B K IT I S il ASSOC! AT' lON. —N OTT INCH AM. 
2 5 8 
Mr. J. Davies, Moreton Street. 
„ John S. Fenn, 83, Eegeiit Street. 
,, Will. Gillett, “ Surgeon,” 77, Vauxhall Bridge Eoad. 
„ Alered Hart, 117, Warwick Street. 
„ H. King, 1, Churton Street. 
„ J. H. Kinsey, 11 , Hugli Street West. • 
„ D. J. Lewis, 13, Upper Taclibrook Street. 
„ W, W. Urwick, 60, St. George’s Eoad. 
„ Edwin B. Vizer, 63, Lupus Street. 
„ E. Watkins, Moretou Street. 
„ T. Wells, 91, Charlwood Street. 
„ J. Wilson, Sussex Street. 
63, Lupus Street, Belgravia South, Sept. Wth, 1866. 
BEITISH ASSOCIATION.—NOTTINGHAM. 
The thirty-sixth meeting of the British Association commenced on Wednesday, 
August 22nd. The General Committee Meeting was held at one o’clock. Professor 
Phillips presided, when the Eeport of the Council and the Eeports of the various Com¬ 
mittees were read, and the general business of the Association disposed of. At eight 
o’clock the theatre was filled with a brilliant assembly, to hear the President’s address. 
Professor Phillips, after a few farewell remarks, introduced his successor, Mr. Grove, Q.C., 
who proceeded to deliver his address. The following are the officers representing the 
Chemical Section:— 
President —Dr. H. Bence Jones. 
Vice-Presidents —Professor Daubeny, H. Debus, Dr. W. A. Miller, Lyon Playfair, 
J. Stenhouse, A. W. Williamson. 
Secretaries—^. H. Atherton, Professor Liveing, W. J. Eussell, Joseph White. 
Committee —F. A. Abel, J. Attfield, H. Bassett, J. S. Brazier, Dr. Bauer, Grace Calvert, 
W, Crookes, Dr. John Davy, G. C. Foster, J. H. Gilbert, J. P. Gassiot, J. H. Gladstone, 
W. E. Heathfield, S. Macadam, T. H. Eowney, H. E. Eoscoe, J. Eobinson, Peter Spence, 
Dr. E. Smith, J. Spiller, A. Voelcker. 
This Section was held at the School of Art, H. Bence Jones, Esq., M.D., presiding. In 
the course of his opening address, the President remarked that, from the foundation of the 
British Association, in 1831, no practising physician had been President of the Chemical 
Section. For centuries the union of chemistry and medicine has been at one time ad¬ 
mitted and at another disallowed; but in the last half-century the discovery of Dr. 
Bright has proved that chemistry is absolutely requisite for the detection of a large class 
of diseases, and that without chemistry the nature of these diseases cannot he understood. 
When the union of chemistry and medicine is perfect, then science will show us how to 
keep or to regain the greatest of blessings, health. Among the harvest of new truths 
of the last year. Dr. Bence Jones noticed Professor Frankland’s synthetical researches on 
ethers, and his researches with Mr. Duppa on the synthesis of acids of the lactic series. 
The President next alluded to Professor Eoscoe’s paper ‘ On the Chemical Intensities of 
Sunlight,’ as the direction in which the chemist looks for the climax of all his syntheti¬ 
cal investigations—the discovery of the chemical architecture of substances in the vege¬ 
table world.—Dr. Bence Jones then proceeded : “ A most remarkable discovery has been 
made by the Master of the Mint on the absorption and dialytic separation of gases by 
colloid septa: for example, he finds that mixed gases pass through india-rubber at 
diffeient rates, proportioned to their powers of liquefaction. The oxygen of atmospheric 
air passes through rapidly, whilst the nitrogen is comparatively stopped. The import¬ 
ance of this discovery in metallurgy, and its application to the physiology of respiration 
and of the passage of oxygen from the blood into the textures, must be apparent to all. 
It seems but a few years ago when we were taught that the animal and vegetable king¬ 
doms were composed of entirely different kinds of substances. Nitrogenous compounds 
were said to belong to the animal kingdom ; and the vegetable kingdom was said to be 
