432 



NATURE 



[Sept. 8, 1 88] 



but before he came, "the bow," to quote Mr. Teuayson's words, 

 "had assumed its usual colours, which were, however, very 

 faint." Mrs. Tennyson says the pink colour "was visible for a 

 very little time just at sunset, and then I saw a dull olive green 

 at the lower edge." After that, as Mr. Tennyson says, we all 

 saw the vanishing ghost, as it were, of an ordinary rainbow. 

 The actual uniform redness came just at sunset, as marked in 

 the almanac we consulted — ten minutes past seven. A. M. 

 August 26 



The Glacial Period 



Please correct an error in the notice of ray paper on the 

 Glacial Period (Nature, vol. xxiv. p. 364). It is on the western 

 slope of New Zealand that the glaciers reach to the highest mean 

 annual temperature (10° C, or 50" F.) as well as to the lowest 

 level. Apropos of my studies on this subject, I should be very 

 glad to meet some of the British glacialists at Venice, at the 

 third International Geographical Congress, and discuss some 

 points of interest with them. As there is, a few days later, an 

 International Geological Congress at Bologna, it will be the 

 easier for geologists to make a .short stay at Venice before. The 

 Geographical Congress begins on September 15. 



St. Petersburg, August 13-25 A. Woeikof 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 



THE Jubilee Meeting of the British Association has 

 come to a close, and whether we take the test of 

 work done, or of the numbers present as members or asso- 

 ciates, it must be admitted that it has been a great success. 

 While in 1879, »'' 'he densely populated town of SheftiLld, 

 the total was 1404, and at Swansea last year 915, the 

 number has risen this year to 2533, which includes 22 

 foreign members, 510 ladies, and 1173 associates. Of 

 course York does not supply the whole of the latter : 

 many come from Leeds, Sheffield, and Scarborough, and 

 the surrounding towns. Seven times previously has the 

 number been greater ; the maximum (3335) having been 

 attained at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1863. As regards work 

 done, it may be mentioned that on Friday nearly a hundred 

 papers were announced for reading in the various sections. 

 One of the laws of the Jewish jubilee festival was that the 

 land should remain unfilled for a year; but we have re- 

 versed this, and only cultivated our scientific soil the more. 

 Sir David Brewster, in the original letter which laid the 

 foundations of the society, suggested York as the most 

 central city of the three kingdoms, but he first inquired 

 " if York will furnish the accommodation necessary for so 

 large a meeting, which might perhaps consist of 100 indi- 

 viduals." Apparently therefore he did not contemplate 

 the admission of associates, or the use of the Association 

 as a means of scattering broadcast the results of the 

 scientific year, but rather regarded it as a means whereby 

 the cultivators of science inight become better acquainted 

 with each other at a time when communication with 

 London was far inore difficult, and intercourse through 

 scientific publications far more restricted than now. But 

 the first meeting numbered 350 members, and included 

 some of the most representative men of science of the day. 

 On this occasion the presidential address lasted five 

 minutes. 



The proceedings commenced on Wednesday, August 31, 

 by the reading of the Report of the Council, in which it 

 was announced that Mr. P. L. Sclater had resigned the 

 office of general secretary, and that he would be succeeded 

 by Mr. F. M. Balfour of Cambridge. Mr. G. E. Gordon 

 has also retired from the assistant secretaryship, and is 

 to be succeeded by Prof Bonney, with the title of secre- 

 tary and a salary of 300/. per annum, with 25/. for 

 travelling expenses. Mr. Spottiswoode succeeds Sir 

 Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton as trustee. 



The new members of council are Messrs. Warren De La 

 Rue, A. Vernon Harcourt, G. W. Hastings, J. C. Hawk- 

 shaw, and G. Prestwich. 



Sir John Lubbock's address was listened to by a very 



crowded audience. The Exhibition Hall is a fine build- 

 ing, and was prettily decorated, but its acoustic properties 

 are somewhat deficient, and the unsteady electric light 

 was painful to the eyes. The address occupies fifty octavo 

 pages, of which nearly twenty were omitted during deli- 

 very. On the subject of education the President expressed 

 himself strongly ; he asked that more time should be 

 given to French, German, science, and mathematics. 

 " What we ask is that, say, six hours a week each should 

 be devoted to mathematics, modern languages, and 

 science, an arrangement which would still leave twenty 

 hours for Latin and Greek" ; and he added, "we can- 

 not but consider that our present system of education is, 

 in the words of the Duke of Devonshire's Commission, 

 little less than a national misfortune." 



Sir John Lubbock adopted a judicious mean between 

 the address devoted entirely to one subject on the one 

 hand, and giving a general ivsiiiiu' of the progress of all 

 the sciences on the other ; for while he spoke in detail 

 and authoritatively concerning the biological sciences, he 

 also furnished accounts of the progress of the physical 

 sciences, prepared by men well competent to discuss 

 them. 



The Section work began in earnest on Thursday 

 morning. Some idea of the number of representative 

 men who were present at the meeting may be gathered 

 from the fact that in Section A there are ten vice-pre- 

 sidents and fifty-seven members of committee, and these 

 numbers are exceeded in some of the sections ; so that 

 there are more than fifty vice-presidents of sections, and 

 more than three hundred members of sectional committees. 

 The sections were housed in capacious and very suitable 

 rooms, and the attendance was very good. 



The loan collection of scientific apparatus, although it 

 contained some very interesting examples, was by no means 

 a collection which represents the experimental progress 

 of the last fifty years, and the appeal for historical 

 apparatus has scarcely been responded to. The exhibi- 

 tion was shown at the Thursday j-^V/w, and remained open 

 till the end of the week of meeting. A good catalogue 

 of thirty-two pages was prepared. We may particularly 

 notice some beautifully-finished telescopes and transit 

 instruments, and an electric chronograph exhibited by 

 Messrs. T. Cooke and Sons ; a model of the Vienna 

 27-inch refractor and its dome by Mr. Howard Grubb ; 

 and a very old telescope constructed by Abraham Sharp. 

 The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society ex- 

 hibited some of the apparatus used by John Dalton in his 

 researches ; and the Science and Art Department sent 

 astrolabes and sun-dials of the sixteenth, seventeenth, 

 and eighteenth centuries. A few instruments were sent 

 by foreign makers. Dr. Stone exhibited a large syren 

 fitted with a key-board and worked at an uniform rate by 

 clockwork. A quantity of physiological apparatus was 

 exhibited by Dr. Burdon-Sanderson and Mr. G. B. 

 Thistleton. Mr. Francis Galton exhibited and ex- 

 plained his composite photographic process, "a method 

 of superposing the images of separate portraits and 

 thence creating a face, the sum of all the components 

 employed ; it has a curious air of individuality about it, 

 but is a perfectly ideal face, like all, but exactly resembling 

 none." Dr. Tempest Anderson, one of the local secre- 

 taries, exhibited some ophthalmic appliances. The North- 

 Eastern Railway Company exhibited an interesting meteo- 

 rite which fell on March 14 last between the Middlesbrough 

 and Ormesby stations of the Guisborough line. It is of 

 the stony tufaceous type, and weighs three and a half 

 pounds. 



On Friday afternoon several manufactories were visited, 

 also the gas-works and water-works. Messrs. Cooke's 

 works were of especial interest, particularly the processes 

 connected with the grinding of lenses and the graduation 

 of circles by means of a large dividing-engine, the great 

 circle of which is marked with divisions, each of which is 



