FOR GENERAL READERS. 



Vol. I.] 



October, iJ 



[No. 8. 



PAGE 



Current Events 169 



General Notes 172 



The Dust in the Air 175 



Carriers of Infection 1 76 



Extraction of Lime from Hides .... 177 



Softening Water ( illiis. ) 1 78 



The Source of Muscular Power .... 179 

 The Telephone : Its Principles, Con- 

 struction, etc. — III. (ilhis.) iSo 



Novel Lantern Slide (/7/t/s.) 183 



Clinical Thermometer (/////J.) 183 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



The .Size of the Sun and Moon .... 183 



Corrosion of Metals (iHits.) 185 



Evening Technical Instruction in 



England.— Ill 186 



British Association. — Abstracts of 

 Papers : — 



"Town Life and Physical Deve- 

 lopment" 1S7 



" A Remarkable Fossil" 187 



" The Subsidences at Northvvich" 187 

 "Underground Waters in Eng- 

 land" 188 



PAGE 

 North of England Institute of Mining 

 and Mechanical Engineers : — 

 Presidential Address of Sir Low- 



thian Bell, F.R.S 18S 



Manual Training 1S9 



National Association for the Promo- 

 tion of Technical Education 190 



Reviews 191 



Books Received 191 



Scientific Meetings and Exhibitions 191 

 Applications for Patents 192 



CURRENT EVENTS. 



The British Associatio.\ Sectional Meetings. - The 

 strong sprinkling of foreigners present had an appreciable 

 effect on the sectional procedure. Not only did they take 

 an active part in many of the discussions, but in several 

 instances their mere presence caused greater attention to 

 be given to the business conduct of the meetings. The 

 number of papers was very large, and there was an evident 

 determination to get through them punctually and syste- 

 matically. So far therefore as the conduct of the sectional 

 meetings was concerned, there was a marked improvement 

 on last year ; but there is a tolerably strong feeling that 

 steps should be taken to keep the number of papers read 

 within reasonable limits, and to exclude those which are 

 not of sufficient merit. Above all, the practice of reading 

 the same papers in more than one section should be stopped. 

 The advertising instinct of certain pushing individuals is 

 so keen that at times they over-estimate their importance, 

 and do not hesitate to present their lucubrations in more 

 than one section. This, however, is no reason why the 

 audiences should be victimised, and if the rule were enforced 

 that all papers proposed to be read should be sent in at 

 least fourteen days before the meeting, and if they were 

 then referred to revising committees, much valuable time 

 would be saved, and fewer papers of inferior quality would 

 then be read under the auspices of the Association. 



Presidential Addresses at the British Association. 

 — The President of the Mechanical Science Section quoted 

 so experienced an authoritj' as Sir Frederick Bramwell in 

 support of a statement that the only purpose of an address 



is to force an audience to recall what it already knows. We 

 cannot, however, but take exception to such a lowering of the 

 aims of a presidential address, and are in fact surprised that 

 it should be seriously advocated by men of culture and 

 distinguished attainments. To quote from official sources, 

 the main purpose of the Association is to bring together, 

 from various and even remote districts, those who are 

 engaged in scientific research, or who take an interest in 

 scientific work. Obscure observers and unknown lovers of 

 scientific culture are thus brought into more or less personal 

 relation with the leaders of scientific thought. Surely on 

 such an occasion a president should not content himself with 

 a mere repetition of well-known facts, a mere historical 

 resume of what his audience is already acquainted with. 

 Such a review is doubtless useful as a record of accomplished 

 facts, but in these days of specialised work we cannot be 

 satisfied with this alone. 



All branches of science are so intimately associated, and 

 are so interdependent, that it is of the greatest importance that 

 every opportunity should be taken of bringing home to us 

 the working of the unchangeable laws of Nature which 

 govern our every action. We need direction and instruction 

 by a well-informed, thoughtful leader, who not only has the 

 power of generalisation and of co-ordinating the results of 

 specialised work, but who can widen our range of vision, 

 and lift us up, so to speak, from the mere cut and dried 

 facts we are familiar with, to the contemplation of the laws 

 of Nature which underlie them. Admirable as Sir Henry 

 Roscoe's address was, as a rapid sketch of the progress of 

 chemistry during the past fifty years, we cannot but think 

 that he has lost a great opportunity in not bringing out 



