80 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
TYNDALL’S BRITISH ASSOCIATION ADDRESS.* 
W E have received from Messrs. Longman a reprint of the British Asso- 
ciation address of Professor Tyndall — an address which, from the fact 
that it was delivered in that hotbed of Low Churchism, Belfast, has been 
more unmercifully and less scientifically dealt with than perhaps anything 
written within the past ten years. It is especially of interest from the 
preface, in which the author replies to some of the more important of his 
critics. This we commend to all, as well worthy of being slowly and 
thoughtfully digested. We think that Professor Tyndall has yielded nothing 
to his opponents (as some supposed), but has expressed himself learnedly 
and clearly in defence of the tone adopted in this address. 
THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.f 
I T is with some surprise that we have seen so eminently distinguished a 
firm’s name as that of -Longman at the foot of the title-page of this 
work, and we can only account for it on the supposition that the publishers 
were utterly ignorant of the nature of the book at the period of publication. 
In any other acceptation of the circumstances, it is utterly impossible to for- 
give the issue of the work before us ; for, to speak plainly, it is a conglo- 
meration of the silliest nonsense it is possible to conceive emanating from 
any men of the faintest scientific worth. It is the most extravagant piece 
of composition we have almost ever seen written on a scientific subject ; 
and again, it is written by men whose knowledge even of the rudiments 
of science is absurdly small, or we might better say absolutely nil. We 
shall only quote a couple of passages to show the melancholy ignorance 
of the authors of this work. Speaking, on p. 173, of coral, they say : 
“ The title of this chapter may seem strange, as we have always been 
taught that coral did not ffrow,% but was designed and built by small insects 
. . . . . but it is our painful duty to inform naturalists generally that 
their eulogy is misplaced ; that coral insects are no more to be compared to 
bees than sand is to sugar ; and that they are as unworthy of notice as a 
common grub or fiy.” Again: “Coral is only a form of mineral growth, 
and it as surely grows in equatorial waters by natural law as a tree grows 
on the surface of the ground.” After this we need not add a single 
syllable. 
* “Address Delivered Before the British Association, Assembled at Bel- 
fast.” With Additions. By John Tyndall, F.R.S., President. 
f “The Origin of Creation ; or, the Science of Matter and Force. A 
new System of Natural Philosophy.” By T. R. Fraser, M.D., and A. Dewar. 
London : Longmans, 1874. 
X The italics are ours. 
