Aug. 10, 1871] 
years ago, knew little of astronomy, chemistry, and 
physics. Such, however, has been the unfortunate policy 
of the Church for many centuries. I need not remind you 
that the great Galileo died a prisoner of the Inquisition, 
and that Servetus was publicly burnt in Geneva, by the 
authority of Calvin. The true cause, unquestionably, of 
the present chasm in thought which divides the literary 
and religious from scientific men is, that the former have 
been bred up in ignorance of physiology, that is, of all 
that relates to their own bodily structure, functions, 
and requirements. Unfortunately, their education causes 
in them a want of appreciation and an incapacity of 
comprehending scientific truths. Clergymen 
and most religious teachers are totally insensible to 
the errors and discrepancies of language they use 
in the pulpit; sothat, when the scientific man takes his 
place in church, he is surprised at the manifest ignorance 
of established truths constantly preached to the people.” 
The main object of the lecture was to insist upon the fact 
that physiology in some form or other should constitute a 
part of the education of every one. A Committee of 
the British Association for the Advancement of Science 
strongly recommended it in 1868 ; and wherever it has 
been tried it has been attended with marked success, 
especially in girls’ schools, and to illustrate this point Mr. 
Bennett showed how, adding that ‘‘ Perhaps women in all 
classes and degrees of society have more to do with the 
preservation and duration of human life even than men ; 
and in all ranks of society should have physiology taught 
them. It should be an essential subject in their primary, 
secondary, and higher schools. So strong are my convic- 
tions on this subject, that I esteem it a special duty to 
lecture on physiology to women, and whenever I have done 
so, have found them most attentive and interested in the 
subject, possessing indeed a peculiar aptitude for the study, 
and an instinctive feeling—whether as servants or mis- 
tresses, wives or mothers—that that science contains for 
them, more than any other, the elements of real and useful 
knowledge. In advocating the propriety, therefore, of in- 
troducing physiology as an essential part of education to 
all classes of society, I would observe in the last 
place, that when you enter upon the duties of your pro- 
fession, you will find too frequently that your best efforts are 
frustrated by parents, nurses, or attendants on the sick, 
who, not comprehending, are therefore incapable of 
carrying out your instructions. I have myself seen, only 
too frequently, the most melancholy deaths produced in 
families, and extreme wretchedness occasioned, from 
carelessness or ignorance of what ought to be done— 
arising entirely from an unacquaintance with the most 
common rules requisite for the preservation of life.” 
It is a strange rider to this to add, that the University 
here has just by its vote rendered the higher education 
of women in these subjects impossible for the present so 
far as Edinburgh is concerned, though it is fair to remark 
that the majority was so narrow that it is not too much 
to hope that ere long this decision, which is eminently 
to be regretted, will be reversed. 
At themeeting of the General Committee on Wednesday, 
the reports of the Council, in which they gave an account 
of their stewardships for the past year, and the report of the 
Kew Committee, were read. It is not necessary to give 
either of these documents 77 erfenso, but the following 
references to them may be useful. The connection be- 
tween the Association and Kew Observatory is to cease, 
and the Government is to be informed of the Association’s 
desire to see its direction and maintenance transferred to 
the Royal Society, who will administer the means placed at 
the disposal of science by the munificence of Mr. Gassiot. 
Dr. Hirst has resigned his office as joint general secretary, 
and Mr. Douglas Galton, C.B., F.R.S., has been elected 
to succeed him. Those who know Mr. Galton will 
heartily congratulate the Association on his willingness to 
undertake the duty. Prof. Van Beneden, Dr, Crafts, Dr. 
NATURE 

289 
Anton Dohrn, Governor Gilpin, of Colorado, H.H.the Rajah 
of Kolapore, M. Plateau, and Prof. Tchebichef have been 
added to the list of corresponding members. The consi- 
deration of some revised regulations drawn up by the 
Council for regulating the proceedings of the several 
sections was postponed for a future meeting. 
An important recommendation has been urged by the 
committees of the Biological and of the Geological sec- 
tions, which is likely—if accepted by the Council—to 
increase much the scientific value and interest of the 
meetings of the Association. It has been recommended 
that, in addition to the various rooms provided for the 
meetings of the sections, sale of tickets, &c., a room be 
annually provided for the purposes of a temporary 
museum, It cannot be doubted that such a museum 
would be a great success. In the meetings of the British 
Medical Association and the Archeological Association 
similar museums are very important features of the pro- 
ceedings. A good-sized room, provided with a number 
of glass-cases arranged on tables, such as are always to 
be hired in large towns, would constitute the machinery 
of the museum, One or two reliable members of the Asso- 
ciation would have the management of it, and exclude un- 
desirable or worthless objects, whilst whipping in all of 
special interest ; members would bring new and rare geo- 
logical specimens, zoological specimens, human crania, 
flint-weapons, physiological apparatus, chemical apparatus, 
and microscopes, which would all be arranged judiciously 
and ticketed. We have no hesitation in saying that such 
a museum, when once brought into working order, would 
be the greatest attraction of the meeting. The proposal 
was originated by Mr. Ray Lankester. 
Thanks to the exertions of Dr. King, who urged strongly 
the formation of a separate section for Ethnology, the 
meeting of the Committee was not altogether dull, and this 
gentleman, who is a born Irishman, ifnot an Irishman born, 
fairly convulsed the Committee by his method of appeal. 
First he urged that there should be a separate section, 
because the Queen and Prince Consort “had come in their 
yacht to visit all the sections” at the Southampton 
Meeting. Next he complained that at Exeter the ethno- 
logists “‘ were put into a room which would not hold them,” 
but the appeal was unavailing, Prof. Huxley’s guzetus 
came in due time, and the matter—and Dr. King—dropped, 
The definite acknowledgment of Anthropology as a 
department of the Biological Section of the British Asso- 
ciation, has led to the admission of a wide range of 
subjects in that department. “What is man?” is a 
question which cannot be answered by comparative 
anatomy alone. Dr. Tristram proposed in committee 
that Psychology be recognised as a distinct branch of 
Anthropology. This proposal was overruled by the decla- 
ration of the president, that man as a compound being 
could not be discussed apart from the psychological as- 
pects of the question. 
The Anthropological Department has, consequently, 
been flooded by papers of the most controversial tone on 
this side of the investigation of humanity. The most pro-: 
vocative papers on the subject were those of Mr. Staniland 
Wake, on Man and the Ape,and of Mr. Kaines, on the 
Anthropology of Comte. Both these papers are vigorously 
attacked on the Psychological side; the opponents of 
Positivism taking their stand on the contemptuous rejec- 
tion of metaphysics by the writers. But the Positivist 
papers necessarily invoked the theological element, as 
they assumed at the outset that the whole metaphysical 
side of the question must be expunged, as being a question 
of which physicists were incompetent to judge. This led 
to as universal an affirmation of the tripartite nature of 
man, by various speakers, led by Mr. Boyd Dawkins, and 
the impossibility of admitting the premises of the writers 
on his origin until the origin of his spirit had been 
demonstrated to be material. 
Among the topics of general conversation during the 
