THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 241 
present system, perceived practical objections to the appointment of 
assessors. The matter was referred back for reconsideration. 
The studies at the University, the distribution of University and 
College rewards, and the cost of University education, came also under 
consideration. It is undoubtedly the case that, up to the present time, the 
effect of the new measures recently introduced has been very small, so 
far as Cambridge is concerned. The Natural History sciences are, indeed, 
acknowledged, and examinations are held, at which those who have 
graduated may test their progress; but hitherto these are not the subjects 
for which scholarships and fellowships are granted. The general feeling- 
in the University, and among University men, is not favourable to any 
fundamental and rapid change. It is fortunate that such is the case. 
The time has not come when Englishmen are to regard mere cram and the 
acquisition of facts, however important, as taking the place of cultivation 
of the intellect ; and at present, at any rate, there is no department of 
science, not admitting of mathematical expression, that can be regarded 
as equivalent to the study of pure mathematics and grammar in preparing 
the intellect for the subsequent work of life, in the pulpit, at the bar, in 
medicine, or in the House of Commons. 
The Mechanical Section (G) was attractive and the papers important. 
It would be difficult to present a more admirable and practical illustration 
of the value of pure mathematics to practical men than that offered by 
the Astronomer Royal in this section, when illustrating the nature and 
direction of the forces concerned in the case of a tubular latticed bridge 
with a train crossing it. By a masterly resolution of a very difficult 
problem in pure mathematics, he showed how a set of extremely simple 
formulae were deduced, which led to direct practical conclusions identical 
with those obtained by series of experiments, numerous, costly, and 
dilatory, by which alone our great mechanicians had practically deter- 
mined the ordinary rules-of-thumb. The parts of the bridge that might 
with advantage be left weak, those where unusual strength was needed, 
and the necessity of enormous strength in the piers supporting the two 
ends, were illustrated in a simple diagram. Mr. Fairbairn and Mr. Scott 
Russell, who represent all that is most intelligent and bold among 
mechanicians, explained to the meeting the curious processes by which 
each for himself had worked at the mathematical problem in vain, and 
had then, by a series of trials, obtained, by an exhaustive process, a result 
resembling that here given. It would not be possible to show a more 
interesting and instructive example of the application of high mathematics 
to resolve a difficult practical problem. 
A memoir on Artificial Stones, by Professor Ansted, was the means of 
directing attention to a new material recently introduced by Mr. F. Ran- 
some. This stone is so very easily and cheaply made, of any rough 
mineral matter that may he at hand, the process is so extremely rapid, 
and the resulting material is so uniform in its texture, moulds so 
admirably, and presents so smooth a face, that it is likely to supersede 
terra-cottas and cements. It is a curious instance of an important dis- 
covery arising out of experiments in another direction. Endeavouring to 
prove that he was able to preserve decaying stone, the inventor found 
