OF THE AUSTRALIAN MEETING. 707 
undertaken by the Workers’ Educational Association. The lecturer 
dealt with the process of evolution from inorganic bodies. He showed 
that under the influence of bright sunshine the brown colouring matter 
(iron oxides) of the earth was capable of stirring up energy and forming 
organic compounds which then served as a substratum for the evolu- 
tion of the simplest living organisms. : 
Sunday, August 23.—No official engagements were arranged. Some 
of the longer excursions were proceeding. In the cathedral and other 
places of worship special sermons were delivered. 
Monday, August 24.—Excursions were continued. Some of the 
Sections held Meetings in the afternoon. At 8 p.m. in the Lyceum 
Theatre, Pitt Street, Prof. Sir Ernest Rutherford, F.R.S., delivered a 
Discourse on ‘ Atoms and Electrons.’ Sir Oliver J. Lodge, F.R.5., 
ex-President, presided. The lecturer summarised the history of doc- 
trines concerning the unit of matter from ancient times to the present, 
and then led up to some of the alternative forms of the modern elec- 
trical theory of the constitution of the atom, giving reasons for his 
own preference for the view of a central positively charged nucleus 
surrounded by a number of negative electrons revolving in astronomical 
orbits round it, the number being closely connected with the appropriate 
atomic weight or position in Mendeléef’s series. Professor Pollock 
proposed a vote of thanks to the lecturer. A ball was given at the 
Town Hall by invitation of the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor (Alderman 
Richards). 
Tuesday, August 25.—All the Sections met in the morning, and 
some continued their sessions in the afternoon. The Committee of 
Recommendations met in the Senate Room at 2.30 p.m. An excursion 
in Sydney Harbour was given in the afternoon by invitation of the 
Commissioners of the Harbour Trust. 
At 8 p.m. in the Town Hall Professor H. H. Turner, F.B.S., 
delivered a Citizens’ Lecture on ‘Comets.’ The chair was taken by 
Mr. Meredith Atkinson. 
A Conversazione offered by the Senate at the University was can- 
celled owing to the death, on the previous day, of the Chancellor of the 
University, Sir H. N. MacLaurin. Honorary degrees were to have 
been conferred on the following Members :—Prof. W. Bateson, Prof. 
F. O. Bower, Prof. E. G. Coker, Prof. A. Dendy, Prof. E. C. K. 
Gonner, Prof. W. A. Herdman, Sir Everard im Thurn, Prof. B. Moore, 
Prof. J. Perry, Prof. E. B. Poulton, Prof. H. H. Turner. These 
degrees were conferred subsequently in absentid. 
Some of the members of the Overseas Party (to the number of 
26), who, owing to the war and the cancellation of the sailing of the 
R.M.S. Orvieto, found it incumbent upon them to hasten their depar- 
ture from Australia, left Sydney this evening by train in order to join 
the P. & O. R.M.S. Malwa, homeward bound, at Adelaide. . 
Some of those who left thus early (by this or other routes) had 
originally intended to proceed to Brisbane; on the other hand, some 
who had intended to visit New Zealand, where the official arrangements 
had been abandoned, now desired to be included in the Brisbane party. 
22 2 
