SEPTEMBER 14, 1899] 
WAT URE 
463 
THE DOVER MEETING OF THE BRITISH 
ASSOCIATION. 
ia is hardly yet possible to give anything like an 
accurate estimate of the number of members likely 
to be present at the meeting of the Association, but it is 
probable that there will be at least 1500 visitors. The 
foreign members of the Association will be well re- 
presented. Prof. Chappuis, of Paris, will discuss Ther- 
mometry in Section A. It is likely that Prof. Remsen 
will pay a flying visit to the meeting. Amongst 
other Americans who have promised to attend are 
Prof. Rotch, of the Blue Hill Observatory, Prof. 
Bauer, of the Magnetic and Geodetic Survey, Profs. 
Barker, Carl Barus, Campbell, Thurston and Scott. 
Prof. Calmette, of the Pasteur Institute, may pos- 
sibly attend, but he is at present engaged on the 
Plague Commission at Oporto : Prof. Kossel, of Marburg, 
is with him, but hopes to come to Dover if possible. 
Prof. Kronecker, of Berne, will be also present, so that 
the foreign physiologists are well represented. Of foreign 
chemists, besides those mentioned, are Profs. Ladenburg 
and Fittig and Georges Lemoine. Geography will be 
represented by Prof. Hjort, of Christiania; Dr. Gerhard 
Schott, of the Deutsche Seewarte, who will speak on the 
results of the Valdivia Deep Sea Exploration; H. 
Arctowski, who will read a paper on Arctic Exploration ; 
Admiral Markaroff, of the Russian Navy, will also attend. 
Abbé Renard, of Ghent, Dr. van Rijckevosel, Prof. Julin, 
of Liége, Prof. Cyon are a few of the other celebrated 
foreign men of science who are expected. 
The question of accommodation of the visitors has 
reached a very acute stage, if we may judge from 
the letters which have appeared in various London 
papers. Dover lodging-house keepers and their agents 
persist in thinking that the meeting of the Association 
will permit Ascot week charges to be made. There are 
lodgings of all kinds to be found at really moderate 
charges without difficulty, and the local secretaries are 
willing to do all in their power to assist members to 
obtain such accommodation. The strongest represent- 
ations have been made to the agents on the subject, and 
it is probable that there will be no further difficulties ; but 
of course it is hard to remove an impression which has 
got abroad. 
The installation of the Marconi system of wireless 
telegraphy has now been made in the Town Hall, and a 
sufficiently lofty pole has been erected to permit of the 
direct transmission of messages to Wimereux. It is 
intended that Prof. Fleming should transmit a message 
of congratulation on the evening of his lecture to the 
meeting held at Rome on the same day, and that the 
reply will reach Boulogne by the ordinary wire, and be 
transmitted by the wireless system before the meeting 
terminates. Demonstrations of the Marconi system of 
telegraphy will take place at the Mayor’s conversazione 
on Thursday evening. 
Itis hoped that about 400 of the French men of science 
will attend the luncheon to members of the French 
Association on Saturday. Some twenty Belgian geo- 
logists, who have been visiting London during the past 
ten days, will also be present. 
On the occasion of the French visit there will be special 
facilities for the inspection of the Castle, which will be 
closed to the general public on the afternoon of Saturday, 
to permit the military authorities to devote themselves 
entirely to the members of the British Association and 
their guests. 
The details of the foreign tour are all settled. Those 
who take part in this tour will have every occasion to 
look back with pleasure upon a very pleasant visit. At 
most of the towns visited there will be official receptions, 
with something of a special nature at Brussels on Sunday, 
September 24. 
The following details of the work in the Sections, 
NO. 1559, VOL. 60] 
omitted from last week’s have now been 
supplied. 
In Section C (Geology) the address of the President, 
Sir Archibald Geikie, will, it is hoped, be delivered on 
Saturday, September 16, in order that the members of the 
French Association may be present. The address will deal 
with matters of equal interest to geologists and physicists. 
Reports will be presented by a committee appointed 
at the Toronto meeting to investigate the Pleistocene 
flora and fauna of Canada ; by a committee which has 
been securing photographic records of the disappearing 
drift section at Moel Tryfan ; by the three committees 
appointed a short time ago to investigate the ossiferous 
caves at Uphill, near Weston-super- Mare, the Ty-Newydd 
caves, and the Irish elk remains in the Isle of Man. The 
report of the committee which has been engaged for some 
years in collecting photographs of geological interest in 
the British Isles, will this year be accompanied by that 
of a similar committee appointed for the same purpose 
in Canada ; and reports may be expected from other 
committees on erratic blocks, on life-zones in British 
carboniferous rocks, and on the registration of type 
specimens. 
The chief interest of this Section will, no doubt, centre 
round the explorations for coal in Kent, and communi- 
cations on this subject from Prof. Boyd Dawkins and 
Mr. Robert Etheridge will be awaited with expectation : 
in connection with this subject Mr. Jukes-Browne pro- 
mises a paper on a boring made through the chalk at 
Dieppe in 1898. Many French and Belgian geologists 
will, it is hoped, take part in the discussion on this and 
kindred subjects, especially as the Belgian Geological 
Society is holding a special meeting at Dover during 
that of the British Association. Among foreign visitors 
Prof. van den Broeck promises a paper on the Iguano- 
dons of Bernissart, and Prof. Renard one on the origin 
of chondritic meteorites. 
Among papers of local interest will be one by Prof. 
Boyd Dawkins on the geology of the Channel Tunnel ; 
one by Dr. Rowe on the Dover chalk; and one by 
Captain McDakin on coast erosion. Among other 
papers promised in this Section may be mentioned 
Prof. Sollas on homotaxy and on contemporaneity, and 
also on the origin of flint; Mr. Vaughan Cornish on 
photographs of wave phenomena; Dr. F. Moreno on 
Neomylodon ; Prof. Watts on the Mount Sorel granite; Mr. 
G. Abbott on water zones and their influence on concre- 
tions; Mr. Plunkett on the Fermanagh Caves ; and Dr. 
Tempest Anderson on the 1898 eruption of Vesuvius. 
In Section G (Mechanical Science) the programme of 
papers to be read and discussed is as follows :—Thursday, 
Presidential Address by Sir William White, K.C.B., 
F.R.S.; the Dover Admiralty Harbour Works, by W. 
Mathews ; non-inflammable wood and its use in warships, 
by E. Marshall Fox. Friday, a short history of the 
engineering works of the Suez Canal to the present time, 
by Sir Charles Hartley, K.C.M.G ; fast cross-Channel 
steamers, by Hon. C. A. Parsons, F.R.S.; the Niclausse 
water-tube boiler, by M. Robinson; the discharge of 
torpedoes below water, by Captain Lloyd. Saturday, the 
erection of Alexander III. Bridge in Paris, by A. Alby 
(of Paris). Monday, electrical machinery on board ship, 
by A. Siemens; earth currents from electric tramways, 
by J. Swinburne ; some recent applications of electro- 
metallurgy to chemical engineering, by Sherard Cowper 
Coles ; signalling without contact, a new system of rail- 
way signalling, by Wilfrid S. Boult. Tuesday, recent 
experiences with steam on common roads, by J. I. 
Thornycroft, F.R.S. ; the Dymchurch wall and the re- 
clamation of Romney Marsh, by E. Case; an instru- 
ment for gauging the circularity of boiler furnaces and 
producing a diagram, by T. Messenger ; and the sea lights 
of the south and south-east coasts of England, including 
' the Channel and Scilly Islands, by T. Kenward. 
article, 
