EARLY MEETINGS 29 



Lord Adare, Dr. Robinson, Dr. Lloyd, Sir William 

 Hamilton, and Professor MacCullagh ; and men of 

 immortal names were attracted from the continents 

 of Europe and America Arago, Bessel, Struve, 

 Liebig, Jacobi, Leverrier, Encke, Ermann, KupfEer, 

 Ehrenberg, Matteucci, Rogers, Bache, and Agassiz.' 



Murchison was a trustee of the Association from 

 1832 to 1870, a general secretary from 1836 to 1845, 

 and president in 1846. He is, therefore, one of the 

 best authorities for the early history of the Associa- 

 tion, and in the following paragraphs we quote freely 

 from the memoir of him by Sir Archibald Geikie 

 (1875). From York, towards the close of the first 

 meeting, he wrote thus to Whewell ; ' Before I 

 entered into the ' ' British Association '' which the 

 meeting at York has given rise to, I was very desirous 

 of weighing the men who were eventually to carry 

 us through. I was really very mainly induced to 

 join it in consequence of your letter to William 

 Vernon [Harcourt], and I was quite decided in doing 

 so when I saw the calibre of the men he had assembled, 

 and the promise of support from those who could 

 not attend. . . . Brewster really astonished every- 

 one with the brilliancy of his new lights, old Dalton, 

 " atomic Dalton," reading his own memoirs, and reply- 

 ing with straightforward pertinacity to every objec- 

 tion in the highly instructive conversations which 

 followed each paper. ... I had no memoir ready 

 myself, and did not intend to rob the Geological 

 Society of anything intended for them, but I found 

 that a poor and hard-worked druggist of Preston, 1 



1 Mr. W. Gilbertson (see Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1831-2, p. 82). The 

 shells referred to are in the Geological Museum, Jermyn Street, 

 London. 



