within a five-degree square, on each of two or three days of normal weather, would be a better guide to the seaman than a wind-rose purporting to show the proportion of different winds often from a small number of observations made unconditionally in different years and seasons and in all kinds of weather. At all events, without undervaluing the method of averages and the importance of constants, it might, he believed, be said that it was to the system of comparing observations taken simultaneously over extensive portions of the earth's surface that meteorology was likely to owe most progress for some time to come. Considering the interests at stake, the sooner, he thought, this system was generally adopted the better. Who could doubt that if we had had charts showing the directions and force of the wind, the isobars, &c. over the North Atlantic, the continent of Europe, and the British Islands, at a certain hour on each day, even for the last twelve months, we should be in a position to solve, wholly or partly, questions of great importance to science and navigation?

On Storm-Warnings in Mauritius. By CHARLES MELDRUM, M.A.

By charting the winds and weather over the Indian Ocean for noon of each day during several years, and examining the connexions between the changes which took place at Mauritius and at various distances on all sides of it, the author ascertained that no heavy gale occurred within a distance of at least 1500 miles the existence of which was not indicated in the island by the barometer, winds, and weather. When signs of a hurricane at sea appeared at the Observatory notices were published in the daily newspapers, stating where the storm was raging, and in what direction it was travelling. The author explained in detail the grounds upon which these warnings were issued, showing that there were three classes of gales in the Indian Ocean south of the equator, and that each of them affected the weather at Mauritius. As a general rule, the barometer never fell one-tenth of an inch below its mean height for the season except when a gale existed at a distance, and the character of the gale, and its bearing and course were determined by the direction and veering of the wind, the barometer, and state of the clouds and weather. These results afforded the hope that similar rules might be successfully used on board ship in the Indian Ocean. In conclusion, the author expressed the opinion that the existence and course of storms in extra-tropical countries would yet be known at a distant station with far more certainty and precision than at present, for the winds in temperate climates, though more variable, were just as subject to law as those within the tropics.

On some Meteorological Results obtained in the Observatory at Rome.

By PADRE SECCHI.

The author began by stating the necessity that the climate of each observatory should be accurately known. He then expounded how he has calculated the temperature for every day of the year by simply taking the means for forty years of the same day of the year. The result was, that even after so long a term of observations, no regular curve was obtained, not even if it was tried to smooth the irregu larities by Mr. Bloxam's method. The author, however, has not used this method except for five days, and only to ascertain that the irregularities did not disappear. The comparison of the normal curve obtained for Rome with those which are given for Paris, Berlin, Greenwich, Prague, Vienna, Bologna, show evidently that these irregularities are not due to chance, since they appear also in many other places, but that they are certainly an effect of the reaction of the sun's heat on some particular places of the earth, combined with the law of the successive propagation of storms. The law of this propagation has been studied, and it was found that the storms propagate from the British Islands to Italy in about two days; and the author pointed out the station of Nairn, in Scotland, as the best station which may indicate by telegraphic despatch the future state of weather in Rome. The author afterwards entered into a full explanation of the relation existing between the magnetical and meteorological perturbations, and he stated that in Rome these perturbations are signals of approaching storms. He attempted to explain them by the electrical currents which accompany the meteorolo

gical changes. He said that this theory is not commonly admitted by English observers, because, perhaps, there is not in this country so powerful a display of electricity as on the continent, and perhaps it has not been sufficiently investigated how far this relation goes. Whatever may be the cause of this difference (if it is true), it is certainly necessary that it should be thoroughly studied, to which purpose a magnetical observatory with photographic records would be very useful, if it could be established also in Rome. The author, however, did not attribute all magnetical variations to meteorological changes. He stated that, from the observations made in Rome both on the sun's spots and magnetical instruments, a splendid confirmation was obtained of the minimum of solar spots, combined with the minimum of variation in magnetical elements, both in respect to regular and irregular oscillations. The author concluded by insisting on the great advantage which accrued to the art of navigation in the Italian ports from telegraphic indications of English meteorological states; and he noticed that a regular service is already in activity between Rome and the port of Civita Vecchia for this purpose, to the great satisfaction of the sailors.

CHEMISTRY.

Address by Professor E. FRANKLAND, F.R.S., President of the Section. AT these annual reunions of those interested in Chemical science, it is usual for the President of this Section to take a rapid survey of the progress of Chemistry during the past year, and in conformity with that custom, it now devolves upon me to bring under your notice some matters which may, perhaps, with advantage arrest our attention for a few moments before we proceed to the actual business of the Section.

It may be safely asserted that at no previous Meeting of the British Association has there been evinced such an amount of interest in experimental science, and especially in Chemistry, as that which pervades the length and breadth of this country. The international display of manufactures last year in Paris produced upon British visitors an impression which, if not quite unanimous in its kind, was almost entirely so, as regards the resulting conviction, viz. that in the education of the youth of this country scientific instruction is neglected, or systematically excluded, to an extent which finds no approach to a parallel in any other great European nation. There are many, and I confess to being one of them, who consider that even now our trade and manufactures are suffering to a very marked extent from this grave defect in our national education. It is thought by some that ignorance, on the part of managers and workmen, of the scientific truths upon which most manufacturing processes depend, has not yet begun palpably to tell upon our manufacturing prosperity; but, whatever difference of opinion there may be as to our present industrial position amongst nations, all agree in this, that without the extensive introduction of thorough scientific training into the education of those destined for industrial pursuits, we can no longer continue to maintain that preeminence in manufactures which we have now so long enjoyed.

The great science schools of the continent have no parallels in this country. The discouraging way in which scientific studies are being introduced into our older universities, the lack of the necessary funds for the proper endowment of professorships, and for the provision of suitable buildings and apparatus in our modern institutions, and the insignificance of the rewards offered to successful students in science, have naturally operated most injuriously upon the extension of chemical culture. Whilst in Heidelberg, Zürich, Bonn, Berlin, Leipzig, and Carlsruhe magnificent edifices have been raised, replete with all the newest contrivances for facilitating the prosecution of chemical studies, we are here still compelled to give instruction and conduct research in small and inconvenient buildings utterly inadequate to the requirements of modern chemistry. The large sums spent by the governments of Germany and Switzerland upon these establishments suf

ficiently testify to their opinion of the national value of chemistry in education. The laboratory at Zürich cost £14,000, that of Bonn £18,450, the one now nearly completed in Leipzig will cost £12,120, whilst the estimates for the Berlin laboratory, with its 74 rooms, amount to no less than £47,715.

Such being the comparatively discouraging circumstances under which chemistry is prosecuted in this country, it is not surprising that neither the number of investigators, nor the amount of new facts added to our knowledge during a given time will bear a favourable comparison with the chemical activity of other and more favoured nations. In the year 1866, 1273 papers were published by 805 chemists, being at the average rate of 1.58 paper for each investigator. Of these, Germany contributed 445 authors and 777 papers, or 1.75 paper to each author; France 170 authors and 245 papers, or 144 paper to each author; the United Kingdom 97 authors and 127 papers, or 1:31 paper to each author; whilst other countries furnished 93 authors and 124 papers, or 1:33 paper to each author. Our case is even worse than it appears to be from these figures; for a considerable proportion of the papers contributed by the United Kingdom were the work of chemists born and educated in Germany, but resident in this country. I am not aware how far a like comparison as regards activity in research obtains in other sciences; but if the United Kingdom takes a similar position in them, it is nothing less than a national disgrace that a country, which perhaps more than any other, owes its greatness to the discoveries of science, should do so little towards the extension of scientific research.

Fortunately, however, this national apathy has not been shared by individual chemists, and the year has not passed without several important additions to our knowledge. The Master of the Mint has continued his remarkable researches on the occlusion of gases by metals. The extraordinary property possessed by some of the metals, but especially by palladium, of absorbing large volumes of certain gases, is one of the most interesting of modern observations, and can scarcely fail to throw light upon that obscure class of phenomena, occupying the border land between the recognized domains of chemical and cohesive attraction.

Many cosmical changes, such as the variation of animal and vegetable species, move too slowly for our study. On the other hand, the sequence of transformations in chemical phenomena has generally been deemed too rapid to permit of the observation of anything but the final result. Harcourt and Esson, however, have shown that this phase of chemical action can be studied with very interesting results; in the cases of the action of oxalic acid upon permanganic acid, and of hydriodic acid upon hydroxyl, they have arrived at the following important conclusions :—

1. The rate at which a chemical change proceeds is constant under constant conditions, and independent of the time that has elapsed since the change commenced.

2. When any substance is undergoing a chemical change, of which no condition varies, excepting the diminution of the changing substance, the amount of change occurring at any moment is directly proportional to the quantity of the substance. 3. When two or more substances act one upon another, the amount of action at any moment is directly proportional to the quantity of each of the substances.

4. When the rate of any chemical change is affected by the presence of a substance, which itself takes no part in the change, the acceleration or retardation produced is directly proportional to the quantity of the substance.

5. The relation between the rate of a chemical change occurring in a solution and the temperature of the solution is such, that for every additional degree the number expressing the rate is to be multiplied by a constant quantity.

In mineral chemistry, an active Member of this Section has done excellent service by the careful reinvestigation of the compounds of vanadium. Roscoe's researches have led to the discovery that vanadium does not, as was previously believed, belong to the sulphur group of elements, but to the nitrogen group. The vanadic chloride, of anomalous vapour-density, is now shown to be a normal oxychloride. The isolation of vanadium will be looked forward to with much interest, since the atomic weight of this element assigns to it a position intermediate between phosphorus and arsenic.

Chemists had long regarded with regret the labour expended by meteorologists,

on observations made with the intention of estimating ozone in the atmosphere, in the absence of any conclusive evidence of the existence of this substance in the air. It is therefore highly satisfactory that Andrews, to whom we were already so much indebted for our knowledge of the properties of ozone, has at length proved, that the reaction exhibited by ozone test-papers, at a distance from towns, is in reality due to ozone. Thus the numerous observations, extending over so many years, now attain a value which they did not before possess.

The synthetical and constitutional departments of Organic Chemistry have received important additions from the discoverer of the first aniline colour. In pursuing his interesting researches on the salicylic series, Perkin has succeeded in artificially producing coumarin-the odoriferous principle of the sweet-scented Woodruff and Tonquin bean-besides a number of homologues of this substance. To the same Chemist we are also indebted for a theoretical paper of great importance, on the probable difference in the value of the four bonds of carbon-a subject which, in its bearings upon isomerism, has long claimed, though it has never received, the earnest attention of Chemists.

Perkin and Duppa have submitted the glyoxylic acid, originally obtained by them from dibromacetic acid, to a searching constitutional investigation, which has led them to the conclusion that this acid is identical with the one obtained by Debus from the slow oxidation of alcohol; thus establishing the fact that two semimolecules of hydroxyl can unite with one and the same atom of carbon-a kind of combination the possibility of which had been disputed, although an analogous compound of hydrosulphyl is well known.

Maxwell Simpson, another of the most active and successful workers in this branch of Organic Chemistry, has continued his researches on the constitution of succinic acid, and on the direct transformation of chloriodide of ethylene into glycol.

To general Organic Chemistry important contributions have been made by Stenhouse on chloranil, and by Griess on the action of cyanogen upon amidoacids.

Physiological Chemistry has received a new impulse from the highly instructive experiments of Crum Brown and Fraser on the connexion between chemical constitution and physiological action. It had been shown by Bunsen that cacodylic acid, though readily soluble in water, and containing 54 per cent. of arsenic, produced, when administered to animals, no appreciable poisonous effect, whilst Landolt found that the poisonous properties of antimony disappeared in the salts of tetramethylstibonium. Messrs. Crum Brown and Fraser have studied the change in physiological action produced by the addition of methylic iodide to the natural alkaloids, strychnine, brucine, thebaine, codeine, morphine, and nicotine, and they show conclusively that the physiological action of these poisons is both greatly diminished in degree and completely changed in character. Their experiments also lead them to the singularly remarkable and important conclusion, that when a nitrile base possesses a strychnine-like action, the salts of the corresponding ammonium bases have an action identical with that of the curare poison. It is well known that curare and strychnine are derived from plants belonging to the same genus; and it is, therefore, interesting to observe such a relationship.

Again, the experiments of Dr. Arthur Gamgee on the action of nitrites upon blood afford a striking illustration of the successful application of the most delicate processes of chemical analysis to physiological research.

I cannot close this brief and very imperfect summary of British chemical investigation during the past year without congratulating the Section on the completion of that most valuable addition to the literature of the science-Watt's Dictionary of Chemistry. The extent, completeness, unity of design, and general accuracy of this great work reflect the highest credit upon its talented editor, who has conferred a boon upon his colleagues for which they can never sufficiently thank him.

The statistics illustrative of comparative chemical activity in this country and elsewhere warn me not to attempt, in these necessarily brief remarks, any analysis of foreign research. I cannot, however, avoid alluding to one or two out of the many foreign achievements of the past year.

1868.

3

In Mineral Chemistry, the application of the doctrines of atomicity to the formulation of natural minerals, in the new edition of Dana's great work, constitutes an epoch in mineralogy which can scarcely fail to produce in that science results as important as those which this doctrine has already achieved in chemistry

proper.

In Organic Chemistry, Hofmann's discovery of a new series of cyanogen compounds imparts a new stimulus to researches on isomerism, and will long remain one of the great landmarks in organic investigation.

In Kolbe's laboratory the yearly harvest of synthetical discoveries has not failed. The direct conversion of carbonic anhydride into oxalic acid by Dr. Drechsel, and of ammonic carbonate into urea by Basaroff, are amongst the most brilliant achievements yet recorded in this branch of research.

The artificial production of neurine by Wurtz illustrates strikingly the precision with which the results of chemical action can now be predicted. The atomic theory of Dalton, developed as it has been by the doctrine of atomicity, is rapidly assuming, for chemical phenomena, the position which the theory of gravitation occupies in cosmical science.

After a long period of indecision and confusion, as regards the atomic weights of a majority of the elements, it is gratifying to find that, at the present moment, an almost complete unanimity, prevails amongst chemical teachers. Out of upwards of 900 papers, worked in all parts of the United Kingdom, at a recent examination connected with the Science and Art Department, the old atomic weights were employed in less than twenty cases. It is much to be regretted that this unanimity does not extend to notation and nomenclature; as regards the latter, a much greater uniformity prevails in France and Germany than in this country, and it is greatly to be desired that efforts should be made to bring about a better understanding on the subject. To the student a uniformly recognized nomenclature is perhaps of more importance than a generally accepted notation. For the present, the realization of the latter appears to be impossible; but by a little mutual concession on the part of teachers, and especially of authors, there would be good hope of soon accomplishing the former."

On the Chemical Composition of the Great Cannon of Muhammed II., recently presented by the Sultan Abdul Aziz Khan to the British Government. By F. A. ABEL, F.R.S.

This interesting example of heavy ordnance of early date, which has recently been added to the Museum of Artillery at Woolwich, is one of the large bombards which have, for about four centuries, occupied positions in the batteries on the Dardanelles.

The gun consists of two parts, which are screwed together: each part weighs about 9 tons, the total weight of the piece being 18 tons 14 cwt. 3 qrs. Its external form is cylindrical, the muzzle being as large as the breech; each end of either separate part carries a projecting moulding which is divided by cross-bars into recesses. The object of these was not simply ornamental; the recesses obviously serve the purpose of the holes in a capstan-head, being required to give purchase to the levers employed in screwing the two parts together, and in moving the gun. Each piece has some simple moulding-ornamentation at the ends, and the external surfaces are subdivided by rings or mouldings about 14 inches apart. The total length of the gun is 17 feet, the diameter of the powder-chamber is 10 inches, that of the bore is 25 inches. The two screws which join the pieces together, and are 23 inches in diameter, are skilfully cast. Some spherical stone shot received with the gun weigh 670 lbs.; the charge of powder required being 493 lbs.

For the purpose of analysis, specimens of the alloy were detached from different parts of the gun; these were found to vary considerably both in hardness and composition. Samples marked I. and IV. proved to be almost identical with the best descriptions of gun-metal of recent manufacture, whilst those in which the amount of tin was larger, exhibited specks of white alloy irregularly dispersed through the masses. On the other hand, Nos. III., IIIA., and V. contain higher