot diagrams of the 1 nes prepared by this ingenious author. 



But however desirous to promote knowledge on this point, the men of science are far 

 from wishing not tn pay every deference to the skilful artificers of our wooden bulwarks, 

 on account of their experience and practical acquaintance ivith subjects they have so long 

 and sn successfidly handled. We are indeed fully aware that the naval arc dtects of the 

 go\<rn Tient, who construct v-ssels carrying a great, weight of metal, and requiring much 

 sol Y- it; and capacious stowage, have to solve many pioblems with which the oivners of 

 tr-dJof vessels or packets have little concern. All that v-e can wish for is, that our naval 

 ar-ena^sshnuld contain schools or public boards of ship-building, in which there might 

 be collected all the '• constants of the art," in reference to capacity, displacement, stow- 

 age, velocity, pitching and rolling, masting, the effect of sails, and the resistance of flu'ds. 

 Having ourselves expended r nntribulions to an extent which testiiy, at all events, our 

 leai in this matter, we are, I think, eutiited to express a hope, that the data derived from 

 pruciice by our eminent navigators may be effectively combined with the indications of 

 wnind theory prepared Ly approved cultivatois of mathematical and mechanical scie- 

 eace. 



Statistics, 



I cannot thus touch upon such useful subjects without saying, that our Statistical Sec- 

 tion h.is been so well conducted by its former presidents, that its suljects, liable at all 

 times to be diverted into moral considerations, and thence into nolitlcs, have been invari- 

 ably restricted to the branch of the science which deals in facts and numbers : and as no 

 one individual has contributed more to the storehouse of such valuable knowledge than 

 Mr. George Porter (as evidenced even by his report in our last volume), so may ue believe 

 that in this town with which he is intimattdy conr,ecied, he will contribute to raise still 

 higher the claims of the section, over which he is so well qualified to preside. 



If in this discouise I have referred more largely to those branches of science which 

 pertain to tlie general division of natural history, ii> which alone I can venture to judge 

 o( the progress which others are making, let me houever say, that no member of this 

 body can appreciate more highly than I do, the claims of the mathematical and experi- 

 n.wntal parts of philosophy, iu which my friend Protessor Baden Powell, who supports 

 uie on this occasion as a Vice-President, has taken so distinguished a part. No one has 

 witnessed with greater satisfaction the attendance at our former meetings of men (rom all 

 parts of Europe the most eminent iu these high pursuits. No one can more glory in 

 Jiaving been ;in officer of this Association when it uas honoured with the presence ot its 

 jlii.siiious conesponrient Bessel, tli.jn whom the world has never produced a more pro- 

 lt)und jistr nomer. If aoiong his numerous splenuld d'scoveries he furnished astrono- 

 meis with what they had so long and so ardently desired— a fixed and ascertained point 

 in the immensity of space, b^-yond the limits of our own sid« real system, it is to Bessel, 

 as I am assurer! by a contemporary vvoithy of him, that Englishmen owe a debt of grati- 

 tude for his elaborate discus^ion of the observations of their immortal Bradley, which, in 

 his hands, becamo the base of modern astronomy. 



Foreign Contributors. 



Passing from this recollection, so proud jet so mournful to HS all as friends and admir- 

 ers ot the deceased Prussian astroncmer, can an> one see with more delight than myself 

 tbe brilliant concurrence at our present meeting of n.ituralists, geolo^dsls, physiologists, 

 ethnologists, and statists, wi>h mathtmalicians, astronomers, ntechauicians, aud experi- 



mental philosophers in physics and in chemistry? Surely, then, Imay he allowed to 

 signalise a particular ground of gratification among so many, in the presence at this meet- 

 ing of two Individuais in our experimental sections, to one of whom, our eminent loreign 

 associate. Oersted, we owe the first great link between electric and magnetic phenomena, 

 by shotting the magnetic properties of the galvanic current; whilst the other, our owa 

 Faraday, among other new and great truths which have raised the character of EngUsh 

 fcieiicc throughout the world, obtained the converse proof by evoking electricity out of 

 magnets. And if it he not given to the geologist whom you have honoured with this 

 chair, to explain how such arcana have been revealed, still as a worshipper in the outer 

 portico of the temide of physical science, he may be permitted to picture to himself the 

 delight which the Danish philosopher must have felt when, on returning to our shores, 

 after an absence of a quarter of a centurj*. he found that the grand train of discovery of 

 which he is the progenitor, had just received its crowning accession In England from his 

 former disciple, who, through a long and brilliant series of investigations peculiarly bis 

 own, has shown that magnetic or dia-magnetic forces are distributed throughout all oa- 

 ture. 



And thus shall we continue to be a true British Association, with cosmopolite con- 

 nexiuns, ao long as we have among ua eminent men to attract such foreign contemporaries 

 to our shores. If then at the la».t assembly we experienc; d the good eff"ects uhich flowed 

 from a concentr.\tiou of profound mathematicians and oiagueticians, drawn together Irom 

 different European kingdoms — if then also the man (Mr. Everett) ot solid learning, who 

 tlien represented the United States of America, and who is now worthily presiding over 

 the Cambridge University of his native soil, spoke to us with chastened eloquence of the 

 benefits our institution was conferring on mankind; let us rejoice that this meeting is 

 honoured by the presence of foreign philosophers as distinguished as those of any former 

 year. 



Let us rejoice that we have now among us men of science from Denmark, Sweden, Rus- 

 sia, Prussia, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, and France. The King of Denmark, himself 

 personally disiiiitiuished for his acquaiotaHce with several branches of natural history, 

 and a warm patron of science, has honoured us by sending hither, not only the great dis- 

 coverer Oe^^ted, who evincing fresh vigour in his mature age, brings with him new com- 

 munications on physical science, hut also my valued fr.end, the able geologist and chemist 

 Forchhammer, who has producer! the first geological map of DenniErk, aiid who has pre- 

 sented to us a lucid meuioir on the influence exercised by marine plants on the formation 

 of ancient crystalline rocks, on the present sea, and on agriculture. 



As these eminent men of the north received me as the General Secretary of the British 

 Association with their wonted cordiality at the last Scandiuavian Assembly, I trust we 

 may convince them, that the sentiment is reciprocal, and that Englishmen are nearly akia 

 to ibem 111 the virtues of friendship and ho3pitalit5 which so distinguish the dwellers 

 within the circle of Odin. 



Still adverting to Scandinavia, we see here a deputy from the country of Lionieus in 

 the person of Professor Svanberg, a successful young experimenter hi physics, who repre- 

 sents his great master, Berzelius— that profound chemist and leader of the science of the 

 Not th of Europe, who established on a firm basis the laws of atomic weights and defiaitc 

 proportions, and who has personally assured me, that if our meeting had not been fixed 

 in the month of September, when the agriculturists of Sweden assemble at Stockholm, 

 he would assuredly have repaired to lis. And if the same cause has prevented Nilsson 

 from coming hither, and has abstracted Retzius from us (who was till within these few 

 days in England), I cannot mention these distinguished men, who earnestly desired to be 

 present, wiibout expressing the hrpe that the memoirs they commuuicate to us may give 

 siicb additional support to our British ethnologists as will enable this new branch of 

 science, which investigates the origin of races and languages, to take the prominent place 

 in our assemblies to which it is justly entitled. 



The Royal Academy of Berlin, whose deputies on former occasions have been an Ehreo- 

 berg, a Buch, and an Erman, has honoured us by sending hither M. Heinrich Rose, 

 whose work on chemical analysis is a textbook even for the most learned chemists in 

 every country ; and whilst his researches on the constitution of minerals, like those of 

 his eminent brother Gustave on their form, have obtained for him so high a reputation, 

 be now brings to us the description of a now metal which he has discovered in the Tan- 

 talite of Bavaria. 



Switzerland has again giyen to us that great master in palseontology, Agassia, and also 

 our old friend Protessor Schonbein, who in addition to his report on ozone, to which I 

 have already referred, has now brought to us a discovery of vast prjictical importance. 

 The "gun-cotton" ot Schonbein, the powers of which he will exhibit to his colleagues, is 

 an explosive substance, uhich, exercising a stronger projectile force than gunpowder^ is 

 stated to possess the great adrantages over it of producing littie or no smoke or noise, 

 and of scarcely soiling fire-arms; whilst no amount of wet injures this new substance! 

 which is as serviceable after being dried as in its first condition. The mere mention of 

 these properties, to which our associate lays claim for his new material, is sufficient to 

 show its extraordinary value in all warlike affairs, as also in every sort of subterranean 

 blasting. 



Professor Matteucci of Modena, who joined us at the York meeting, and then explained 

 his various new and delicate investigations in electro physiology, again favours lis with a 

 visit, as the representative of the Italian Philosophical Society uf Mudena and of the 

 University of Pisa. This ingenious philosopher, who has measured the ellect ot galvanic 

 currents in exciting through the nerves mechanical force in the muscles, doubtless brings 

 with him such interesting contribution as wiil add great additional interest to the pro- 

 ceedings of the Physiological Section. 



Having already spoken of the rapid progress which the sciences are making in Belgium, 

 through the labours of our associate Quetalet and others, it is with pleasure I announce 

 that M. de Koningk, the paUtontologist, who has mainly contributed to this advance and 

 to the solid loundation of the geology of his country by his excellent work ou palteozoic 

 fossils, has been sent to us by his own government. 



Among these sources of just pride and gratification, no one has afforded me sincerer 

 pleasure than to welcome hither the undaunted Siberian explorer. Professor von Midden- 

 dorf. Deeply impressed as I am with the estimation iu which science is held by the 

 illustrious ruler ot the empire ot Russia, I cannot but hope that the presence of this tra- 

 veller, so singularly distinguished for his enterprising exploits, may meet with a friend in 

 every Englishman who is acquainted with the arduous nature of his travels. To traverse 

 Siberia from south to north, and from west to east ; to reach by land the extreme nortfiern 

 headland of Taimyr; to teach us, tor the first time, tha: even to the latitude of 7:.' deg. 

 Bonh, trees with steins extend themselves in that meridian; that crops of rye,'more 

 abundant than in his native Livonia, grow beyond Yakutsk, on the surface of that frozen 

 subsod, the intensity and measure of cold in which he has determined by ihermometric 

 experiments, to explain, through their language and physical form, the origin of tribes 

 now lar removed from their parent stock ; to explore the far eastern regions of the sea of 

 Obkotsk and of the Shantar Isles ; to define the remotest north-eastern boundary be- 

 tween China and Russia ; and finally to enrich St. Petershurgh with the natural produc- 

 tions, both fossil and recent, of all these wild and untroddeu lands, are the exploits lor 

 which the Hoyal Ueographical Society of London has, at its last meeting, conierrcd its 

 Gold Victoria Medal on this most successful explorer. Professor Middendorf now visits 

 us lo converse with our naturalists most able to assist him, and to inspect oui- museums, 

 in which, by com|)arisun, he can best determine the value of specific characters betore he 

 completes the description of his cjpious accumulations; and 1 trust that during his stay 

 in England he will be treated with as much true hospitality as I have myself received at 

 the hands of his kind countrymen. 



It is impossible tor me to make this allusion to the Russian empire without assuring 

 you that our allies in science on the Neva, who have previously sent to us a JacoLi and 

 Kupffer, are warmly desirous of continuing their good connexiou with us. It was indeed 

 a source of great pleasure to me to have recently had personal intercourse iu this very 



