482 
MEETING  OF  THE  BRITISH  ASSOCIATION. 
6,  Geography  and  Ethnology ;  7,  Economics  and  Statistics ; 
and  8,  Mechanics.  At  the  reception  room  every  morning,  a 
printed  programme  of  the  day's  proceedings  is  presented  to  each 
member,  so  that  he  may  make  his  choice  among  the  sections  ; 
but,  as  it  often  happens  that  interesting  papers  are  read  at  the 
same  time  in  different  sections,  it  is  impossible  to  hear  all  that 
may  be  desired.  The  reading  of  papers  begins  at  11  o'clock, 
A.  M.  Our  correspondent,  wishing  to  hear  the  address  of  Sir 
Roderick  I.  Murchison,  who  presided  over  the  geological  sec- 
tion, attended  punctuilly  at  the  hour;  but  every  seat  was  filled, 
and  even  the  galleries  crammed,  so  as  to  be  inconvenient  even 
for  standing.  He  next  went  to  the  chemical  section,  and  arrived 
in  time  to  hear  the  last  words  only  of  the  address  of  Professor 
Miller,  of  King's  College,  London,,  who  presided. 
A  report  next  followed  on  the  Chemical  Manufactures  of 
South  Lancashire,  of  which  Manchester  is  the  business  centre. 
It  gave  the  statistics  of  these  manufactures,  but  was  devoted 
more  especially  to  an  account  of  the  improvements  in  them 
which  had  taken  place  within  the  last  ten  or  twelve  years.  This 
was  the  part  of  the  report  which  especially  attracted  attention, 
and  a  few  of  the  points  touched  upon  are  here  noted : 
1.  Platinum  retorts  have  generally  been  abandoned  in  South 
Lancashire  in  the  distillation  or  concentration  of  sulphuric 
acid,  large  glass  retorts  having  been  substituted,  which  are  now 
made  of  a  quality  so  good  as  to  be  peifectly  safe  and  admirably 
adapted  to  the  purpose.  The  Report  stated  that  the  acid  is  ob- 
tained more  free  from  color  when  distilled  from  glass,  than  from 
the  metallic  retorts.  Unless,  however,  the  quality  of  the  glass 
retorts  should  be  decidedly  superior,  the  value  of  this  substitu- 
tion  is  likely  to  be  less,  now  that  a  process  has  been  discovered 
by  which  platinum  can  be  readily  melted  and  worked  in  large 
quantities,  which  should  reduce  the  cost  of  the  retorts  made  of 
this  metal. 
2.  In  the  manufactare  of  sulphuric  acid,  some  now  use,  as  the 
•exclusive  source  of  the  sulphurous  acid,  a  material  which  has 
been  employed  in  the  purification  of  coal  gas,  it  being  a  form  of 
sesquioxide  of  iron,  which,  in  the  purifying  process,  is  used  over 
and  over  again,  until  it  becomes  so  sulphuretted  by  the  absorp- 
tion of  sulphur  from  the  gas,  as  to  contain  forty  per  cent,  of 
