186 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
Association to take part in our Montreal meeting as 
honorary members, and we were invited to the Ameri¬ 
can Association meetings on the same footing. The 
citizens of Philadelphia, however, came forward and 
joined the scientific association in giving us a most 
cordial welcome. At least a dozen different Commit¬ 
tees must have been busy for weeks making arrange¬ 
ments ; so that at Montreal those who had intimated 
their wish to go to Philadelphia found gentlemen ready to 
give every information, and the details of such an attrac¬ 
tive programme as that drawn up for the week must have 
induced many others to re-arrange their plans and accept 
the invitation to go to Philadelphia. In all about 300 
members of the British Association did so, and fully 150 
of us availed ourselves of a special train which was run 
through from Montreal. We had the exceptional privi¬ 
lege accorded us of passing from Canada into the States 
without undergoing a Custom’s examination. Of the long 
hot day’s journey in an American railway car which fol¬ 
lowed, the less said the better, but the cool of the evening 
found us running along the bank of the Hudson (the 
American Rhine), and enjoying the charming continually- 
changing picture which the river by moonlight presents. 
In due or rather undue time we passed through Jersey 
City (the mainland portion of New York), and here a 
deputation from Philadelphia joined the train, and 
occupied the time en route in arranging as to the excur¬ 
sions we wished to take part in on the Saturday. 
The American Association is constituted very much on 
the same lines as our British Association, and conducts its 
meetings in much the same way. We were requested as 
early as possible to register our names and addresses at 
the reception-room, and on showing our British Association 
member’s ticket to one of the staff of lady-clerks in attend¬ 
ance, we received a badge stamped with our number on 
the register. The badges bore symbols appropriate to 
each section, as follows:—A. Mathematics and Astronomy 
—a telescope ; B. Physics—a telephone ; C. Chemistry—a 
combustion furnace and Liebig’s bulbs ; D. Mechanical 
Science—a fly-wheel ; E. Geology and Geography—a 
globe; E. Biology—a heart; G. Histology and Micros¬ 
copy—a microscope; H. Anthropology—a skull; I. Econo¬ 
mic Science and Statistics—some books. These badges 
had to be worn, as they formed the passport to all the 
meetings and entertainments offered to the Association. 
The meetings were opened on the forenoon of Thursday, 
4th September, by the retiring President, Professor 
Young of Princeton, formally resigning the chair to 
Professor J. P. Lesley of Philadelphia, who expressed 
his confidence that the Convention would prove alike 
pleasant and profitable. His grounds for this confidence 
were that, in addition to the unusually numerous Auneri- 
can associates who would be in attendance, there was 
an unexpectedly large number of distinguished friends 
and allies from abroad, and there was the coincident 
occurrence of the Electric Exhibition, held under the 
auspices of an Institute named after the great demon¬ 
strator of lightning. The Governor of Pennsylvania 
then welcomed the Association on behalf of the State, and 
the Mayor on behalf of the city, remarking that in their 
opinion no better place coold have beeD selected for the 
Convention meeting than the birthplace of Robert Eulton 
and the dwelling-place of Benjamin Franklin. 
It appears that the first meeting of the American Associa¬ 
tion was held in Philadelphia in 1848, and since then it has 
held itsyearlysessionsintheprincipalcitiesof theUnion,and 
this year returned to Philadelphia for the first time. The 
list of foreign Societies (among them our own) represented 
by delegates was then read, and a fraternal cablegram was 
sent to the French Association for the Advancement of 
Science, at the same time in session. After this the various 
Sections met in their respective halls, and heard and dis¬ 
cussed papers, none of which call for special note. In the 
evening, Professor J. S. Newberry, of Columbia College, 
New York, gave an illustrated lecture on “The Geological 
Evolution of the North American Continent.’’ For a 
report of this I must refer those interested to the forth¬ 
coming official report of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, or I daresay the lecture has 
been published in some of the recent geological journals. 
At the close, Professor C. S. Minot, of Boston, read the 
following petition, signed by many leading scientists:— 
The undersigned respectfully request the British Association 
and the American Association to consider the advisability of 
forming an International Scientific Congress to meet at intervals 
in the different countries, and if it should be found desirable, to 
take measures to initiate the undertaking. 
He said that this movement was of a purely spontaneous 
character, and had been favourably received by the British 
Association at Montreal, and referred to an influential 
Committee. It was also very favourably received by the 
American Association, and a Committee consisting of 
leading men in various branches of science was appointed 
to consider and report on the subject, which appears now 
to be taking definite shape. 
During the next day all the sections were fully 
occupied with their special work, and in the evening, 
according to the custom of the American Association, 
the retiring President, instead of the new President 
* as with us, delivered an address. Professor Young 
