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and by Soirees, and the last day [by excursions to objects of scientific 
interest in the neighbourhood. 
The Brighton Meeting was held from August 15th to 23rd, 1872, under 
the presidency of Dr. W. B. Carpenter, F.K.S., &c, the tone of whose 
address was suggested by the spread of materialistic opinions in England. 
Instead of discoursing on some aspect of nature in her relation to man, he 
enlarged on man as the interpreter of nature, considering the mental 
processes by which were formed the fundamental conceptions of Matter and 
Force, of Cause and Effect, of Law and Order, which furnish the basis of 
all scientific reasoning. He showed that to the Artist, the Poet, and the 
Philosopher, nature is to each what he individually seesjin her — and he led 
up to the culminating point of Man's intellectual interpretation of nature, 
his recognition of the unity of the power of which her phenomena are the 
diversified manifestations. 
The addresses of the Sectional Presidents were then alluded to. In 
Section A, Mr. "Warren de la Eue described the latest improvements in 
astronomical photography, and thoir importance in connection with the 
approaching transit of Venus, since upon a comparison of photographs at 
different points of the earth, would depend the measurement of the earth's 
distance from the sun. He concluded by expressing a decided opinion that 
the time had come for a cultivation of science to be protected and fostered 
by the State. In Section B, Dr. J. H. Gladstone reviewed the connection 
of Chemistry with all other sciences, remarked on the advantages of its 
study, and its introduction into schools, and lamented the small amount of 
original research in England as compared with the Continent, which he 
believed was mainly due to its non-recognition by public bodies or the 
Government. 
In section C, Mr. Godwin Austen, who was elected president from his 
great knowledge of the "Wealden formation, made that tha subject of his 
address, reviewing the conditions under which the Oolitic strata were 
deposited, and tracing the Wealden area in Europe. In section D, Sir J. 
Lubbock referred to the frequent misunderstanding of Darwin's views, and 
pointed out how embryology was as good a guide to the study of the organic 
development of ancient times as a series of fossils was. In the subsection 
of anthropology, Col. A. L. Fox pointed out how a study of the remarkable 
analogies between races in the same condition ""of progress bore on the 
question of the monogenesis or the polygenesis of man. 
In the subsection of Anatomy and Physiology, Dr. Burdon Sanderson 
showed how much closer physiology now was to the experimental sciences, 
