7 a 
Sept. 9, 1886] 
NATURE 
441 
missing this morning, and it is feared he may also have 
perished, as part of his house is almost filled with peat. 
(2) The people of Stanley, as on the former occasion, 
showed great energy and resource in dealing with the 
danger, and before I myself reached the spot barriers 
had been erected and lanterns placed to keep the public 
from dangerous spots, whilst all those who had been 
driven from their homes had been accommodated by their 
neighbours. 
(3) This morning bodies of volunteers were early at 
work, clearing the streets, so far as it was safe to do so 
without risk of disturbing the superincumbent mass of 
peat and setting it in motion again, and draining the 
water from it as far as was practicable. I have also em- 
ployed a strong body of labourers, under experienced 
supervision, in the same work, and have directed the 
removal of all persons remaining in dangerously situated 
houses ; and there is now little risk of further accident. 
(4) The slip was caused, apparently, by the unusually 
heavy rains which have fallen during the last few days, 
and which the drains constructed by Mr. Bailey, the Sur- 
veyor, in 1878, proved insufficient to carry off. Deeper 
and wider cuttings will now be made, and I trust that the 
recurrence of any similar catastrophe may thus be pre- 
vented. The town of Stanley is, however, from its situa- 
tion and the mass of peat-bog on the high ground behind 
it, always to some extent exposed to danger of this nature 
in times of unusually heavy rainfall.—I have, &c., 
(Signed) ARTHUR BARKLY 
The Right Hon. Earl Granville, K.G., &c. 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 
BIRMINGHAM, Tuesday 
HE Birmingham meeting has been one of unusual 
excitement, mainly originating in the pre-arranged 
discussions which have taken place in several of the 
Sections. It is generally felt that this comparatively new 
feature has given new life to the Association, and ought to 
become general in all the Sections. At present the 
arrangements are somewhat crude, and the discussions 
are apt to become unmanageable. In some cases each 
of the speakers has all he means to say already written 
out, so that the discussion becomes merely the reading 
of a series of papers on a given subject. In other cases, 
however, at the present meeting, the discussions have 
been to a large extent extemporaneous. This was espe- 
cially so with the joint meeting of Sections A and D 
to consider the subject of colour-vision, and with the dis- 
cussion in Section E on Geographical Education. Pro- 
bably the most lively and generally interesting discussion 
was that which followed Mr. Seebohm’s paper on Dr. 
Romanes’ theory of Physiological Selection. Among 
those who took part in this were Profs. M. 
Foster, Newton, and Francis Darwin. On Saturday 
there was a lively and instructive discussion in Sec- 
tion C on Pre-Glacial Man, in which Prof. McKenny 
Hughes, Mr. Pengelley, Prof. Boyd Dawkins, Mr. De 
Rance, and others took part. The address of the 
President, Sir William Dawson, was a great popular suc- 
cess, so far as he could be heard. Prof. Riicker’s lecture 
on soap-bubbles was universally admired, the experiments 
being unusually brilliant. Prof. Roberts-Austen’s lecture 
to working men, on Saturday night, on the colour of 
metals, was greatly appreciated by a crowded audience. 
The weather has not been so good as could have been 
wished, so that the excursions and garden parties have 
been somewhat damped. The sozvée in the highly inter- 
esting Industrial Exhibition at Bingley Hall on Thursday 
evening was crowded and successful. Indeed the arrange- 
ments throughout made by the Local Committee for the 
entertainment of visitors have given complete satisfac- 
tion ; the comfort and convenience of the visitors having 
been provided for in every conceivable way. 
At the meeting of the General Committee yesterday, 
it was resolved to accept the invitation to Bath for 1888. 
For the Manchester meeting of next year, Sir Henry 
Roscoe was chosen President, the meeting to begin on 
Wednesday, August 31. The fact of an invitation having 
been sent from New South Wales for 1888, has been 
already noticed in NATURE. The invitation came up 
for consideration yesterday, with the result that it was 
decided to send a deputation of forty or fifty representa- 
tive members of the Association, to be selected by the 
Council in co-operation. with the Sectional Committees. 
The New South Wales Government have offered to pay 
all the expenses of such a deputation, but they insist, in 
somewhat dictatorial terms, that thedeputation shallconsist 
only of the most eminent representatives of British science. 
This subsidiary meeting will take place in Sydney in 
January 1888, when it is hoped representatives of science 
from all the Australasian colonies will assemble, and with 
the deputation hold a meeting, which will have for its 
object the promotion of science in Australia, and of more 
intimate relations between its representatives there and 
here. On the return of the deputation to this country it 
will report its proceedings to the Bath meeting; for the 
Australian meeting will not be regarded 4s a regular 
meeting of the British Association. On the whole, the 
decision come to at the General Committee meeting 
appears to give satisfaction. Victoria has also sent an 
invitation, but agreed to retire in favour of its sister 
colony. 
The number attending the Birmingham meeting is 
about 2500. 
Dr. MacAlister read on Thursday last to Section A 
a communication from the Grenada Eclipse Expedition, 
announcing that excellent photographs had been taken of 
the eclipse, and that successful experiments with the 
spectroscope had been made in the northern part of the 
expedition by Dr. Schuster, Capt. Darwin, and Prof. 
Thorpe. Dr. Schuster obtained two good and two fair 
photographs of the corona. Good spectra of the solar 
prominences have been obtained, showing the bright lines 
of highly incandescent vapours. Inthis respect the result 
resembles that obtained in the two previous eclipses, 
though it was thought possible that this year, being one 
when sunspots are tending to a minimum, would be 
marked by the more continuous spectrum that bespeaks 
lower temperature. The bright lines were especially well 
marked when the slit of the spectroscope was tangential 
to the sun’s disk, less marked when the slit was radial. 
Capt. Darwin was in charge of the coronagraph, an 
instrument by which a continuous series of photographs 
of the corona, before, during, and after totality, can be 
taken. Before and after the eclipse the photographs are 
taken by means of Dr. Huggins’s device for mechanically 
shutting off the glare of the sun. The idea of Capt. 
Darwin’s observations is to test the trustworthiness of 
Dr. Huggins’s method. If a complete continuity appears 
in the series of pictures taken by what may be called the 
artificial and the natural methods, the confidence of solar 
observers in the former method will be established. The 
series has been duly obtained, but until the plates are 
closely scrutinised in England it is impossible to pro- 
nounce on the success of the test. Dr. Thorpe was in 
charge of an instrument prepared by Capt. Abney for the 
determination of the intensity of the light sent out from 
different parts of the corona. He has been very success- 
ful, having made no fewer than fifteen determinations. 
The following is the list of grants which have been 
made this year by the Association :— 
A—WMathematics and Physics 
Solar Radiation res By i) ie xe Bs 20) 
Electrolysis... “A ao 50 Sac ah iy §0 
Ben Nevis Observatory a 74. eee ber wre 7S 
Standards of Light ... c 10 
Instructions for ‘Vidal Observations ee Ee, said NT 
