ON THE EFFECTS OF LONG-CONTINUED HEAT. 175 



If the power required for the * Warrior ' be calculated by adaptation from 

 the ' Mersey ' and the « Diadem,' it would be 8380 horse-power and 8287 re- 

 spectively; from which this inference flows: — that unless the mistakes made 

 in the fore and after sections of the 'Mersey' and 'Diadem' are rectified in the 

 ' Warrior,' she will require above 8000 horse-power for a speed of 16 knots, 

 notwithstanding her greater size and increased ratio of length to breadth. 



Before investing more than a million and a half of money in an experiment, 

 commercial men would have probably employed a few thousand pounds in 

 some sort of test as to the conditions of success. Perhaps such test may have 

 been resorted to and kept secret for reasons of public policy. Perhaps it is 

 intended that the ' Warrior's' speed should not be greater than that which is 

 due to five times her nominal horse-power, which could not exceed 15| knots 

 with 6250 horse-power, under the most favourable conditions, and may be 

 much less. 



The British Association, by becoming the medium of collecting facts and 

 presenting them to the public, has done good service; but that service ought 

 not to rest there. Collectively, the Association may be able to do little more. 

 It can only act by affording public opinion a means of expression. But indi- 

 vidual members may do much. Towards such opinion I am doing my part. 

 I ask, in the cause of science, what is the system under which the Queen's 

 ships are designed and their steam power apportioned ; the organization by 

 which their construction and fitting for sea are carried on ; the supervision 

 exercised over their proceedings at sea, in the examination of returns of per- 

 formance and of expenditure? 



During part of 1858 and 1859, two committees appointed by the Admi- 

 ralty collected evidence and made reports on the Dock Yards and on steam 

 machinery. I have read both reports with some attention. They are not 

 conclusive, but they are entitled to respect. I have also read the replies and 

 objections of the Government officers. There is a clear issue between them 

 on some of the most essential principles of effective economical management, 

 and on the application of science. 



A Royal Commission has been appointed to inquire into the system of 

 control and management in the Dock Yards. This is so far good, but it 

 does not go far enough. It does not comprise the steam machinery reported 

 on by Admiral Ramsay's Committee, and it cannot enter upon the questions 

 I have just enumerated. Yet the efficiency of the fleet depends quite as 

 much upon the adaptation of the machinery to the ship, and of the ship to 

 the use she is to be put to, as it does upon the manner in which she is built. 

 The Commission ought to be enlarged both in objects and in number of 

 members. It consists of five members only. 



Report on the Effects of long-continued Heat, illustrative of Geological 



Phenomena. By the Rev. W. Vernon Harcourt, F.R.S., F.G.S. 

 The chief occupation of those who during the present century have 

 employed themselves in investigating the history of the earth, has been to 

 develope the succession of its strata. In following this pursuit, they have 

 found their best guide in the study of its organic antiquities, and have not 

 been led, for the most part, to very precise views of the physical and chemi- 

 cal changes which it has undergone. 



Yet there are questions in Geology to which no answer can be given with- 

 out an accurate examination into these. In regard, for example, to the 



