Oct. lo, 1872] 



NATURE 



475 



The papers seemed on the whole superior to those 

 brought forward at our Association, at least there were 

 fewer communications of trivial importance, or old sub- 

 jects warmed up afresh. Our neighbours, however, find 

 discussion a difficult thing ; it is apt to degenerate at 

 once into a conversation between two heated opponents. 

 There was evident also a want of order, punctuality, and 

 respect for authority ; previous arrangements were altered, 

 or the decisions of the chair set aside, in the coolest man- 

 ner. A want of proper organisation arose from the fact 

 that M. Claude Bernard, the president, never made his 

 appearance on account of ill-health : but M. Cornu. the 

 general secretary, was a host in himself; and as M. de 

 Ouatrefages has accepted the presidentship of the next 

 meeting at Lyons, and Prof. Wurtz, whose energy and 

 good nature were unfailing at Bordeaux, is to occupy the 

 post of honour the )'ear following, we may hope that the 

 young Association will quickly get over the diseases of 

 infancy. 



Festivities were not wanting. Chief among these was 

 a grand reception by the Mayor at the Hotel de Ville, but 

 I may specially mention a dejciiiwr given by the French 

 chemists to their brethren from England and Belgium, 

 Holland and Spain. Some of us also will never forget 

 the private hospitality we met with. 



But the excursions were the great feature of the meeting, 

 and in them the copy certainly surpassed the original. 

 They played a most important part in the proceedings ; 

 Saturday and Tuesday were wholly devoted to them ; 

 and they took place on Sunday, on Monday afternoon, 

 and through the three days after the close of the sittings. 



There was the expedition to Arcachon, where the savans 

 not only strolled about the pretty watering-place, but 

 studied natural history at an aquarium which, unlike that 

 at Brighton, was a very unpretending building, but well 

 stocked with interesting marine animals, and paid an 

 especial visit to the oyster-beds that have been formed on 

 sandbanks in the middle of the land-locked sea in front 

 of the town. Here we traced the growth of the favourite 

 mollusc from the spat on tiles, till it was large and plump, 

 and we had explained to us the difficulties of its cultiva- 

 tion, and the ravages committed by a murex called Car- 

 maillot (1 am spelling at random) and by the hermit 

 crabs. There was an antiquarian expedition to Perigaeux 

 and Les Eyzies, where, on each side of the valley, the 

 limestone clifts are fissured with caverns, in which men 

 lived, and worked in flint and bone, at that remote period 

 when reindeer and mammoths roamed over the soil of 

 France. There was an expedition to see the new " docks " 

 and huge engineering works of the Garonne, which M. 

 Joly carefully explained ; and there was a larger excur- 

 sion by boat and rail down the Gironde to the open sea, 

 where geologists had an opportunity of inspecting the 

 cliffs of chalk and flint, and then the Tertiary strata, 

 beside discussing the subsidence of the Gascon shore, and 

 the shifting of the sandhills, and seeing how they are now 

 prevented from swallowing up villages and churches as 

 they did of old. 



But the great excursion was the final one, which ex- 

 tended over three days, and was unique in my experience. 

 Twenty members of the Association were officially deputed 

 to report mainly on the industrial establishments of the 

 Landes and Lower Pyrenees ; and any other members 

 were welcome to join the party. Thus was secured a 

 good nucleus of really scientific men, while the expedition 

 had a serious purpose, and it was evidently to the advan- 

 tage of the estabhshments visited that we should be well 

 received. The Landes, as is generally known, is a large 

 tract of country which, until lately, was a marsh of sand 

 scarcely capable even of affording pasture ; but now it is 

 reclaimed, and the centre of thriving industries. Forests 

 of pine {Piiuis inantiina) have been planted for hundreds 

 of miles, and the trees are regularly scored for turpentine ; 

 maize and other crops are grown ; and the undergrowth of 



heather supplies food for myriads of bees. .\t Labouheyre 

 we inspected the means employed for separating the rosin 

 from the turpentine, and the machinery for impregnating 

 the pine wood with sulphate of copper, so as to fit it for 

 railway sleepers and telegraph posts ; and though the 

 thermometer was at 32' C. (say go' F.) in the shade, and 

 anything you like to imagine in the sun, we also went 

 carefully over some blast furnaces that are used principally 

 for reducing by charcoal the Spanish iron ores which, 

 being free from sulphur and phosphorus, yield an excellent 

 metal. 



Here the party was sumptuously entertained by M. Alex- 

 andre Leon ; and from this stage special trains or special 

 carriages were placed freely at our disposal by the Com- 

 pagnie du Midi. The next place visited was a primary 

 school at Morcenx, for the gratuitous instruction of the 

 children of their employes, which had been carried on by 

 M. Surell the former, and M. Simon the present director 

 of the Railway Company. We found the boys at military 

 drill ; we took part in the distribution of prizes, the As- 

 sociation itself giving a I'evvard to the best boy and girl ; 

 and as scientific men, we were particularly interested in 

 the good provision for ''object lessons," the chemical and 

 galvanic apparatus, and the care with which the children 

 were taught the rudiments of physical and physiological 

 science. Rejoicing at this proof that the reclamation of the 

 Landes was not confined to the soil, we pursued our way to 

 Dax, and spent Friday night at the Thermal Baths, where 

 we enjoyed the hospitality of Drs. Larauza and Delmas, the 

 physicians of the establishment. The springs of nearly 

 boiling water that gush from many parts of the contorted 

 strata under the town were duly examined, and so were 

 the deposits of rock-salt that were accidentally discovered 

 a year or two ago, and which promise to prove an im- 

 portant source of wealth. 



From these hot springs we travelled southwards across 

 the Spanish frontier to Irun, and then a good walk through 

 beautiful scenery took us among the granite mountains to 

 the mines of Bidassoa. Here we saw how large faults in 

 the prim.eval rock are filled with crystallised carbonate of 

 iron, and how the rich ore is won. 



Returning into France, where, through the kindness of 

 M. D'Eichtal, a dinner was awaiting us, the expedition 

 found its way back to Bayonne ; and, doubtless, on the 

 morrow some of the party visited the pre-historic camp 

 and the ancient abodes of the Troglodytes, according to 

 the programme ; but the chemists generally preferred a 

 quiet day at Biarritz. 



J. H. Gladstone 



THE SPIRIT OF SCIENTIFIC CONTROVERSY 



AS if in atonement for a prolonged neglect, the study of 

 the organisation of fossil plants is now receiving 

 wide-spread attention. The task first undertaken by 

 Henry Withan has now been shared by many observers. 

 The result is that we already possess a much more com- 

 plete acquaintance with the ancient vegetation of the 

 globe than we did even a few years ago. But whilst this 

 is undoubtedly true, it is equally so that wide difierences 

 of opinion on important points still exist amongst those 

 who have taken a leading part in this investigation. 

 Thus, M. Brongniart and Dr. Dawson believe that the 

 Sigillaria: were Gymnospermous Exogens ; whilst Mr. 

 Carruthers and myself are convinced that they were 

 Lepidodendroid Cryptogams. In common with Prof. 

 Schimper and Mr Carruthers, I regard the whole of the 

 Calamites as Cryptogamic plants, having Equisetaceous 

 affinities; whilst M. Brongniart, M. Grand-Eury, and, 

 perhaps partially, Dr. Dawson, deem some of them to be 

 Equisetaceans, and others Gymnospermous Exogens. 

 Mr. Carruthers and Mr. Binney regard the fruits known 



