Sept. 8, i8Si] 



NATURE 



43: 



equal to five minutes of arc. Saturday afternoon was as 

 usual devoted to excursions, but the steady downpour of 

 rain did much to mar the enjoyment. Several people in 

 the vicinity of York have entertained the members veiy 

 hospitably, and have thrown open their houses. On 

 Monday the usual meteorological breakfast took place ; 

 forty persons were present, and meteorology was the 

 chief order of the day in Section A. In the evening 

 Mr. Spottiswoode gave a discourse on " The Electric 

 Discharge." The Red Lion Club met on Tuesday before 

 the soiree. 



Southampton has been chosen as the place of meeting 

 in 1882, and Dr. C. W. Siemens has been elected pre- 

 sident. A vigorous contest for the honour of receiving 

 the Association took place yesterday between six towns : — 

 Leicester, Nottingham, Southport, Oxford, Birmingham, 

 and Aberdeen. The claims of each town were stated by 

 delegates, and afterwards votes were taken by a show of 

 hands. Birmingham withdrew. The President of the 

 Royal Society, Sir Joseph Hooker, and Professors Acland, 

 H. J. S. Smith, and Prestwich, strongly advocated the 

 claims of Oxford, and the show of hands was declared to 

 be in its favour. Southport was second on the list. 

 Worcester has lodged a claim for 1884. 



Altogether more than three hundred papers or reports 

 have been read. 



Eighteen papers were put on the list of Section A for 

 Tuesday ; twenty-eight in the Geological Section, thirteen 

 in that of Anthropology, and fifteen in Mechanical Science. 

 Thus the work has never flagged at all. 



At the Committee Meeting on Wednesday Capt. Bedford 

 Pim gave notice of motion that the meeting be held in 

 Canada in 1885. 



The following grants have been made : — 



£ 



The Council — Exploration of Mountain District of Eastern 



Equatorial Africa 100 



A — Mathematics and Physics 



Mr. G. H. Darwin — Lunar Disturbance of Gravity 15 



Dr. A. Schuster — Meteoric Dust 20 



Prof. Sylvester — Fundamental Invariants (partly renewed) 80 



Mr. R. H. Scott — Synoptic Charts of the Indian Ocean ... 50 

 Prof. G. C. Foster — Standards for Use in Electrical 



Measurements (partly renewed) .. 100 



B — Chemistry 

 Prof. Dewar — Present State of Knowledge of Spectrum 



Analysis 5 



Prof. Balfour Stewart — Calibration of Mercurial Thermo- 

 meters 20 



Prof. Roscoe — Wave-lengths Tables of S pectra of Elements 50 



Dr. Hugo MuUer — Chemical Nomenclature lo 



Prof. Odling — Photographing the Ultra-Violet Spark 



Spectra 25 



C — Geology 



Dr. J. Evans — Record of the Progress of Geology 100 



Prof. Ramsay — Earthquake Phenomena of Japan 25 



Dr. H. C. Sorby — Conditions of Conversion of Sedi- 



mentaiy Materials into Metamorpbic Rocks 10 



Prof. W. C. Williamson— Fostil Plants of Halifax 15 



Dr. Sorby — Conversion of Sediments into Metamorphic 



Rocks 10 



Prof. A. C. Ramsay — Geological Map of Europe 25 



Prof. E. Hull— Circulation of Underground Waters ... 15 

 Prof. W. C. Williamson — Tertiary Flora associated with 



the Basalts of the North of Ireland 20 



Dr. Sorby — British Fossil Polyzoa 10 



Prof. Leith-Adams — Carboniferous Limestone Caves in 



South Ireland 10 



Prof. Green — Ex plor.ation of Raygill Fissure 20 



D — Biology 

 Mr. F. M. Balfour — Table at the Zoological Stations at 



Naples 80 



Dr. Burdon-Sanderson — Albuminoid Substances of Serum 10 

 Dr. Pye Smith — Influence of Bodily Exercise on the 



Elimination of Nitrogen 50 



Dr. M. Foster — Zoological Station in Scotland £^0 



Mr. J. Cordeaux — Migration of Birds 15 



Lieut.-Col. Godwin-Austen — Natural Hi>tory of Socotra 100 



Mr. Staniton — Record of Zoological Literature 100 



Mr. Sclater — Natural History of Timorlaut 100 



Prof. Flower — Photographs of Typical Races 10 



Statistics 



Mr. F. Galton — Anthropometrics 50 



SECTION A 



MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL 



Opening Address by Sir William Thomson, F.R.S., 

 Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University 

 OF Glasgow, President of the Section 



On Ike Sources of Energy in Nature Available to Man for the 

 Production of Mechanical Effect 



During the fifty years' life of the British Association, the 

 Advancement of Science for which it has lived and worked so 

 well has rot been more marked in any department than in one 

 which belongs very decidedly to the Mathematical and Physical 

 Section — the science of Energy. The very name energy, though 

 first used in its present sense by Dr. Thomas Young about the 

 beginning of this century, has only come into use practically after 

 the doctrine which defines it had, during the first half of the 

 British Association's life, been raised from a mere formula of 

 mathematical dynamics to the position it now holds of a prin- 

 ciple pervading all nature and guiding the investigator in every 

 field of science. 



A little article communicated to the Royal Society of Edin- 

 burgh a short time before the commencement of the epoch of 

 energy under the title "On the Sources Available to Man for 

 the Production of Mechanical Effect "^ contained the following : — 



"Men can obtain mechanical effect for their own purposes by 

 working mechanically themselves, and directing other animals 

 to work for them, or by using natural heat, the gravitation of 

 descending solid masses, the natural motions of w.ater and air, 

 and the heat, or galvanic currents, or other mechanical effects 

 produced by chemical combination, but in no other way at 

 present known. Hence the stores from which mechanical effect 

 may be drawn by man belong to one or other of the following 

 classes : — 



" I. The food of animals. 



" II. Natural heat. 



"III. Solid matter found in elevated positions. 



"IV. The natural motions of water and air. 



"V. Natural combustibles (as wood, coal, coal-gas, oils, 

 marsh-gas, diamond, native sulphur, native metals, meteoric 

 iron). 



"VI. Artificial combustibles (as smelted or electrically-depo- 

 sited metals, hydrogen, phosphorus). 



" In the present communication, known facts in natiu'al history 

 and physical science, with reference to the sources from which 

 these stores have derived their mechanical energies, are adduced 

 to establish the following general conclusions : — 



"I. Heat radiated from the sun (sunlight being included in 

 this term) is the principal source of mechanical effect available to 

 man.- From it is derived the whole mechanical effect obtained 

 by means of animals working, water-wheels worked by rivers, 

 steam-engines, galvanic engines, windmills, and the sails of 

 ships. 



" 2. The motions of the earth, moon, and sun, and their 

 mutual attractions, constitute an important source of available 

 mechanical effect. From them all, but chiefly no doubt from 

 the earth's motion of rotation, is derived the mechanical efl^ect of 

 water-wheels driven by the tides. 



"3. The other known scurces of mechanical effect available 

 to man are either terrestrial — that is, belonging to the earth, 

 and available without the influence of any external body — or 

 meteoric — that is, belonging to bodies deposited on the earth 

 from external space. Terrestrial sources, including mountain 

 quarries and mines, the heat of hot springs, and the combustion 

 of native sulphur, perhaps also the combustion of inorganic 

 native combustibles, are actually used, but the mechanical effect 



" Read at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on February 2, 1832 (Proceed- 

 ings of that date). 



» A general conclusion equivalent to tliis was published by Sir John 

 Herschelin 1833. See his "Astronomy," edit. 1849, §(399). 



