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1853] MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



49 



€\)t Cimatart SmtrmiL 



TORONTO, OCTOBER, 1853. 



Twen'y-Thir.l Meeting of the Brit'.sh Assocation for the 

 Advancement of Science. Hull, Sept. 1, 1853. 



GENERAL MEETING. 



The first General Meeting was held in the Saloon of the Me- 

 chanics' Institute, at eight o'clock in the evening: when Colonel 

 Sabine took the chair, — but only for the purpose of resigning it 

 to his successor. This he did in the following words: — "In 

 addressing you for the last time from this chair, in which your 

 kindness has been pleased to place me, I have yet one duty to 

 perform, — and it is one which is extremely agreeable. It is to 

 introduce to you a gentleman who' by the General Committee 

 lias been selected as my successor. It has been considered neces- 

 sary by gentlemen who have preceded me on several occasions to 

 dwell on" the qualifications and on the merits of the gentleman 

 selected; but in this case Mr. Hopkins is so eminently distin- 

 guished, his accomplishments in the various branches of science, 

 his general courtesy and amiability, and his kind disposition, have 

 been so long and so universally appreciated, that I feel confident 

 I shall take the course which is most agreeable to your wishes in 

 introducing him to you in the fewest possible words. I will, 

 therefore, with your permission, request Mr. Hopkins to take the 

 chair to which the General Committee has so worthily elected 

 him." 



The President for the year then took the chair, and delivered 

 the following inaugural Address on the objects and proceedings 

 of the Association : — . 



The President's Address. 



Gentlemen of the British Association, — Before I proceed to 

 those remarks which I may have to address to you on matters of 

 science, let me avail myself of this opportunity of expressing to 

 you the sense I entertain of the honour which you have conferred 

 upon me in electing me to the Presidency of this Association. 

 When the high office was first proposed to me, I could not but 

 feel the importance of the duties attached to it. I felt, also, that 

 there must be others who had higher claims to the honour than 

 myself. But I was aware how frequently difficulties will occur 

 in the immediate appointment to such offices of the persons most 

 competent to fill them : and after having been invited to the office 

 by those best quaJiSea to decide such points, I conceived it right 

 not to shriu 1 : from its responsibilities, but at once to accept it, 

 with thf> determination of performing the duties it might impose 

 upoD me to the best of my ability. I have had the less hesita- 

 tj'-.i in adopting this course from the knowledge of the effective 

 and ready assistance which I should always receive, not only 

 from our excellent Secretary, Mr. Phillips, but also from my pre- 

 decessor in this chair, who is so intimately acquainted with the 

 whole working of the association, to which he has rendered so 

 long and so cheerfully such invaluable services. After thanking 

 you, gentlemen, as I do most sincerely, for the high compliment 

 you have paid me, and assuring you of my best efforts in the 

 cause of the Association, I proceed to lay before you such state- 

 ments and remarks on scientific subjects as have presented them- 

 selves to my own mind for this occasion. In doing this, I can- 

 not but regret my inability to do justice to many subjects which 

 might be interesting to you ; and indeed, the limited time for 

 Vol. 2, No. 3, October, 1853. 



which I should be justified in demanding your attention to an 

 oral communication, will oblige me to omit this evening several 

 even of those points which 1 was prepared to bring under your 

 notice. 



Astronomical science still continues to prove to us how much 

 more populous is that portion of space occupied Ly the solar 

 system than was suspected only a few years ago. Between the 

 23rd of June, 1852, and the 6th of May, 1853, nine new pla- 

 nets were discovered, of which seven were fonnd since the last 

 meeting of the association. Of these nine planets, our country- 

 man, Mr. Hind, has discovered four. The number now known, 

 exclusive of the large planets, but including the four old asteroids, 

 amounts to twenty-six ; nor have we any reason to suppose that 

 we have yet approximated to the wdiole number of these minor 

 planetary bodies. All those which have been recently recoguized 

 appear like stars of magnitude not lower than the eighth or ninth, 

 and are consequently invisible to the naked eye. The search for 

 them has now assumed, to a considerable extent, a more system- 

 atic form, by a previous mapping of the stars up to a certain 

 magnitude, and contained in a belt of a few degrees in breadth 

 on either side of the ecliptic. Any small planet will in the first 

 instance be inserted in the map as a small star, but will on the 

 re-examination of the same area some time afterwards, be recog- 

 nized in its true character, from the fact of its having moved from 

 the place in whicli it was first observed. This mapping of the 

 ecliptic stars from the eighth to higher magnitudes, is still com- 

 paratively limited ; nor has the length of time during which any 

 one portion, perhaps, of the space which has been thus mapped, 

 been sufficiently great to ensure the passage through it, within 

 that time, of any planet whose period is as long as the possible 

 periods of those which may yet remain unknown to us. Analogy 

 would therefore lead us to conclude in favour of the probability 

 of their number being much greater than that at present recog- 

 nized. All those which are now known lie between the orbits of 

 Mars and Jupiter, but many may exist more distant, and of much 

 smaller apparent magnitudes, and thus almost the same careful 

 telescopic research may be necessaiy to make us acquainted with 

 some of our planetary neighbours as with the remoter regions of 

 space. Nor is the telescopic mode the only one by which we 

 may detect the existence of remoter planets; for as Uianus be- 

 trayed the existence of Neptune, so may the latter heieafcer reveal 

 to us the retreats in which some more distant member of the 

 system has hitherto hidden himself from the observation of man. 



There would seem to be a tendency in the human mind to 

 repose on the contemplation of any great truth after its fir.-t estab- 

 lishment. Thus, after the undisputed reception of the theory of 

 gravitation, and*the complete explanation which it afforded of the 

 planetary motions, men seemed to think little of any further 

 revelations which the solar system might still have to make to i:s 

 respecting its constitution, or the physical causes which it calls 

 into operation. The recent discovery, however, of so many pla- 

 nets, shows how imperfectly we may yet be acquainted with the 

 planetary part of the system ; aud the continual discovery of new 

 comets seems to indicate that in this department still more 

 remains to be done. These curious bodies, too, may possibly 

 have to reveal to us facts more interesting than any which the 

 planets may still have in reserve for us. The experience of these 

 latter bodies, if I may so speak, is more limited, and their testi- 

 mony, consequently, moie restricted. But they have already 

 told us a noble tale. In moving, as they do, in exact obedience 

 to the law of gravitation, and thus establishing that law, they 

 have affirmed the highest generalization in physical science 

 which it has been accorded to the human mind to conceive. At 

 the same time, the approximate circulaiity of their orbits prevents 

 their passing through those varied conditions to which comets are 



