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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW'. 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT CAMBRIDGE. 
PART I. 
BP PROFESSOR D. T. AXSTET), M.A., F.R.S. 
- IIE late meeting- of the British Association, held during the first week 
of October in the University of Cambridge, has been one of those that 
may be regarded as successful, both in reference to the scientific men present 
and the communications made. It was not large, numbering only about 
1,200 members in all ; but the absentees, though including some well- 
known and familiar names, were chiefly the amateurs of science, associ- 
ates, ladies, and those who join only for the current meeting; not working 
members, to whose labours the meetings are chiefly indebted for their 
important practical results. The sections were fairly attended, without 
being crowded, except on some few special occasions. The evening 
meetings were also well attended ; and although the monetary returns 
will hardly be very brilliant, the reminiscences of Manchester and the 
prospects of Newcastle will console the treasurer for the comparative 
emptiness of the purse on this occasion. The Association meets one year 
for itself and another for the place it visits. At Cambridge, on the occa- 
sion of this, its third visit, there was not much enthusiasm, but there was 
a very pleasant assemblage of numbers of old members, who had been 
long without seeing one another, but who were not less warm in their 
greeting than if they had been annual attendants and had kept up ac- 
quaintance by frequent visits to the annual reunion. 
An absence of excitement and “ sensation ” certainly characterized the 
meeting. The President (Professor Willis), in his address, rather recalled 
attention to the early labours of the Association, and the, fruits it had 
borne years ago, than to the present state of science. 
The evening lectures were on subjects already worn somewhat thread- 
bare by frequent repetition at the Royal Institution, and were certainly 
not complimentary to the Cambridge audience. It is much to be regretted 
that Mr. Glaisher’s interesting account of his balloon ascents did not 
replace one of these, and that a notice of recent researches in some in- 
teresting department was not introduced in place of the other. In spite, 
