May 6, 1886 | 
NATURE 13 
INO TEES) 
WE refer elsewhere to the opening of the Colonial and 
Indian Exhibition on Tuesday. It argues ill for the spirit in 
which this Show is to be conducted that the representatives of 
British science, on which the progress of England beyond the 
seas has so largely depended in the past and must depend in the 
future, were so conspicuous by their abserze at the opening 
ceremony. Not even the President of the Royal Society was 
invited to be present, though tickets were liberally distributed 
to a large number whose prior claims we do not care to discuss. 
SCIENCE was well represented by the President of the Royal 
Society at the Royal Academy dinner on Saturday. Prof. 
Stokes showed how in several ways science is capable of render- 
ing service to art. The rules of perspective, he pointed out, 
involved clear geometrical conceptions ; while a knowledge of 
chemistry and physics would keep the artist often from violating 
nature. Prof. Stokes illustrated the point by referring to the 
inverted rainbow picture, adduced as an example for a similar 
purpose in these pages some years ago. At the same time he 
admitted with justice that art was not without its uses to 
science. Especially useful was it, he pointed out, as a refresh- 
ing and invigorating change for the mind of the scientific 
student, apt to get clogged and dulled by too eager direction to 
one particular subject. 
THE Fifty-sixth Annual Meeting of the British Association 
will commence at Birmingham on Wednesday, September 1, 
1886. The President-elect is Sir William Dawson, C.M.G., 
F.R.S., Principal of McGill College, Montreal, Canada. Vice- 
Presidents: The Right Hon. the Earl of Bradford, Lord- 
Lieutenant of Shropshire, the Right Hon. Lord Leigh, Lord- 
Lieutenant of Warwickshire, the Right Hon. Lord Norton, 
K.C.M.G., the Right Hon. Lord Wrottesley, Lord-Lieutenant 
of Staffordshire, the Right Rey. the Lord Bishop of Worcester, 
Thomas Martineau, Mayor of Birmingham, Prof. G. G. Stokes, 
Pres.R.S. (nominated by the Council), Prof. W. A. Tilden, 
B.R.S., Rev. A. R. Wardy, Rev. H. W. Watson, F.R.S. 
General Treasurer : Prof. A. W. Williamson, F.R.S., V.P.C.S., 
University College, London, W.C. General Secretaries : 
Capt. Douglas Galton, C.B., F.R.S., A. G. Vernon Harcourt, 
F.R.S. Secretary: Arthur T. Atchison. Local Secretaries 
for the Meeting at Birmingham: J. Barham Karslake, Rey. 
H. W. Crosskey, Charles J. Hart, Council House, Birmingham. 
Local Treasurer for the Meeting at Birmingham: J. D. Good- 
man. ‘The Sections are the following :--A. Mathematical and 
Physical Science—President: Prof. G. H. Darwin, F.R.S. ; 
Vice-Presidents : Donald MacAlister, M.D.; Rev. H. W. 
Watson, F.R.S. ; Secretaries: R. E. Baynes (Recorder), R. T. 
Glazebrook, F.R.S., Prof. J. H. Poynting, W. N. Shaw. B. 
Chemical Science—President: William Crookes, F.R.S. ; 
Vice-Presidents: Prof. Carnelly, W. H. Perkin, F.R.S.; 
Secretaries : Prof. P. Phillips Bedson (Recorder), H. B. Dixon, 
F.C.S., H. Forster Morley, D.Sc., F.C.S., W. W. J. Nicol, 
Ph.D., C. J. Woodward, B.Sc. C. Geology—President : Prof. 
T. G. Bonney, F.R.S, ; Vice-Presidents: Prof. C. Lapworth, 
- F.G.S., H. Woodward, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. ; Secretaries : 
W. Jerome Harrison, F.G.S., J. J. H. Teall, F.G.S., W. 
Topley, F.G.S. (Recorder), W. W. Watts, F.G.S.  D. Bio- 
logy—President : William Carruthers, F.R.S., F.L.S. ; Vice- 
Presidents: Prof. E. A. Schafer, F.R.S., M.R.C.S., P. L. 
Sclater, F.R.S., F.L.S., Sec.Z.S.; Secretaries: Prof. T. W. 
Bridge, Walter Heape (Recorder), Prof. W. Hillhouse, W. L. 
Sclater, F.Z.S., H. Marshall Ward. E. Geography—Pre- 
sident: Major-General Sir F. J. Goldsmid, K.C.S.I., C.B., 
F.R.G.S. ; Vice-Presidents: Major-General Sir Lewis Pelly, 
K.C.B., K.C.S.I., M.P., F.R.G.S., Capt. W. J. L. Wharton, 
R.N., F.R.G.S.; Secretaries: F. T. S. Houghton, J. S. 
Keltie, F.R.G.S., J. S. O'Halloran, F.R.G.S., E. G. Raven- 
stein, F.R.G.S. (Recorder). F. Economic Science and Sta- 
tistics—President : John Biddulph Martin, F.S.S.; Vice-Pre- 
sidents: G. W. Hastings, M.P., F.S.S., Sir R. Temple, Bart., 
Gs€.S.1., M.P., F.R-G:S:, F.S:S.; Secretaries: E. F. Bar- 
ham, Rev. W. Cunningham (Recorder), Prof. Foxwell, F.S.S., 
J. F. Moss, F.R.G.S. G. Mechanical Science—President : Sir 
James N. Douglass, M.Inst.C.E. ; Vice-Presidents: W. Ander- 
son, M.Inst.C.E.; W. P. Marshall, M.Inst.C.E. ; Secretaries : 
Conrad W. Cooke, J. Kenward, Assoc.Inst.C.E., E. Rigg 
(Recorder). H. Anthropology—President : Sir George Camp- 
bell, K.C.S.I., M.P.; Vice-Presidents: Prof. W. Boyd 
Dawkins, F.R.S., Lieut.-Col. H. H. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S. ; 
Secretaries: G. W. Bloxam, F.L.S. (Recorder); J. G. Garson, 
M.D., M.A.I., Walter Hurst, B.Sc., R. Saundby, M.D. The 
first General Meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 1, 
at 8 p.m. precisely, when the Right Hon. Sir Lyon Playfair, 
K.C.B., M.P., F.R.SS.L. and E., will resign the chair, and 
Principal Sir William Dawson, C.M.G., F.R.S., President- 
elect, will assume the Presidency, and deliver an address, On 
Thursday evening, September 2, at 8 p.m., a soirée; on Friday 
evening, September 3, at 8.30 p.m., a discourse on “The Sense 
of Hearing,” by Prof. William Rutherford, F.R.S. ; on Monday 
evening, September 6, at 8.30 p.m., a discourse on ‘‘ Soap 
Bubbles,” by A. W. Riicker, F.R.S. ; on Tuesday evening, 
September 7, at 8 p.m., a sozvde ; on Wednesday, September 8, 
the concluding General Meeting will be held at 2.30 p.m. 
THE first general meeting of the Congress of French scientific 
societies took place in the large hall of the Sorbonne on April 27 
at noon. M. Bertrand, Director of the Archeological Museum 
of St. Germain was in the chair. For the first time a special 
section has been created for geography, of which M, Bouquet 
de la Grye is chairman, The section of sciences was presided 
over by M. Faye, and divided into several sub-sections. M. 
Lhoste presented a pointed cask, with the assistance of which 
he hopes to keep a balloon floating in the air for several days 
over the sea. M. Certes, President of the Zoological Society of 
France, explained the use of colouring matters for the histo- 
logical and physiological exhibition of living animalcules. The 
meetings were concluded on Saturday, May 1, by an address by 
M. Goblet, the Minister of Public Instruction, in which he 
advocated the establishment of a secondary education from which 
Greek and Latin should be excluded, their place being filled 
by modern languages. A number of decorations were awarded 
to members of learned societies and academies. M. Berthelot 
was created ‘‘Grand Officier” of the Légion d’ Honneur. 
THE Department of Modern Ethnography in the British 
Museum being now arranged, the work of arranging the pre- 
historic section is being taken in hand by Mr. Franks. The 
three rooms immediately at the head of the western staircase, 
near the entrance, are devoted to this purpose. The collection 
will contain the Christy and Museum collections, which will be 
incorporated with each other, and also the Greenwell collection 
from British Barrows. The central room of the three will con- 
tain paleeolithic objects from England and the rest of the world. 
The finds in the caves of the Dordogne will form an important 
and interesting part of these. These caves were excavated by 
the late Mr. Christy at his own expense, and the results added 
to his collection. The pictures were, at his wish, sent to France. 
The room on the left of the entrance contains Neolithic objects, 
arranged under the Stone and Bronze Ages, the objects from the 
various countries being arranged within the periods. Here 
Canon Greenwell’s remarkable collection from the British Barrows 
(which will be maintained intact) will find a place. The specia 
value of this collection is that the place and manner of finding 
of each individual object is known and recorded, and every cir- 
