Sept. 20, 1883] 



NA TURE 



503 



analysis of the fluorescence that manifests itself in certain bodies 

 when they are exposed to an electric discharge in a highly ex- 

 hausted vacuum. He describes, in an interesting and even 

 amusing manner, his three years' quest after the origin of a 

 certain citron band, which he observed in the spectrum of the 

 fluorescence of many substances, till he was led into that won- 

 derful labyrinth of uncertain elements which are found together 

 in samarskite, and eventually he proved the appearance to be 

 due to yttrium. As the test is an extremely delicate one, he has 

 obtained evidence of the very general dissemination of that 

 element, in very minute quantities — and not always very minute 

 — for the polypes that built up a certain pink coral were evidently 

 able to separate the earth from the sea water, as their calcareous 

 secretion contained about £ per cent, of yttrium. We have 

 reason to hope that this is only the first instalment of discoveries 

 to be made by this new method of research. 



I cannot conclude without a reference to the brightening 

 prospects of technical chemistry in this country. I do not allude 

 to the progress of any particular industry, but to the increased 

 facilities for the education of those engaged in the chemical 

 manufactures. First as to the workpeople. Hitherto the young 

 artisan has bad little opportunity of learning at school what 

 would be of the greatest service to him in his after career. The 

 traditions of ilie Middle Ages were all in favour of literary 

 culture for the upper classes, and the education suited for these 

 has been retained in our schools for the son;; of the people. It 

 is true that some knowledge of common things has been given in 

 the bet schools, and the Education Department has lately 

 encouraged the teaching of certain sciences in the upper stand- 

 ards. In the Mundella Code, however, which came into opera- 

 tion last year, "elementary science" may receive a grant in all 

 the classes of a boys' or girls' school, and in the suggested scheme 

 there is mentioned simple lessons on "the chemical and physical 

 principles involved in one of the chief industries of England, 

 among which Agriculture may be reckoned," while " Chemistry " 

 is inserted among "the specific subjects of instruction " that 

 may be given to the older children. It is impossible, as yet, to 

 form an estimate of the extent to which managers and teachers 

 have availed themselves of this permission, for the examinations 

 of Her Majesty's inspectors under the new ode have only just 

 commenced ; but one of the best of the Board Schools in London 

 has just passed satisfactorily in chemistry, both with boys and 

 girls. I trust that in those parts of the country where chemical 

 industries prevail, chemistry may be largely taken up in our 

 elementary schools. 



The great deficiency in our present educational arrangements 

 is the want of the means of teaching a lad v> ho has just left the 

 common school the principles of that industry by which he is to 

 earn his livelihood. The more purely scientific chemistry, how- 

 ever, may be learnt by him now in those evening classes which 

 may be formed under the Education Department, as well as in 

 those that have long been established under the Science and Art 

 Department. The large amount of attention that is now being 

 given to the subject of technical education is creating in our 

 manufacturing centres many technical classes and colleges for 

 students of older growth. 



As to inventors and the owners of our chemical factories, in 

 addition to the Chemical Society and the Chemical Institute, 

 there has recently been f aunded the Society of Chemical Industry. 

 It came into existence with much promise of success ; at the 

 close of its second year it numbered 1400 members ; it has now 

 powerful sections in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, 

 and Birmingham ; anditdiffu es information on technical subjects 

 in a well-conducted monthly j jurnal. 



May the ab-tract science and its useful applications ever prove 

 helpful to one another, and become more and mire one chemistry 

 for the benefit of mankind. 



SECTION C 



GEOLOGY 



Opening Address by Professor W. C. Williamson, 

 I.L.D., F.R.S., President of the Section. 



Much of the second decade of my life was spent in the 

 practical pursuit of geology in the field, and throughout most of 

 that period I enjoyed almost daily intercourse with William 

 Smith, the father of English Geology ; but in later years circucn- 

 s'ances restricted my studies to the Palaeontological side of the 

 science. Hence I was anxious that the council of the British 

 Association should place in this chair some one more familiar 



than myself with the later developments of geographical geology. 

 But my friend, Professor Bonney, failing to recognise the force 

 of my objections, intimated to me that I might render some 

 service to the Association by placing before you a sketch of the 

 present state of our knowledge of the vegetation of the Carboni- 

 ferous Age. 



This being a subject respecting which I have formed some 

 definite opinions, I am going to act upon the suggestion. To 

 some this may savour of "shop-talk." But such is often the only 

 talk which a man can indulge in intelligently, and to close his 

 mouth on his special themes may compel hi n either to talk 

 nonsense or to be silent. 



Whilst undertaking this task I am alive to the difficulties 

 which surround it, especially those arising fro.n the wide differ- 

 ences of opinion amongst palaeobotanists on some fundamental 

 points. On some of the most important of these there is a 

 substantial agreement between the English and German palaeon- 

 tologists. The dissentients are chiefly, though not entirely, to 

 be found amongst tho.e of France, who have, in my humble 

 opinion, been unduly influenced by what is in itself a noble 

 motive — viz. a strong reverence for the views of their illustrious 

 teacher, the late Adolphe Brongniart. Such a tendency speaks 

 well for their hearts, though it may, in these days of rapid 

 scientific progress seriously mislead their heads. I shall, how- 

 ever, endeavour to put before you faithfully the views entertained 

 by my distinguished French friends M. Renault, M. Grand-Eury, 

 and the Marquis of Saporta, giving, at the same time, what I 

 deem to be good reasons for not agreeing with them. I believe 

 that many of our disagreements arise from geological differences 

 between the French Carboniferous strata and those in our own 

 islands. There are some important types of Carboniferous 

 plants that appear to be much better represented amongst us than 

 in France. Hence we have, I believe, more abundant material 

 than the French palaeontologists possess for arriving at sou id 

 conclusions respecting these plants. We have rich sources sup- 

 plying specimens in which the internal organisation is preserved, 

 in Eastern Lancashire and Western Yorkshire, Arran, Burnt- 

 island, and other scattered localities. France has equally rich 

 localities at Autun and at St. Etienne. But some important 

 difference exists between these localities. The French objects 

 are preserved in an impracticable siliceous matrix, extremely 

 troublesome to work, except in specimens of small size. Ours, 

 on the other hand, are chiefly embedded in a calcareous material 

 which, whilst it preserves the objects in an exquisite manner, 

 does not prevent our dissecting examples of considerable magni- 

 tude. But, besides this, we are much richer in huge Lepido- 

 dendroid and Sigillarian trees, with their Stigmarian roots, than 

 the French are ; hence we have a vast mass of material illustrating 

 the history of these types of vegetation, in which they seem to 

 be seriously deficient. This fact alone appears to me sufficient 

 to account for many of the wide differences of opinion that exist 

 between us respecting these trees. My second difficulty springs 

 out of the imperfect state of our knowledge of the subject. One 

 prominent cause of this imperfection lies in the state in which 

 our specimens are found. They are not only too frequently 

 fragmentary, but most of those fragments only present the 

 external forms of the objects. Now, mere external forms of 

 fossil plants are somewhat like similarities of sound in the com- 

 parative study of languages. They are too of.en unsafe guides. 

 On the other band, microscopic internal organisations in the 

 former subjects are like grammatical identities in the latter one. 

 They indicate deep affinities that promise to guide the student 

 safely to philosophical conclusions. But the common state in 

 which our fossil plants are preserved presents a source of error 

 that is positive as well as negative. Most of those from our coal- 

 measures consist of inorganic shale, sandstone, or ironstone, 

 invested by a very thin layer of structureless coal. The surface 

 of the inorganic substance is moulded into some special form 

 dependent upon structural peculiarities of the living plants, 

 which structures were sometimes external, sometimes internal, 

 and sometimes intermediate ones. Upon this inorganic cast we 

 find the thin film of structureless coal, which, though of organic 

 origin, is practically as inorganic as the clay or sandstone which 

 it invests ; but its surface displays specific sculpturings which 

 are apt to be regarded as always representing the outermost 

 surface of the plant when living, whereas this is not always the 

 case. That the coaly film is a relic of the carbonaceous 

 substance of the living plant is unquestionable ; but the thinnest 

 of these films are often the sole remaining representatives of 

 structures that must originally been have many inches, and in some 

 instances even many feet, in thickness. In such cases most of 



