ADDRESS. Ixi 
results in a communication to the Royal Institution in May last, and also in 
the new volume for 1861; and is, as he informs me, engaged with a long 
series of experiments on this subject, which, with his experience and ability, 
cannot fail to develope new facts, and will, in all probability, ultimately de- 
termine the law of penetration. 
In London we may direct attention to the commencement of the Thames 
Embankment and to the various works in progress for the concentration of 
the Metropolitan Railways; especially to the proximate completion of the 
Underground Railway. The lamentable disaster in the Fens of last summer 
has been most ably subdued, but the remedial measures adopted are not fully 
completed, and the interests involved are of so great a magnitude and com- 
plexity, that it is scarcely possible for this event to be discussed on the pre- 
sent occasion with due impartiality. 
The magnificent collection of machinery in the Great Exhibition shows a 
great advance in construction; but this is not the proper occasion to enter in 
detail into the various contrivances and processes which it displays. 
Before I conclude I have the painful duty of reminding you that since our 
last meeting we have had to deplore the loss of that most illustrious patron 
of science and art, His Royal Highness the Prince Consort, the President of 
our Association at Aberdeen and the Chancellor of this University. In the 
latter capacity he afforded us many opportunities of observing his scientific 
attainments and genuine zeal and love for all branches of knowledge: his 
gracious kindness and respect to men of science and literature have left an 
impression upon us that can never be effaced. 
I must also ask a tribute to the memory of our late Professors of Chemistry 
and Botany, both of whom have done in their lifetime excellent good service 
to science, and especially to the British Association ; Professor Cumming by 
contributing one of the invaluable primary Reports upon which our proceedings 
were based, as well as other communications; Professor Henslow by various 
Reports, some of which I have already alluded to. We have had also to 
lament the loss of that able scientific navigator, Sir J. Clark Ross. 
It remains for me to express my sense of the high and undeserved honour 
conferred upon me by the position in which you have placed me, and in the 
name of the University to welcome you hither, and wish you a prosperous 
and fruitful meeting, alike conducive to the progress of science and impulsive 
to its cultivation in the place of your reception, 
