scarcely say thac | anticipated it in us present form), 
that I would willingly have consented to giving him 
away gvatis if an opportunity had offered. Probably 
few of us admired the animal more than I did; but 
I have considerable knowledge of those who have 
attempted to keep such elephants in captivity in 
Europe. It is said that, as we have no difficulty in 
keeping lions, which are more dangerous, there need be 
no danger with elephants; but the deduction is not 
sound. A lion is always dangerous, and can be treated 
accordingly ; an elephant, which inspires confidence by 
its usual docility, is on that very account a far more diffi- 
cult and dangerous animal to deal with. In many zoo- 
logical gardens on the Continent I have seen elephants 
boxed and chained up, without being allowed to take a 
foot of exercise, sometimes for years together ; and on 
inquiry I have always found that it had been necessary to 
restrain the animal, because at some unexpected moment 
it had killed or injured its keeper. In India this would 
only be looked upon as an ordinary incident in an 
elephant’s life ; but if such an event were to happen in 
our Gardens (as I must say | have felt morally certain it 
would do sooner or later, if Jumbo remained there), 
what should we have had to do with the animal? Could we 
have ever again let him pace about the Gardens with his 
precious freight of little children on his back? But much 
worse than even killing a single keeper might have hap- 
pened if the animal had once got beyond control. We 
have been warned by high legal authority of our respon- 
sibilities on this subject. It is possible that we may 
have been /co apprehensive, /vo careful, about the lives of 
our servants and of our visitors; we may possibly have 
looked at difficulties incident to the management of our 
gardens, into the details of which it would be useless to 
detain this meeting by entering upon, in too serious a 
light ; but this was a case in which we felt that to be on 
the safe side was the right course to pursue. I do not 
say that other bolder and more enterprising managers, 
who might look upon the attractions of the Gardens in a 
more commercial spirit, might not possibly have taken a 
different course ; for we were quite aware that the loss of 
the animal might for a time be detrimental to the income 
of the Society. For this reason we also, as custodians of 
the Society’s finances, thought it not right to decline to 
avail ourselves of the very unexpected opportunity of 
diminishing that loss, as far as possible, by the animal's 
sale. Some persons have called in question the “morality” 
of this transaction. How any one who has ever sold a 
horse, cow, sheep, oy pig can do so, I cannot imagine. If 
the purchasers elect to take an animal, knowing all its 
imperfections, and the vendors are satisfied that it will 
pass into hands where there is every reasonable prospect 
of its being properly treated, what more can be required ? 
Then we have been told that we ought to have killed the 
elephant. To this I decidedly demur, unless the principle 
is admitted that every one who has a horse, a dog, or any 
other animal, which has become through any circum- 
stances inconvenient for him to keep, is bound to destroy 
it. This may be the doctrine of a few visionary enthu- 
siasts, but it is not common sense, it is not humanity. If 
the life of an animal is of any use to it (and I see no reason 
why this elephant may not enjoy his life for perbapsa few 
years longer), there is no reason for taking it away until 
the time comes when it is absolutely necessary to do so, 
Besides, as I mentioned before, as trustees and managers 
of the Society's property, we are bound to look after its 
finances. You surely all know that the operations of the 
Society cannot be carried on without means, and that 
every penny received by the Society is spent upon the 
purposes indicated in the Charter ; and yet many persons 
(I am almost ashamed to allude to such folly and ignor- 
ance), have spoken as if the Council, or the officers of the 
Society, had some direct pecuniary interest in selling the 
elephant. 
NATURE 
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2 
wi 
[arch 
serious side among the many ludicrous incidents that 
have arisen out of this affair. This is the rash or wilful 
misrepresentations that have been so freely indulged in 
against a body of gentlemen of whose general qualifica- 
tions for the offices which they hold it is not perhaps 
necessary for me to speak in this assembly (their names 
should be a sufficient guarantee of this), but of whom I 
may say, from my intimate knowledge, that they are con- 
stantly endeavouring, often at considerable personal 
sacrifice, to bring their varied knowledge and experience 
to bear upon carrying out the work of the Society for the 
advancement of science, and for the benefit of the 
Fellows of the Society and the public generally. Our 
accomplished Secretary of whose successful general ad- 
ministration of the Society no one who did not know its 
condition as I happen to do before he took office, and 
has not watched its growing prosperity for the last five 
and twenty years, can form an adequate idea, has not 
been spared, although in his share in this transaction he 
certainly had no interest but that of the Society at heart. 
There is much in this which is to me a novel and pain- 
ful experience; but I am told that it is what all must 
expect who undertake the responsibility of any kind of 
work for the benefit of others. However this may be in 
political life, it might have been hoped that among those 
who followed the calmer pursuits encouraged by _this 
Society, there would not have been any found who, either 
openly or under cover of anonymous slander in news- 
paper articles, letters, and postcards, would have imputed 
to us, which I regret to say has been so freely done, 
motives absolutely contrary to those by which we know 
we have been ever actuated. 
ON DUST-EXPLOSIONS IN COLLIERIES 
‘THE observations and experiments of M.. Vital, in 
France, and of Mr. Galloway, Prof. Abel, and the 
late Prof. Freire Marreco, in this country, have shown, 
beyond all question, that we must look to the power 
possessed by coal-dust, and possibly even by finely-divided 
incombustible inorganic matter, when suspended in air, 
of propagating or enlarging the area of an explosion as 
one of the main causes of those frightful occurrences, 
which now and then decimate even an entire mining 
community. There can be little doubt, that so far as the 
loss of life is concerned, dust-explosions are, as a rule, 
far more disastrous than mere explosions of gas. A shot 
is blown out, or, by some mischance, the gas in the goat, 
or in some hole in the roof, is fired: the concussion of 
air raises a cloud of dust, among the particles of which 
the flame rushes with explosive violence. Fresh dust is 
raised, to form fresh fuel for the devouring flame, which, 
as in the case of the Penygraig explosion, so carefully 
investigated by Mr. Galloway, is thereby enabled to pene- 
trate and search into the innermost recesses of the 
workings, provided they be sufficiently dry and dusty. 
Every particle of free oxygen is thus practically used up, 
and the resultant atmosphere is a suffocating mixture of 
nitrogen, carbonic acid, carbonic oxide, hydrocarbons, 
and partially-coked dust, against which the men, over 
whom the flame may have passed, with little hurt, have 
not the slightest chance. 
It may possibly be of interest to those who, like myself, 
have to teach chemistry in a coal-mining district, to know 
of an experiment which illustrates in a striking manner 
the ma.n features of a dust explosion. The experiment 
is to make an explosion at one end of along and narrow 
This brings me, in conclusion, to the one most | wooden tube, representing the gallery of a mine ; to show 
