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NATURE [ Sepz. 29, 1870 © 
438 
maticians, Prof. Plateau of Bruges, Dr. Anton Dohrn 
of Jena, Prof. Von Baumhauer of Leyden, and others. 
Some of these have added greatly to the interest of the 
sections in which they took part, and haye been very 
warmly received. Dr. Dohrn in particular was greeted 
with much warmth, from the fact that three weeks ago he 
was summoned to join the German army and had not 
since been heard of by his English friends. The state- 
ment of alocal paper that Prof. Hofmann of Berlin is here 
is incorrect. A letter was, however, read from him in the 
Chemical section, soliciting contributions in kind from 
our chemical manufacturers for the needs of the German 
hospital service. A large audience met to-day in the 
Geographical section to hear Lord Milton read his paper 
on “ Railway Routes across America ;” and the lecture- 
room in which the Ethnological sub-section holds its 
meetings was crammed whilst Sir John Lubbock was dis- 
coursing on “Stone Implements from Western Africa.” 
The small and inconvenient Crown Court in St. George’s 
Hall devoted to Section A had a much larger complement 
than usual while the Rev. F. Howlett read his paper on 
“Solar Spots,” and exhibited his elaborate diagrams, 
showing the great interest now taken by the public in 
solar phenomena ; although, at the same time, Section G 
offered a counter attraction, especially to the members 
connected with the town, in Mr. Mackie’s and Sir E. 
Belcher’s papers on “The Unprotected State of Liver- 
pool.” The heavy rain and thick fog of yesterday morning 
have both cleared off, and the weather is again everything 
that could be desired. 
The subject of Spontaneous Generation is undoubtedly 
the question of the meeting of the British Association for 
1870. The title of the paper by Professor Huxley which 
headed yesterday’s list in the department of Zoology and 
Botany, did not appear to bear directly upon it, and yet 
it was generally understood that it would reopen the 
subject. The President’s discourse, for he had scarcely a 
note before him, was a popular account of the mode of 
development and form of those minute structures which 
the microscope reveals in such prodigious numbers in 
infusions containing organic matter, Penxzcillium, Torula, 
Bacterium, and Vibrio. He adduced arguments in favour 
of the theory that these various bodies are not distinct 
organisms, but are different modes of development of the 
same substance, and a more admirable and luminous ex- 
position, it was generally admitted, has seldom been 
delivered. In the course of his remarks, Prof. Huxley 
took occasion to explain the difference between the 
“Brownian” motion of the molecules of inorganic matter, 
and the vital motions of living matter, and expressed his 
conviction that the motions observed by Dr. Bastian in 
the infusions which had been subjected to long-continued 
high temperatures, were referable to the former and not 
to the latter cause. During the discussion which followed, 
Dr. Bastian entered the room, but when called on by the 
president of the section, preferred deferring his reply till 
the following day. This morning Dr. Bastian gave an 
account of his experiments on the contents of hermetically 
sealed cases of preserved meats, with which the readers 
of NATURE are already familiar, and reiterated his con- 
clusion that the facts he had elicited were such as to 
throw on the Biogenists the burden of proof that life did 
not really, as was apparently the case, originate de ovo 
from lifeless materials. Professor Huxley was not able to 
be present at this discussion, but a somewhat sharp 
passage of arms took place between Dr. Bastian and 
Professor Tyndall, each maintaining his well-known view 
respecting the atmospheric germ theory. The reply of 
Prof. Tyndall, “ Prof. Huxley’s lieutenant,” as he was 
described by the president of the section, was not gene- 
rally accepted as conclusive, in consequence of his appa- 
rently not having made himself thoroughly acquainted 
with the facts of the series of experiments performed by 
Dr. Bastian, 
Several of the sections had got through their pro- 
gramme of papers yesterday, but the majority sat this 
morning, and Section D even intruded into the time fixed 
for the meeting of the General Committee which con- 
cluded the business of the meeting. In opening the 
business of the committee, Professor Huxley remarked 
that whatever reports are issued in the name of the com- 
mittee of recommendations, it should be clearly under- 
stood that they are issued without any sanction of the 
Association, and that the responsibility of these reports, 
and the conclusions that may be drawn from them, rest 
entirely with the authors of the reports. The Association 
does not for one moment endorse views on subjects on 
which persons of eminence may hold different opinions. 
All that the Association is responsible for, is to place in a 
position for making reports gentlemen who are competent 
to make them ; what these gentlemen say is entirely on 
their own responsibility. Grants were then ordered for 
various purposes, as recommended by the committee of 
recommendation, in accordance with the list which will 
be found in another column. A number of resolutions 
not involving grants of money, which came up from the 
various sections, were also passed.* The most important 
among these were :—A resolution on the subject of 
Vivisection,and appointment of a committee, from Section 
D; a resolution, brought up from Sections A and B, 
requesting the Council to co-operate with the Councils of 
the Royal and Astronomical Societies urging on the 
Government the propriety of reconsidering their refusal 
to aid in the observation of the approaching Total Eclipse 
of the sun by the grant of a vessel ; a resolution from 
Sections A, B, and G, with reference to the proposed 
foundation by the Government of an Engineering College, 
to the effect that it is undesirable that any fresh grants 
should be made for purposes of scientific instruction 
until the Royal Science Commission has reported. The 
only resolution which excited much discussion was one 
from Section F in favour of the adoption of a compulsory 
metric system of weights and measures. An amendment 
was moved by Mr. Hawksley, and seconded by Professor 
Rankine, that the recommendation should be limited to 
the adoption of the metric system for international pur- 
poses, on the ground that a binary system is now, and 
always will be, the mode adopted by uneducated persons 
in .all countries for their own purposes, as being the 
simplest. The amendment was adopted by a considerable 
majority. 
Saturday 
Those who were present at the meeting of the British 
Association which has just concluded its sittings, speak of 
it as presenting some points of favourable contrast with 
preceding meetings. There were still a good many papers 
presented of a purely technical character, which would 
have been far more suitable for the transactions of one of 
the learned societies, and which were perfectly unsuited 
for the miscellaneous audience collected to hear them. 
On the other hand there were not a few, perhaps a larger 
number than on previous occasions, which treated purely 
scientific subjects in a philosophical manner, calculated 
not only to interest but to enlarge the minds of all who 
had the pleasure of listening to them, I may illustrate 
my remark by reference to one division only, Section D. 
A glance over the titles of the papers read in this section 
will at once suggest several belonging to the former cate- 
gory. On the other hand, Dr. Brown-Sequard’s paper on 
“Various Alterations of Nutrition due to Nervous Influ- 
ence,” and Prof. Flower’s on the “ Connection of the 
Hyoid Arch with the Skull,” though treating of subjects 
belonging to pure science, were discussed in a manner 
which carried with them a non-scientific audience, who 
cannot have failed to carry away some ideas altogether 
new to them. In the same manner Prof. Huxley’s 
* Owing to these resolutions not having been yet sanctioned by the 
Council, we are compelled to defer their publication for the present. 
