of our dual truth-let us now glance at the other
half.

We have little pyramids built by the sah terrace You will notice that I am stating my truth we should be as far as ever from the solution of above terrace from base to apex, forming us a strongly, as at the beginning we agreed it should the problem, "How are these physical processes series of steps, resembling those up which the be stated. But I must go still further, and connected with the facts of consciousness?" The Egyptian traveller is dragged by his guides. The affirm that in the eye of science the animal chasm between the two classes of phenomena human mind is as little disposed to look at these body is just as much the product of molecular would still remain intellectually impassable. Let pyramidal salt-crystals without further question, force as the stalk and ear of corn, or as the the consciousness of love, for example, be assoas to look at the pyramids of Egypt without in- crystal or salt of sugar. Many of its parts are ciated with a right-handed spiral motion of the quiring whence they came. How, then, are those obviously mechanical. Take the human heart, for molecules of the brain, and the consciousness of salt-pyramids built up? Guided by analogy, you example, with its exquisite system of valves, or hate with a left-handed spiral motion. We should may suppose that, swarming among the constituent take the eye, or the hand. Animal heat, more- then know when we love that the motion is in one molecules, of the salt, there is an invisible popu-over, is the same in kind as the heat of a fire, direction, and when we hate that the motion is in lation, guided and coerced by some invisible master, being produced by the same chemical process. the other; but the "why?" would still remain and placing the atomic blocks in their positions. Animal motion, too, is as directly derived from unanswered. This, however, is not the scientific idea, nor do I the food of the animal as the motion of Treve- In affirming that the growth of the body is think your good sense will accept it as a likely thyck's walking-engine from the fuel in its fur-mechanical, and that thought, as exercised by us, one. The scientific idea is that the molecules act nace. As regards matter, the animal body has its correlative in the physics of the brain, I upon one another without the intervention of slave creates nothing; as regards force, it creates no- think the position of the "materialist" is stated labour; that they attract each other and repel each thing. Which of you by taking thought can as far as that position is a tenable one. I think other at certain definite points, and in certain add one cubit to his stature? All that has been the materialist will be able finally to maintain definite directions; and that the pyramidal form said regarding the plant may be re-stated with this position against all attacks; but I do not is the result of this play of attraction and repul- regard to the animal. Every particle that enters think, as the human mind is at present constision. While, then, the blocks of Egypt were laid into the composition of a muscle, a nerve, or a tuted, that he can pass beyond it. I do not think down by a power external to themselves, these bone, has been placed in its position by mole-ho is entitled to say that his molecular groupings molecular blocks of salt are self-posited, being cular force. And unless the existence of law in and his molecular motions explain everything. In fixed in their places by the forces with which they these matters be denied, and the element of reality they explain nothing. The utmost he can act upon each other. caprice introduced, we must conclude that, given affirm is the association of two classes of phenoBut passing from what we are accustomed to the relation of any molecule of the body to its mena, of whose real bond of union he is in absoregard as a dead mineral to a living grain of corn. environment, its position in the body might be lute ignorance. The problem of the connection When it is examined by polarized light, chromatic predicted. Our difficulty is not with the quality of body and soul is as insoluble in its modern form phenomena similar to those noticed in crystals are of the problem, but with its complexity; and as it was in the prescientific ages. Phosphorus observed: and why? Because the architecture of this difficulty might be met by the simple ex-is known to enter into the composition of the the grain resembles in some degree the archi- pansion of the faculties which man now possesses. human brain, and a courageous writer has extecture of the crystal. In the corn the molecules Given this expansion, and given the necessary claimed, in his trenchant German, "Ohne phosphor are also set in definite positions, from which they molecular data, and the chick might be deduced kein Gedanke." That may or may not be the act upon the light. But what has built together as rigorously and as logically from the egg as case; but even if we knew it to be the case, the the molecules of the corn? I have already said the existence of Neptune was deduced from the knowledge would not lighten our darkness. On regarding crystalline architecture that you may, disturbances of Uranus, or as conical refraction both sides of the zone here assigned to the mateif you please, consider the atoms and mole- was deduced from the undulatory theory of rialist he is equally helpless. If you ask him cules to be placed in position by a power external light. You see I am not mincing matters, but whence is this "matter" of which we have been to themselves. The same hypothesis is open to avowing nakedly what many scientific thinkers discoursing, who or what divided it into molecules, you now. But if, in the case of crystals, you have more or less distinctly believe. The formation who or what impressed upon them this necessity rejected this notion of an external architect, I of a crystal, a plant, or an animal, is in their of running into organic forms, he has no answer. think you are bound to reject it now, and to con- eyes a purely mechanical problem, which differs Science also is mute in reply to these questions. clude that the molecules of the corn are self-posited from the problems of ordinary mechanics in the But if the materialist is confounded and science by the forces with which they act upon each other. smallness of the masses and the complexity of rendered dumb, who else is entitled to answer? It would be poor philosophy to invoke an external the processes involved. Here you have one-half To whom has the secret been revealed? Let us agent in the one case and to reject it in the other. lower our heads and acknowledge our ignorance Instead of cutting our grain of corn into thin slices one and all. Perhaps the mystery may resolve and subjecting it to the action of polarized light, Associated with this wonderful mechanism of itself into knowledge at some future day. The let us place it in the earth and subject it to a cer- the animal body we have phenomena no less process of things upon this earth has been one of tain degree of warmth. In other words, let the certain than those of physics, but between which amelioration. It is a long way from the Iguamolecules, both of the corn and of the surrounding and the mechanism we discern no necessary nodon and his contemporaries to the president and earth, be kept in a state of agitation; for warmth, connection. A man, for example, can say I feel, members of the British Association. And whether as most of you know, is, in the eye of science, I think, I love; but how does consciousness in- we regard the improvement from the scientific or tremulous molecular motion. Under these circum-fuse itself into the problem? The human brain from the theological point of view, as the result of stances, the grain and the substances which sur- is said to be the organ of thought and feeling; progressive development, or as the result of succesround it interact, and a molecular architecture is when we are hurt the brain feels it, when we entitles us to assume that man's present faculties sive exhibitions of creative energy, neither view the result of this interaction. A bud is formed; ponder it is the brain that chinks, when our this bud reaches the surface, where it is exposed passions or affections are excited it is through ends the series-that the process of amelioration to the sun's rays, which are also to be regarded as a the instrumentality of the brain. stops at him. A time may, therefore, come when -kind of vibratory motion. And as the common deavour to be a little more precise here. I this ultra-scientific region by which we are now motion of heat with which the grain and the sub- hardly imagine that any profound scientific enfolded may offer itself to terrestrial, if not to stances surrounding it were first endowed enabled thinker who has reflected upon the subject exists human investigation. Two-thirds of the rays the grain and these substances to coalesce, so the who would not admit the extreme probability emitted by the sun fail to arouse in the eye the specific motion of the sun's rays now en: bles the of the hypothesis, that for every fact of conscious- sense of vision. The rays exist, but the visual green bud to feed upon the carbonic acid and the ness, whether in the domain of sense, of thought, organ requisite for their translation into light does aqueous vapour of the air, appropriating those connot exist. And so from this region of darkness stituents of both for which the blade has an elective | dition is set up in the brain; that this relation and mystery which surrounds us, rays may now attraction, and permitting the other constituent to of physics to consciousness is invariable, so that, be darting which require but the development of resume its place in the air. Thus forces are active given the state of the brain, the corresponding into knowledge as far surpassing ours as ours does the proper intellectual organs to translate them at the root, forces are active in the blade, the mat- thought or feeling might be inferred; or, given ter of the earth and the matter of the atmosphere the thought or feeling, the corresponding state of that of the wallowing reptiles which once held are drawn towards the plant, and the plant aug- the brain might be inferred. But how inferred? possession of this planet. Meanwhile the mystery is not without its uses. ments in size. We have in succession the bud, the It is at bottom not a case of logical inference at It certainly may be made stalk, the ear, the full corn in the car. For the all, but of empirical association. You may reply a power in the human soul; but it is a power forces here at play act in a cycle which is com- that many of the inferences of science are of this which has feeling, not knowledge, for its base. It pleted by the production of grains similar to that character; the inference, for example, that an may be and will be, and we hope is, turned to with which the process began. Now, there is electric current of a given direction will deflect a account, both in steadying and strengthening the nothing in this process which necessarily eludes magnetic needle in a definite way; but the cases intellect, and in rescuing man from that littleness the power of mind as we know it. to which, in the struggle for existence, or for preAn intellect the differ in this, that the passage from the current to same in kind as our own would, if only sufficiently the needle, if not demonstrable, is thinkable, and expanded, be able to follow the whole process from that we entertain no doubt as to the final beginning to end. No entirely new intellectual mechanical solution of the problem; but the passfaculty would be needed for this purpose. The age from the physics of the brain to the corre- PRESIDENT-Professor Frankland, F.R.S. Vice-preduly expanded mind would see in the process and sponding facts of consciousness is unthinkable.sidents-Professor W. A. Miller, D.C.L.; Warren its consummation an instance of the play of mole-Granted that a definite thought and a definite De la Rue, F.R.S.; Professor Odling, F.R.S.; Procular force. It would see every molecule placed in molecular action in the brain Occur simul- fessor Roscoe, F.R.S.; Professor Williamson, F.R.S.; its position by the specific attractions and repul-taneously; we do not possess the intellectual Sir B. Brodie, Bart., F.R.S.; Dr. Gladstone, F.R.S. ; sions exerted between it and other molecules. organ, nor apparently any rudiment of the organ, and Professor Liveing. Secretaries-Dr. Crum Nay, given the grain and its environment, an in- which would enable us to pass by a process of Brown, F.R.S.E., F.C.S.; Dr. Russell, F.C.S.; and F. tellect the same in kind as our own, but sufficiently reasoning from the one phenomenon to the other. Sutton, F.C.S. expanded, might trace out a priori every step of They appear together, but we do not know At the opening of the proceedings the President the process, and by the application of mechanical why. Were our minds and senses so expanded, addressed the members of the section, noticing the principles would be able to demonstrate that the strengthened, and illuminated as to enable us to lack of Government assistance in providing suitcycle of action must end, as it is seen to end, in see and feel the very molecules of the brain; were able buildings for instruction in chemistry, and the reproduction of forms like that with which we capable of following all their motions, all their contrasting this country with Germany and the operation began. A similar necessity rules groupings, all their electric discharges, if such | Switzerland. He also successively reviewed the here to that which rules the planets in their cir- there be; and were we intimately acquainted with important results of chemical research during the cuits round the sun. the corresponding states of thought and feeling, past year.

Let us en

or of emotion, a certain definite molecular con

cedence in the world, he is continually prone.

SECTION B.-CHEMICAL SCIENCE.

CHLORIDE OF METHYLENE.

The President remarked that the chemicalphysical observations were what chemistry in the future would have to look more into than it had

CHEMISTRY AS A BRANCH OF EDUCATION.

BY MR. W. H. PERKIN, F.R.S. MR. PERKIN's paper was on the chloride of methy-done in the past. lene, found by the action of nascent hydrogen on chloroform. The essayist stated there could be no doubt that this question was one of considerable importance, because if isomerism exists in the monocarbon series, in all probability it would be found also to exist in the derivatives of all other polyatomic elements. Those considerations had induced him to commence a fresh examination of some of the monocarbon derivatives, hoping that an experimental comparison of their properties might in some degree help to the solution of this problem. He gave a description of the experiments he had made upon the chloride of methylene, obtained from chloroform by the action of nascent hydrogen. Chloride of methylene obtained in that manner, possessed the same (or nearly so) boiling point as that obtained by Buthrom from the chloride prepared from the iodide of methylene from iodoform. Chloride of methylene was but little acted upon by sodium.

The President remarked he was sure that every chemist would regard with satisfaction the results obtained by such a chemist as Mr. Perkin. It was quite time that their views upon the subject should be settled one way or another. It certainly differed from the ordinary brodine of methylene, and they were almost compelled to come to the conclusion that two methylenes existed, and the experiments made by Mr. Perkins went far to establish this point.

SULPHOCYANIDE OF AMMONIUM.

BY DR. T. L. PHIPSON.

DR. PHIPSON alluded to the presence of this salt in large quantities in some kinds of sulphate of ammonia of commerce, and to a method of estimating the amount of this compound, as the whole of its nitrogen is not available for agricultural purposes. This method consists in determining the sulphocyanogen as an insoluble salt of copper duct at 100deg. C. The next point considered was connected with the properties of sulphocyanide of ammonia. In dissolving in water the salt produces a greater degree of cold than any other, though in crystallizing it gives out heat, which causes the surface and interior of the liquid to take curious motions. The alcoholic solution of the salt shows the peculiar phenomena of supersaturation to a very limited degree. Finally, the author gave his analysis of supercyonogen, which showed it to be, as Voelkel stated, C8, H2, N4, S8, O, and not that admitted by the French chemists. The salt could be purchased in London for from £10 to £13 per ton. The sulphocyanide and sulphate of ammonia were mixed in about equal proportions, and had lately entered very largely into the manufacture of artificial manures.

BY MR. T. WOOD.

THE author divided his subject into two parts:
first, chemistry, as teaching facts useful to be
known; and, second, as an instrument of general
and practical education. Under the first part of
his subject he showed that chemistry might be
studied by boys from the age of six years, simple
and interesting truths being imparted to them,
whilst elder youths might be taught facts which
they would retain in their minds from a previous
knowledge of arithmetic. Under the latter the
lecturer argued that chemistry had never been
properly taught in schools as a means of educa-
tion. It should be taught in lectures, which were
very different from lessons, for in the latter ques-
tions should be put and answered, whilst in the
former it should be the aim of the master to illus-
trate his facts by experiments. All large schools
should have a science teacher, and during six
months three days should be set apart in each
week for youths to spend their time in the labo-
ratory, when it would be ascertained which had
any talent for the cultivation of science. At pre-
sent there was not much encouragement for the
study of the sciences in the universities, because
nearly all the endowments were lavished on mathe-
matics and classics, and little or nothing on natural

science.

further north than Norwich. Although the confines of the neighbouring lands are not well known, there is no doubt that the crag always occupied a low level. At the same time, we have no evidence whatever that the crag sea extended as far as the Wash. In connection with the denudation of Norfolk, there was a problem he would like to see settled. This was the existence of a layer of flints lying on the solid chalk, to be seen in various parts of the county. At Coltishall, he had found the flints actually cropping out of the chalk in which their lower portions were embedded and passing into this layer. It was in this identical stratum that the mammalian bones and teeth were most abundantly found. He then referred to the difficulties attending any explanation, more particularly that which regarded this layer as an old land surface where the bones had accumulated.

Passing from this subject, Mr. Fisher next reviewed the order in which the crags succeeded each other, recanting a former opinion of his own that the Chillingford crag was older than the Norwich, and declaring that the Aldeby and Easton Bavent Crags were identical with the Upper Norwich Crag of Mr. J. E. Taylor. He thought that the relations between the Forest Bed and the Crags had not yet been sufficiently worked out, and stated his reason for believing that the Chillesford clays wore older than the former, as mastodon teeth and vertebræ of whales, similar to those characterising the Forest Bed, had been found at Chillesford. it was possible that the Chillesford clays were actually a continuation or connection of the Forest Bed. He then went into an elaborate explanation of the physical geography under which the entire series was deposited. Although subærial denudation must have been going on during the period of the Forest Bed, all traces of its effects are necessarily lost. Mr. Serles Wood had done good service in mapping out and classifying the glacial series. In the formation of this deposit, two agencies had been in operation-coast ice and icebergs. Fisher then traced the circumstances attending the physical geography of the Lower Drift beds. SECTION C.-GEOLOGY. Owing to the contiguity of land, these had taken PRESIDENT-R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S., more or less the form of coast boulder clay. ReF.G.S. Vice-Presidents-Professor Huxley, F.R.S.;garding the peculiar contortions belonging to this Professor Harkness, F.R.S.; Sir Charles Lyell, deposit, he showed how they could be produced by Bart., F.R.S.; John Evans, Esq., F.R.S.; Professor icebergs. Masses of ice stranding on soft, yielding Phillips, F.R.S.; Warington Smyth, F.R.S.; and beds would displace them, and cause them to R. J. Fitch, Esq., F.G.S. Secretaries-W. Pengelly, "creep" and take this peculiar form. When the F.R.S.; and Rev. H. H. Winwood, M.A., F.G.S. ice melted, the strata would remain in their contorted state. This was Mr. Joshua Trimmer's idea, formed many years ago.

An interesting discussion ensued, in the course of which Mr. Catton said at Rugby chemistry was taught by a senior wrangler, and there were also masters in the other natural sciences. Dr. Balfour was opposed to teaching chemistry by lecturing, and he thought it would be useless to carry out scientific instruction on the extensive scale suggested.

In his opening address, the President of the Section, Mr. R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, B.A., F.R.S., after reverting to the physical changes which the North Sea had undergone within recent geological times, remarked that Suffolk and Norfolk formed one region both geologically and ethnologically, and were the western slope of the North Sea Basin. He then mentioned its principal hydrographical features, and gave at considerable length a geoloDr. Tomlinson, F.R.S., then lectured upon "The gical summary of the above district, concluding in Action of Nuclei in Inducing Crystallization." He the following words :-These subjects have engaged said that when using glass vessels in his experiments many speculative and ingenious minds, from on solutions of salts he had them made chemically the middle of last century, down to those now clean, and found that the nuclei would not act as actively at work here-such as Arderen, William a nucleus for crystallization, but that when he ad- Smith, the father of geology; the Taylors, Robberds, mitted the air into his vessels, crystallization com- the Woodwards (of whom four generations), Clarke, menced. If he used a glass rod which was not Mitchells, Trimmer, Gunn, Osmond Fisher. But chemically clean, even when all air was carefully I should be wanting to the place in which we are excluded, the action of the crystals was immediate. now met, wholly unworthy to fill this chair, wantThe President would like Mr. Tomlinson to de-ing to the great subject which assembles so many fine what he meant by chemical cleanliness, and here, wholly forgetful of my own obligations, if I what he considered chemical impurity-whether it were not mindful that Norwich may claim with was a production of floating germs in the atmo- Cambridge joint ownership in the Woodwardian sphere. He thought that was a point in connection Professor-the Rev. Canon Sedgwick. with which there ought to be further investigation. Dr. J. H. Gladstone said that if a glass rod were rubbed through the hand it would be considered impure, but if rubbed with black lead, which AFTER a short preface, Mr. Fisher referred to the would appear more dirty, it would not be impure. material being wasted on land, especially that Dr. Tomlinson said the air itself was not impure. which happened to be under the plough, and carThe impurity simply arose from the organic mat-ried by rivers into the sea. The tendency of the ter floating in it, and from experiments he had sea, therefore, is always to reduce the land to a made he thought it clear that air was not a nucleus. general level. In instances where the coast is low, There was nothing better than the illustration given by Dr. Gladstone, that if a glass rod be passed through the hand it would be impure, from the greasy organic matter that would adhere to it, and thus render it dirty.

Dr. J. H. Gladstone then delivered a short lecture upon "Refraction Equivalents and Chemical Theories." He said the refraction equivalent of an element was a number that represents its power of bending the rays of light, and accompanies it in its combination. It was shown that a consideration of these equivalents had some bearing on the grouping of elements, on the condition of a body in its compounds, on the phenomena of isomerism, and on the fixing of atomic weights.

ON DENUDATION.

BY THE REV. D. FISHER.

we have sand hills, or "marrams," formed, which
to some degree protect it. Mr. Fisher then showed
how the deposits formed in the sea followed more
or less the contour of the coast line, shifting as the
latter shifted. The inequalities of the sea bottom,
he thought, were caused originally by the depres-
sion of the area taking place faster than deposition
could fill it up, or else by an unequal elevation.
Norfolk, more especially, has received its present
surface contour through denudation. From these
general remarks on the subject of denudation,
Mr. Fisher branched off into the relations of sea
and land, and of the fauna of the crag period. The
sea bottom, at that time, consisted mainly of hard
chalk, and the crag sea certainly extended much

Mr.

With regard to the altered chalk rubble, or marl as it was sometimes called, which some geologists believed had been produced about this period, if he were to go by a section at Eton, shown to him by Mr. Taylor, he thought that simple alteration by percolating water would be sufficient to produce it. Mr. Serles Wood and others had held the idea that this stubed chalk was the effect of land glaciation. During the Middle Drift period, the solid c... must have been greatly denuded, inasmuch as the strata are greatly composed of the derived materials. The Upper Drift, or Boulder Clay, first so called by Mr. Wood, plainly showed effects of marine denudation, as well as subærial. Sea action, by wearing away the cliffs, might cause the drainage of a water-shed to be considerably altered. Marine denudation, he believed, was much more rapid than was usually supposed. Inland escapements, however, should not be regarded as old sea cliffs. Submarine currents, acting on soft beds, might give the initiative to valley formation. He then went into the subject of "Trail," the deposit nearly always found resting superficially on the rest, and referred its age to no less recent a date than 110,000 years. The Mundesley River bed he classed among the older valley deposits, and perhaps the marine beds of the valley of the Nar were nearly of the same age. The Norfolk Broads, he believed, were simply those portions of valleys which had not been filled up. Generally speaking, these lie in the broader parts of existing valleys. The reason why they were peculiar to Norfolk was, perhaps, because the valleys were filled with ice longer than those of the West of England, and so were therefore hindered from being filled up with abraded material.

Professor Phillips expressed himself as being exceedingly glad to find that the late geological deposits excited so much enthusiasm and attraction. Although there was a variety of phenomena of a most interesting character connecting the present with the earlier geological epochs, he thought they proved still more the upward and downward motions which had attended them. He held that all the phenomena of the Drift period in their relation to time, was most important. Notwithstanding

Mr. Fisher's elaborate and definite classification, he believed that the zeal of observers, situated at a distance from each other, would always lead them to differ about the various smaller points. The latest deposits, which anybody might imagine were the easiest to be understood, were in reality the most difficult, and required no small degree of toil and investigation. He could not help seizing the opportunity of thanking that veteran geo- | logist, Sir Charles Lyell, for his classification of Tertiary Geology. Professor Phillips then referred to the labours of Trimmer, Prestwich, Wood, and others on the Norfolk Drift beds, and to the singular substantiation which the views of the former had received at the hands of modern geologists. He remembered that, when he read, many years ago, Mr. Trimmer's paper on the Norfolk Drift, he thought that it would require no small pains for him to prove his points. That, however, has been done. The researches of the Rev. John Gunn, also, in this department, had thrown no little light upon it. Mr. Gunn had plainly shown the distribution of mammalian forms. Races of elephant, stag, &c., had become extinct, and their places had been filled by other species. Old forms had died out, and new ones supplanted them. In fact, every stage had, so to speak, its own fauna, and the entire series from the crag upwards was but one grand whole.

Sir Charles Lyell stated that there were so many points of controversy started, that he could only look at one or two. He then went on to describe his utter despair when, fifty years ago, he first saw the Norfolk cliffs, of ever being able to explain their phenomena. Had anybody then called in iceberg action, people would have set

him down as "daft." But he had himself seen

icebergs laden with stones and mud stranding. He thought it was rash to call in astronomical causes to account for greater cold, when these must have operated alike upon both sides of the equator. He thought the greater cold might be explained by different relations of land and water, as well as by oceanic currents. It should

be recollected, when we are calling in ice agency,

DREDGING AMONGST THE SHETLAND ISLANDS.

MR. JEFFREYS' annual report on dredging amongst the Shetland Islands stated that, in spite of the weather, which was this year unusually cold and fine species of Pleurotoma (P. carinata, Philippi), boisterous, some further results were obtained. A was added to the British fauna, having been first discovered as a Sicilian fossil, and since recorded as inhabiting the coasts of Upper Norway. Several of the rarer species peculiar to the Zetlandic seas, Other departments of marine

BY MR. J. GWYN JEFFREYS.

also occurred.

been moved by representations made to them to
have the sea bottom throughout that extent care-
fully examined, for the purpose of finding out
whether there were any impediments to the safe
lodgment of the cable at the bottom of the sea.
Very various opinions were held on the subject,
and many persons maintained that there were great
rocks which would catch or cut the cable. The
Admiralty despatched the "Bulldog" steam vessel,
under the command of Captain Dayman, who was
supplied with an ingenious apparatus, by means of
which larger or smaller portions of the sea bottom
could be brought bodily up from any depth at
which soundings could be made. Captain Dayman zoology would be reported on by Messrs. Norman
made his soundings, and brought back his speci- Mr. Jeffreys then compared the mollusca of our
mens of the sea bottom, and the Admiralty sent
the whole of the soundings to him (Professor Hux-North Sea with those from the Mediterranean and
ley) for examination. They were extremely inte- Adriatic, which he had carefully investigated, as
resting, as they for the first time supplied the well by his own dredgings in the Gulf of Spezia
as by the examination of nearly all the public and
private collections. Although the littoral species
of the northern and southern parts of the Euro-
pean seas exhibit a considerable difference, there
is a remarkable identity between those which in-
no less than 244 are found living south of the
habit deeper waters. Out of 317 Zetlandic species
Bay of Biscay, 283 being found north of the

means of ascertaining what was the precise nature
of the mud which covered the bottom of the sea.
He should speak only of the soundings brought
from a depth of from 1,000 to 2,400 or 2,500
fathoms, or from 6,000ft. to 15,000ft. The depth
of the Atlantic was such, that in the deepest part
of it, if Mont Blanc was sunk, the top would be
covered, and he had specimens of the bottom from
that depth. It became his business to report on
these soundings, and report of their nature; and
he stated in his report that the deposits consisted
of minute round bodies, to all appearance consist-
ing of several concretic layers, surrounding a clear
centre. As these bodies were rapidly dissolved by
dilute acids he thought at that time that they could
not be organic. That, however, he found, on more
minute and careful investigation, to be an imperfect
statement of the facts of the case. The largest of
them was the 16-100th of an inch in diameter, and
he had not examined them at first with a sufficient
power.

kind of mosaic.

He

and Walker and Drs. Gunther and M'Intosh.

British seas.

This concordance partly arises from different names having been applied to the same species by British and foreign writers on the subject. A summary of the results from all the dredgings by the author in Shetland was given under several heads, including the comparative size of specimens of the same species from the northern and southern parts of the European seas, the colour of shells from deep water, the geographical and bathymetrical distribution of species, the identity of certain fossil and recent shells, the devolution of species, and the course of the Gulf Stream with respect to the oceanic mollusca.

OYSTERS.

MR. FRANK BUCKLAND delivered an extemporaneous address on the progress of salmon cultivaHe said that the measures tion in England. already adopted had led to a considerable increase in the quantity of salmon brought into the London market during the last few years, and he hoped that a still greater increase would be the result of further improvements. He promised the English public salmon at a shilling a pound, or even less; but added that if they allowed their

SECTION E.-GEOGRAPHY AND
ETHNOLOGY.

PRESIDENT-Captain Richards, F.R.S., Hydro

Henry Rawlinson, Bart., F.R.S.; Sir Arthur
grapher to the Royal Navy. Vice-presidents-Sir
Phayre; Sir Charles Nicholson, Bart.; Admiral
Elliot.
Ommaney; Sir F. L. M'Clintock; Sir Walter
Secretary of Geographical Society; Clements R.
Secretaries-H. W. Bates, Assistant-
Markham, F.R.G.S.; and Thomas Wright, M.A.

printed his "Notes on the Existence of Organic Three or four years afterwards, Dr. Warwick Bodies at Great Depths in the Sea." He discovered what he called cocospheres, which he thought looked extremely like as if they were that within a few thousand miles this was now made up of a number of what he (Professor actually operating. Sir Charles then referred to the immense area of the Mississippi delta, and Huxley) had called cocolites set side by side in a showed how he had accounted for its various up- another paper, in which he stated that the cocoIn 1861, Dr. Warwick published heavals and contortions of mud by agency similar in principle to that mentioned by Mr. Fisher-lites were identical with minute bodies which had been discovered in chalk by Mr. Swaby, who was that of unequal pressure. He was exceedingly the first person to point out this interesting cir-rivers to be polluted they might expect to pay glad to hear Mr. Trimmer's theory thus confirmed, cumstance. In the same year, Mr. Swaby got a two shillings, and serve them right." He conas he had always deemed it to be a most excellent step further, and found that these bodies-which cluded by some remarks on oyster culture, in explanation. He also thought marine denudation he (Professor Huxley) had called cocolites, from which he ridiculed the popular notion of overhad been exaggerated, especially when the formation of valleys was attributed to it; but he thought their being concretionary, if they were turned dredging as the cause of the late failure in the favourite bivalve. Oysters, he said, had bred that it was possible to carry the theory of sub-round, no easy matter with so minute an object -were concave-such things as might be cut out this year, and there was every prospect in five ærial denudation too far. Instead of wondering of a hollow sphere of glass; that they were, in or six years of their being saleable at Id. each. that marine denudation should have been so great, fact, like thick watch glasses; and he showed that the difficulty with him was that it had not been they could not be concretious-that is, that they greater. Considering the slowness of upheaval, it could not be of animal nature. He (Professor was surprising, when the addy deposits of the Huxley) re-examined the specimens of deep sea sea-bottom were upheaved, that they were not eaten away and scattered by marine currents. soundings, by applying to them a much higher This he illustrated by the Dogger bank, a series of might mention that all persons who had been conmagnifying power than he had used before. soft sands, being elevated at, say, 3ft. in a cen- cerned in bringing up Atlantic mud spoke of it tury. It would be surprising indeed if the marine currents did not keep pace with the upheaval by stance. He found it to contain an immense numas being a wonderfully tenacious and sticky subcutting it down as it appeared. It would hardly ber of minute shells, and of an enormous number be admitted that when the ocean bed was uplifted of little, irregular pellets of jelly, dotted all over. so as to form dry land, that it would appear as a It was to the dotted pellets he desired to draw perfectly level and unhollowed plane. attention. On applying a power of 1,200 diameters, they could be analyzed and resolved pretty well. CAPTAIN RICHARDS opened the proceedings by In each of the pellets would be found a great num-giving an address on the present and future of ber of granules scattered about, each being the geography, the past, including full details of 40,000th to the 20,000th of an inch. These he geographical discovery during the past year, found were all organic particles, yielding, as they having, as he said, been already given by the Predid, to all the changes to which organic bodies sident of the Geographical Society in his address yielded when the proper materials wero applied in May last. The science of geography, as it was to them. The average diameter of each heap of accepted in its ordinary and every-day sense, was granules was the 12-100th of an inch, and each within very easy range of all. It required no represented a mass actually living at the depth of profound knowledge, and as it was one of the most the sea, and developed in its slime. So that, inter- popular subjects it was no wonder that in its sermixed amongst the shell, there was an immense vice men were ready to sacrifice their ease, and body of jelly, which contained the bodies of the even their lives, in pursuit of any geographical simplest kinds of organisms, each representing a venture which may appear to offer a possible kind of spicula of primitive organism. The fact chance of fame. Maritime exploration has always that those bodies existed at the depths he had been the precursor of other geographical discovery stated was beyond dispute, so that the depths of -as soon as the coasts of a country are defined on the sea contained those living organisms from maps, then according to various circumstances of which old philosophers held that all things pro-climate and other physical conditions with the ceeded. And some persons were coming round geography of its interior be developed with greater to that opinion again. For his part ho expressed or loss rapidity. The close connection of geono opinion as to whether they were plants or graphy with hydrography, and the physical animals. They were, perhaps, the simplest re-geography of the ocean, was then pointed out. presentatives of that common ground between plants and animals, as to which so much was said in the present day.

SECTION D.-BIOLOGY.

PRESIDENT The Rev. J. M. Berkeley, M.A., F.R.S.
Vice-Presidents-W. H. Flower, F.R.S.; E. B.
Tylor, F.R.S.; Professor Balfour, F.R.S.; Profossor
Rolleston, F.R.S.; Professor Turner, F.R.S.; Pro-
fessor Humphrey, F.R.S.; Professor Newton; G.
Busk, Esq., F.R.S. Secretaries-Dr. M. Foster;
H. L. Stainton, F.R.S.; Rev. H. B. Tristram, M.A.,
F.R.S.; Dr. E. Perceval Wright, F.L.S.; Professor
Lawson; and Mr. Firth.

ORGANISMS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ATLANTIC.
BY PROFESSOR HUXLEY.

PROFESSOR HUXLEY read a paper on some organ-
isms which live at the bottom of the North At-
lantic, in depths of 6,000ft. to 15,000ft. He said
he had no doubt they were all acquainted with the
subject of the Atlantic cable, which lay over 1,700
miles of sea bottom, extending from the west coast
of Ireland to Newfoundland. In 1857 a plan for
laying that cable was first taking a thoroughly
practical shape. Our government had at that time

THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

This last was, he said, become of such vast importance in all practical points of view, that fresh demands are met with the proportionate readiness

of science to further these researches. The work which has been already done in this department, and which had enabled us to lay the submarine cables, was then detailed, including the record of the soundings of the North Atlantic, and the Mediterranean, the South Atlantic from Cape of Good Hope to the Equator, and the ocean between Bombay and the Red Sea, and the time foreshadowed as not distant when as the result of all these soundings lines of cable might be laid from Gibraltar to Malta, Alexandria, and India; thence to China and to Australia, and New Zealand. The results of these soundings, which were not doubtful, since considerable quantities of the sea bed had been brought to the surface, wers, he thought, second to none which had been obtained in geographical research, during the last few years, and more particularly did this apply to the results obtained within the last year. In referring to this matter, he called attention to a set of charts which had been just published by the Admiralty, and which it was proposed to extend to the whole world. Freedom of intercourse and travel had been so unrestricted in the whole of Europe, and in the greater part of North and South America, that, perhaps, but little was left for geography to add to our present knowledge. Throughout the greater part of Asia, especially India and China, there could be no doubt that geography had been long well understood and cultivated, although, from the peculiar institutions and customs of those countries, the jealousy of their rulers, and other causes, they had been closed to Europeans.

ing trade between the East and Europe entirely great impulse to the movement generally. That into the hands of the United States. Mr. Wad- there was already a large number of skilled workdington proposed that a railway should be made men in this country might be seen in the interestentirely through British territory, to start from ing volume recently published by the men sent to Ottawa, the legislative capital of Canada, and pro- the Paris Exhibition by the Society of Arts. Upon ceed to Fort Garry, a distance of 1,165 miles; the whole, it would seem as if the action of the thense to Jasper's House, at the foot of the Rocky Government would be best exerted by extending Mountains, a distance of 1,100 miles; and then, grants in aid of local subscriptions, by appointing from Jasper's House, by the Yellow Head Pass, to lecturers, or by aiding new school buildings, the head of Bute Inlet, opposite Vancouver's while a system of endowments would probably Island, a distance of 620 miles. The entire length produce satisfactory results. Upon the question of the line would be 2,885 miles. The cost of of labour and capital, it really appeared as if some making this gigantic line, including station accom- progress had been made during the last year in modation, engineering expenses, rolling stock, re- the solution of this difficult question. It would serve fund, and contingencies, and allowing 10 per seem that a better knowledge of the principles cent. for sideways, he roughly estimated at of political economy and the laws which regulated £27,000,000. Upon this point of cost, Mr. Wad- the production and distribution of wealth would dington said, "We shall be told that such an outlay be beneficial to all parties. It was earnestly to is far too great to be thought of. But what we be hoped that strikes, which occasioned so much have to consider is not merely the amount, but the ill-feeling and loss of wages, would be more and object to be attained, and whether that is com- more avoided. The system of conseils des prudmensurate with the outlay. If the commercial hommes and courts of conciliation had been atsupremacy of England is at stake-and that has tended with beneficial results. Some system of been pretty clearly shown-what are twenty-seven industrial partnerships appeared likely to unite millions compared with the sad downfall which both workmen and employers, and would enable must inevitably follow such a loss, and the decay the former to inquire into the state of markets and and ruin of our country? Never was so large a foreign competition. The president traced with sum of money more usefully, more wisely applied; satisfaction the progress of insurance-life, fire, and in vain might we ransack the history of our and marine. With regard to life insurance, vital national debt to find a parallel. In times past a statistics had now assumed a form which enabled single subsidy to some Continental potentate has the most complicated problems of human life to be often cost more." Mr. Waddington suggested that dealt with; but life insurance business appeared to a company might be formed to undertake the work be making greater progress in the United States by the offer of liberal grants of land, which, though than in Great Britain. The progress of the PostWe have, however, a great deal to learn of that at present of no value, might, in course of time, as Office in this country might be regarded as a proof central portion of Asia which adjoins Tartary, but the territory became settled, rise in value sufficient of the growth of education; and the enlightened by the zeal and enterprize of our own Indian to pay the cost of the railroad. Another induce- readiness with which every improvement was officers, and the progress of Russian armies of ment would be to subsidize mail steamers in con- adopted by the Post-Office gave us reason to hope exploration-or, as some call it, encroachment- nection with the line, and also to authorize the that what many regarded as an unwarrantable inwe are now learning something new every year. company to issue mortgage bonds to a certain terference with private enterprise, viz., the purThe Pacific Islands had become tolerably well amount, Government to pay the interest until the chase by the State of telegraph property, would known to us, owing to maritime discovery and line became self-paying, which he thought would prove a public benefit. It seemed probable that a the labours of the church missionaries, who be the case in about six years. With regard to sup- uniform charge of sixpence per message would be always take a leading part in all these matters. posed geographical difficulties, the country from established, and the consequence would be advanTurning to the dark side of the picture, the Ottawa to Fort Garry, with the exception of a tageously felt in the internal trade of the country, President referred in succession to what remained narrow mountain range north of Lake Superior, and in the promotion of private convenience. As to be done in Africa, in Australia, in New Guinea was one vast level, and fit for settlement; beyond it might be assumed that telegraphic business exand in the Arctic regions. Respecting Australia, Fort Garry the valley of the Saskatchewan pre-panded at the rate of 10 per cent. per annum, he he pointed out how little was known beyond the, sented another extensive level of fertile country as believed that the interest of the capital to be paid coast, notwithstanding that a great English nation far as Jasper's House; and from that point the for the purchase of the telegraphs would be has grown up there within the present century, Rocky Mountains had to be traversed, and here gradually more than covered. The president next and intimated that the only means of acquiring the difficulties were far more serious; but a prac- touched on the desirability of establishing a unifull and accurate information was by the Go- tical road had been explored by the Yellow Head form system of weights and measnres, and on the vernment finding the means. New Zealand, he Pass, which has been pronounced available for a equally difficult question of monetary unity. As showed, was peculiarly favourable for an English railroad; and then, following the course of the regards the latter subject, he remarked that Austria colony, and was now pretty well known, though Upper Frazer through the mountains, the line and the Papal Government had expressed a readibut for the accidental presence of a small brig, would cross the Chilcoaten valley, and reach Buteness to take up the subject, and it seemed strange commanded by Captain Owen Stanley-a name Inlet by another practical road through the cascade that when the Papal Government was ready to which should be well known in this city-we range. Mr. Waddington declared that the severity act in the matter the English Government did should at this moment have had a colony of of the climate had been exaggerated, and that the nothing. Finally, the president alluded to the French separated from us only by a narrow claims of the Hudson's Bay Company would be international statistical conference, and he remarked channel. New Guinea was now almost unknown, that the effect of th ⚫ongress was seen in the notwithstanding that it was almost within sight great importane, no attached to the collection of Australia; owing to the character of the people, of Government statistics of all kinds which would they would, he feared, remain for some time throw light on many of the unsolved problems of beyond the influence of commerce and civilization, the age. because geographical knowledge must precede SECTION F.-ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND ADMIRALTY ESTIMATES. civilization and occupation. In speaking of African discovery, the President spoke at length on the chance of Livingstone safely returning to PRESIDENT-Samuel Brown, F.S.S., F.R.G.S., Pro- THIS was a paper on Mr. Seely's proposed form of this country, taking a rather desponding view, sident of the Institute of Actuaries. Vice-presi- Admiralty Estimates accounts as recommended from the fact that nothing had been heard which dents-Sir Willoughby Jones, Bart.: Sir S. Big-by the Naval Committee of the House of Commons. was certain of his arrival at Tanganyika, his nold; Sir J. Bowring, F.R.S.; Dr. Farr, F.R.S.; Mr. Fellowes' paper observed that, despite a great destination, although more than sufficient time W. Newmarch, F.R.S.; Professor Rogers, M.A.; improvement, the whole system of Admiralty had elapsed to permit of this. A resumé of the R. J. H. Harvey, Esq., M.P. Secretaries-Pro-accounts appeared to be based on an entirely erroArctic discoveries was then given, and the fessor Leone Levi, F.S.A.; Edmund Macrory, neous principle; and the scheme which Mr. Seely had proposed, the adoption of which had been reopinion expressed that there was not the least M.A.; and Rev. W. C. Davie. commended by his committee and accepted by the difficulty to be anticipated should an attempt to Accountant-General's Department, entirely rereach the North Pole be made a discovery, the honour of which all nations appeared to bo THE President, in his inaugural address, referred versed in several important points the previous inclined to leave to England. After a brief to the subject of technical education, to which he system. It also established for the first time a reference to the absence of Sir Roderick Mur- considered a strong impulse had been given by distinct and easily traceable connection between chison, and the loss to the Association by the the comparisons of the world's industry occasioned the money voted by the House of Commons for death of Mr. Cranford and to Palestine explora- by the various exhibitions held of late years. It items properly chargeable to shipbuilding purwas clearly necessary that a higher standard of poses, and those items as included and incorpotion, the President noted, that in order to pro- general education should be established among our rated in the cost of ships, so that when the House mote geographical study, the Geographical Society were about to give four gold medals annually to people, and a conference, called together by the voted money for salaries, wages, or the purchase of be competed for by the public schools, and this, ber of statesmen and men of science on the sub-its being properly charged to the particular ship Society of Arts, had brought together a large num- materials, it voted it in such a manner as to insure he hoped, would prove an incentive to the young to enter on the study. A spirited eulogy of the ject. It appeared to be desirable that scientific or ships on behalf of which it was to be expended. instruction should be followed by technical educa- It was impossible to adopt the French system labours of Dr. Hooker concluded the president's tion in workshops; and a great advance would without entirely overthrowing our whole system of be made if employers required more proofs of financial audit. It was also, in Mr. Fellowes' practical knowledge. It was proposed that children should attend longer at school. The question arose whether this would affect the labour market, or whether a compensation would be found in the increased skill attained. The recent munificent gift of Mr. Whitworth deserved the hearty thanks of the nation, and might be expected to give a

address.

THE PACIFIC RAILROAD.

BY MR. A. WADDINGTON.

MR. WADDINGTON read a paper on an overland route through British territory from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He urged that, if England did not stir in the matter, the Pacific Railroad, now on the point of being completed, would throw the carry

open to arrangement; nor did he anticipate any
difficulties with the United States arising from
any spirit of rivalry or jealousy.

STATISTICS.

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

BY MR. E. P. FELLOWES, F.S.S.

opinion, exceedingly undesirable to overthrow our financial audit, for, as a cast audit of money voted and money expended, he thought it infinitely more simple, preferable, and correct than that of France. The estimates submitted to the House of Commons should be so arranged, if possible, that when the (Continued to page 172)