18 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT CARDIFF. 
Jan., 1892. 
possible way of accounting for the bright radiating streaks 
seen on the moon at the full. This was effected by placing 
an immense number of glass beads in the required directions 
on the surface of a plaster globe, and it certainly produced 
the required effect. Professor Copeland at one of the 
sectional meetings argued in favour of this being the true 
cause of the phenomenon, but his auditors did not seem to 
see their way clear to imagining the presence of anything 
resembling glass spheres on the moon’s surface. 
A short lecture was also given on the subject of “ Finger- 
tins as a Means of Personal Identification.” It has long 
j» o 
been known that the ridges on the ends of the human fingers 
present very beautiful and curious patterns. It was also 
known that thev differ in different individuals, but it has 
been only recently that Mr. F. Galton has succeeded in 
deducing and classifying them so as to afford a practical 
means for the identification of individuals. It is said that 
the markings do not change materially with age or 
occupation, and that it has been found particularly useful 
in the case of Eastern nations, in which the individuals, 
at least to the European eye, very much resemble each 
other. A paper on this subject by Mr. Galton will be found 
in the “Nineteenth Century,” for August last, and a more 
preliminary one in “Nature,” June 28th, 1888. 
At the sectional rooms there were two exhibitions which 
should be of interest to our photographic friends. The 
one was by a committee appointed to collect and register 
photographs of geological interest in the United Kingdom, 
and the other by a similar committee for obtaining photo¬ 
graphs of meteorological phenomena. The latter contained 
some fine examples of clouds taken through yellow glass, 
and also of flashes of lightning, &c. The two committees 
would be very glad to receive specimens from any observer, 
and I may say that, as yet, scarcely any geological photo¬ 
graphs have been received from the neighbourhood of 
Birmingham. 
There is another lesson which I learnt at the British 
Association that I should like, though with considerable 
diffidence, to bring under the notice of this Society. It was 
constantly remarked in the Cardiff newspapers that the 
speakers at the sections did their part indifferently, and, so 
far as I saw of the proceedings, I could not deny the justice of 
the charge. It was said that the speakers talked to the black¬ 
board, or their apparatus, or even to their bottom waistcoat 
button, and but rarely to their audience. Now I am sorry 
to say that the majority of the frequenters of the meetings 
of this Societv do not shine as debaters, and here I must 
