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-334

SCIENCE.

[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 296.

The programs of our meetings always
•announce some papers which have a scien-
tific bearing on agriculture, forestry or some
kindred line of business. As our members
are specialists, it is fitting that we have
each year a number of addresses of a gen-
eral nature, such as summaries of prog-
ress, methods of experimenting, methods of
teaching certain subjects, short syllabi of
courses of study, and new points of general
interest. These will be understood and
will interest all, and will . be likely to pro-
voke a general discussion by the members.

The work of this Society during the past
twenty years has apparently had a marked
influence on the selection of subjects for
discussion in some of the societies of this
country. As an instance of the practical
tendency of these subjects, if I may so ex-
press it, I cite you the admirable address of
Vice-President Gage a year ago before Sec-
tion F, of the A. A. A. S. at the Columbus
meeting on ' The Importance and Promise
in the Study of Domestic Animals.' Here
are two sentences: " It is most earnestly be-
lieved, however, that in the whole range of
zoology, no forms offer a greater reward for
the study of the problems of life, especially
in the higher groups, than the domestic ani-
mals. The importance of the study cannot
be over-estimated from a purely scientific
standpoint, and certainly if the prosperity,
happiness and advancement of the human
race are put in the count the subject is of
transcendent importance."

Reference of a like nature might be made
to numerous programs of scientific societies,
to courses of study in colleges and univer-
ties, to contributions to the best scientific
journals of the day, but no argument on the
subject is needed at this time, for the rea-
son that no observing person can be found
in this audience who does not already rec-
ognize the truth of the statement that I
have last made.

I thank you for the high honor of choos-

ing me president for a third time, and con-
gratulate you on the excellent prospects for
a successful meeting on this, its twentieth
year, and predict that a long and useful
career yet remains for the Society for the
Promotion of Agricultural Science.

W. J. Beal.
Agricultural College, Mich.

TEE BBITI8E ASSOCIATION*
Foe the second time, after a lapse of 27
years, the British Association will meet in
Bradford in the beginning of September.
Not a few of those who attended the first
meeting are still alive, some of them be-
ing among the most distinguished of our
living men of science. There is no doubt
that a certain number of those who at-
tended the previous meeting will again be
present in Bradford next month. They will
notice a very great change in the town ; it
has grown enormously ; it has been to a
large extent rebuilt ; and it has been raised
to the dignity of a city, while its popula-
tion has probably doubled. Bradford will
have much to show to those who are in-
terested in the many practical applications
of science. There will be abundant hos-
pitality, receptions, dinners, a smoking
concert, excursions to places of interest in
the neighborhood, and other forms of en-
tertainment for those — and they are many
— who regard the annual British Associa-
tion meeting as a gigantic picnic.

The meeting of 1873 was presided over
by Professor A. W. Williamson, the distin-
guished chemist, whose presidential address
consisted mainly of a review of the progress
of chemistry up to that date. The advance
in this, as in other directions, since then
has been enormous. The president selected
at the previous meeting had been the late
distinguished physicist, Dr. Joule, but owing
to the state of his health he had to forego
the honor of presiding at the first Bradford
* A forecast from the London Times.

August 31, 1900.]

SCIENCE.

335

meeting and his place was taken by Profes-
sor Williamson. Among some of the well-
know representatives of science who were
present at the Bradford in 1873, and who
are now no more, we may mention the
names of Cayley, Clifford, H. J. S. Smith,
W. Spottiswoode, Clerk-Maxwell, Balfour
Stewart, "W". B. Carpenter, John Phillips,
Gwyn Jeffreys, Butherford Alcock and Dr.
Beke. The economic section was presided
over by W. E. Forster, and it is of some
interest to note that the present popular
assistant general secretary, Mr. George
Griffith, occupied the same position in 1873
that he does now, although for several
years in the interval he ceased to be an of-
ficer of the Association. The first Brad-
ford meeting had an attendance of close on
two thousand, and the grants made for
scientific research reached the considerable
sum of £1685.

The second Bradford meeting will be pre-
sided over by Professor Sir "William Turner,
who for so long has filled with such distinc-
tion the anatomical chair of Edinburgh
University. His address will consist of a
general review of the progress of Biology,
with special reference to our knowledge of
the structure and function of cells. The
program of work in the different sections
leads one to expect that the proceedings will
be of considerable scientific interest.

The president of Section A (Mathematical
and Physical Science) will be Dr. Joseph
Larmor, F.B.S. In opening the business
of the section Dr. Larmor will review the
change of ideas which has recently become
current regarding the scope and method of
physical explanation. The acceptance on
the Continent, in consequence of the bril-
liant work of Hertz, of the views originated
in England regarding the nature of electric
actions and their dependence on the ether
has been largely accompanied by an elimi-
nation of the dynamical explanations which
formed a main feature of Clerk-Maxwell's

theory. This makes it a matter of funda-
mental importance to determine, if possible,
how far purely descriptive methods can
avail without appeal to a dynamical founda-
tion ; it involves consideration of the mode
of representation of the physical activities
of the material atoms; and it raises the
question whether denial of direct action at
a distance necessarily implies transmission
by simple stress such as occurs in a material
elastic frame. As chairman for the depart-
ment of Astronomy, Dr. A. A. Common will
give an address on Friday morning. Mon-
day will be devoted to Meteorology and
Pure Mathematics, while a discussion on
ions will be introduced by Professor Fitz-
gerald on Tuesday.

Section B (Chemistry) will be presided
over by the distinguished chemist Professor
H. W. Perkin. The subject of his address
will be ' The Modern System of Teaching
Practical Inorganic Chemistry, and its De-
velopment '; and, after discussing the prog-
ress which has been made in the teaching
of practical chemistry in schools, he will
point out that during the last thirty years
very little similar progress has been made
in teaching inorganic chemistry in univer-
sities and colleges. Having shown that the
system adopted at the present day is prac-
tically the same as that taught thirty years
ago, Professor Perkin will next proceed to
give a historical sketch of the development
of this system, and will conclude his ad-
dress with a discussion of the question
whether the present system is the best and
most suitable for teaching practical inor-
ganic chemistry, or whether it might not
with advantage be considerably modified.
The greater part of the time of the Section
will be devoted to discussions on (1) the
chemistry of camphor, to be opened by Dr.
Lap worth ; (2) the questions raised by re-
cent work on metals and alloys, to be
opened by Mr. W. H. Neville, F.E.S., of
Cambridge, in the course of which it is

336

SCIENCE.

[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 296.

to be hoped that the important question
"What is a metal?" maybe settled; (3)
the recent developments in connection with
asymmetric structure in carbon and other
compounds, to be opened by Mr. W. J.
Pope, of the Central Technical College ;
and (4) the recent improvements in the
textile industries (including artificial silk,
etc.), to be opened by Dr. Liebmann.
Among other papers promised are : ' Some
Eecent Work on the Diffusion of Gases
and Liquids,' by Mr. Horace T. Brown;
' Determination of the Spectra of Gases
at 400° C.,' by Professor Dixon ; and 'On
the Relationship between the Heating
and Lighting Power of Coal Gas,' by Mr.
T. Fairley. A paper of great local in-
terest will be one on the treatment of wool-
combers' effluents, by Mr. W. Teach ; while
the relations of phosphorus, iron, and car-
bon when present in iron and steel will be
discussed by Mr. J. E. Stead, of Middles-
brough. Papers have also been promised by
Professor Smithells, Dr. Laurence, Dr. J. B.
Cohen , and Mr . P . W. Eichardson . Professor
Ewing and Mr. Rosenhaim will show slides
illustrating the effects of strain and anneal-
ing on the crystalline structure of metals.
The Geological Section/ (C) will have as
its president one of the most unconven-
tional and brilliant of the younger geolo-
gists — Professor W. J. Sollas. The subject
of his address will be 'Evolutional Geol-
ogy.' The transformation of the science
during the latter part of the 19th century,
by which its scattered teachings have been
organized into a compact body of doctrine
and the whole science placed on a more
philosophic basis, will be briefly alluded to.
An account will be given of the develop-
ment of the earth, including its early evolu-
tional stages, which were once considered
alien to geology. Its distribution in time
will be particularly considered, and the
dates of various critical periods in its his-
tory will be discussed.

As befits the locale of the meeting, the
Section will devote especial attention to the
carboniferous rocks, and particularly to the
coal measures. One of the important events
of the meeting will be a joint discussion
with the Botanical Section (K) on the con-
ditions which existed during the growth of
the forest which supplied the material for
coal. This is set down for Monday, Sep-
tember 10th, and the discussion will be
opened on behalf of the geologists by Mr.
A. Strahan, of her Majesty's Geological
Survey (who for some time past has been
engaged in supervising the mapping of the
coal fields of South Wales), and Mr. J. E.
Marr, F.R.S., a past-president of the sec-
tion. It is expected that several other
prominent geologists who have devoted
attention to the coal measures will take
part in this discussion. The same rocks
will form the subject of a paper by Mr.
Walcot Gibson, of her Majesty's Geo-
logical Survey, who will deal with their
rapid changes in thickness and charac-
ter in the North Staffordshire coal field ;
and Mr. W. Cash, of Halifax, will also
contribute a paper on the Lower Coal
Measures of the West Riding. The fos-
sil fishes of the local carboniferous rocks
will be discussed in two papers by Dr.
E. D. Wellburn, and the report of the
committee for investigating life-zones in our
carboniferous rocks will be presented by the
secretary, Dr. Wheelton Hind. Another
topic of general as well as of local interest
which will receive the attention of the
section is the underground water system in
the carboniferous limestone districts of the
West Riding. The Association last year
made a grant of £40 to assist in the inves-
tigation of the underground course taken
by streams which disappear into crevices
of the limestone in the neighborhood of
Ingleborough. By the free use of chem-
icals the committee appointed to carry out
this investigation has traced the under-

August 31, 1900.]

SCIENCE.

337

ground course of some of these waters to
their issue in springs at lower levels, with
unexpected results, which throw much
light on the general question of the per-
colation of waters through rock-fissures.
The committee will present its report dur-
ing the meeting, and excursions are being
planned to visit the site of the experiments.
As usual, glacial subjects will receive due
attention, among the papers already prom-
ised being one on the glaciation of the Aire
Valley by Messrs. H. Muff and A. Jowett,
while others are expected on the glacial
phenomena of Snowdon and on a similar
subject in parts of the East Eiding of
Yorkshire. Three of the reports of com-
mittees of research will also afford scope
for the discussion of glacial matters, viz:
That on the erratic blocks of the British
Isles, that on the conditions of occurrence
of Irish elk-remains in the Isle of Man, and
that on the Pleistocene deposits of Canada.
The last mentioned, which is the final re-
port of a committee appointed at the To-
ronto meeting of the Association, is likely
to receive particular attention, as it em-
bodies strong evidence in favor of the
much-disputed occurrence of an inter-gla-
cial period. It is expected that Professor
A. P. Coleman, of Toronto University, who
has been most active in the last mentioned
committee, will attend in person to read
the report. The same gentleman will also
read a paper on the recent discovery of a
ferriferous horizon in the Huronian rocks
in Ontario, north of Lake Superior— a dis-
covery which may eventually prove of great
economic consequence. Cave-exploration
in Ireland and at Uphill, near Weston-
super-Mare, will be reported on by two
committees of the Association. A further
contribution to our knowledge of the geol-
ogy of Anglesey will be made by Mr. E.
Greenley, and Mr. Vaughan Cornish will
bring forward the new results of his study
of ripple-marks. In short, all the indica-

tions point to a profitable and enjoyable
week for the geologists who visit Bradford.

Dr. R. H. Traquair will be president of
Section D (Zoology), with which, on this
occasion, Physiology will be combined. Dr.
Traquair in his address, will deal with the
' Bearing of Fossil Ichthyology on the Doc-
trine of Descent.' Major Ronald Ross will
contribute a paper on ' Malaria and Mos-
quitoes '; Messrs Gamble and Keeble on
' The Color Physiology of certain Marine
Crustacea '; Professor L. C. Miall on ' The
Respiration of Aquatic Insects.' In addi-
tion there will be, as usual, a number of
communications of a more special character
in all branches of natural history, together
with the reports of various committees on
the results of exploration and research.

Section E (Geography) will be presided
over by Sir George Robertson, whose ad-
dress will deal mainly with certain geo-
graphical aspects of the British Empire.
He is likely to have much to say on the im-
portant element of distance and its diminu-
tion by means of improved communications.
This Section is likely to be as attractive as
usual. Sir Thomas Holdich will deal with
the important subject of railway connection
between Europe and Asia. Captain Deasy,
Captain E. Si Grogan, and Mr. Borchgre-
vinck will repeat the story of their various
expeditions in Asia, Africa and the Antarc-
tic. Mr. E. G. Ravenstein and Mr. B. V.
Darbishire are both to deal with the subject
of colonial and foreign surveys. Mr. G.
G. Chisholm has undertaken to deal with
the important subject of the probable eco-
nomic relations of Siberia and China.
There will be one or two papers on the po-
sition of geographical teaching in Bradford
and the neighborhood. Dr. H. R. Mill
will deal with the geography of South- West
Sussex, and Mr. E. Heawood with the com-
mercial resources of Africa.

Section F (Economic Science and Sta-
tistics) will have as its president Major P.

338

SCIENCE.

[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 296.

G. Craigie, of the Department of Agricul-
ture. In his address he will probably dwell
on the care necessary for the properly scien-
tific use of statistics and, above all, on the
caution required in making international
comparisons, illustrating his text, probably,
with some of the better-proved figures which
enable us to measure the development or
retrogression of agriculture in different and
typical countries. Doubtless owing to the
fact of Major Craigie's being president, Sec-
tion P this year will receive an unusual
number of contributions relating to the
economics of agriculture. Professor James
W. Robertson, Dairy Commissioner of the
Agricultural Department of the Dominion
of Canada, and Professor William Saunders,
LL.D., director of the Dominion experi-
mental farms, will read papers, and Mr. A.
D. Hall, of the Agricultural College of Wye,
will deal with the economic possibilities of
the growth of sugar beet in England, while
a committee of the Section will at length
present their report on the effect on prices
of options and dealings in futures. There
will be, as usual, a day devoted to what are
roughly described as municipal subjects,
and here Mr. Auberon Herbert is expected
to condemn root and branch all attempts of
local authorities to provide houses. Sev-
eral interesting papers will be forthcoming
on miscellaneous subjects. Mr. L. L. Price
will deal with some economic consequences
of the South African war, and the Hon. W.
P. Reeves, Agent-General for New Zealand,
will contribute a paper on the somewhat
novel subject of 'The Colonies as Money-
lenders.' Dr. Marcus Rubin, chief of the
Royal Statistical Bureau of Denmark, will
discuss some recent movements of popula-
tion. There will also be several papers on
questions of labor and wages. The his-
torical school will be represented by Dr. W.
Cunningham, who contributes a paper on
North American paper currencies during
the colonial period.

Sir Alexander Binnie will preside over
Section G (Mechanical Science), and his
address will take the form of an inquiry
into the steps by which we have arrived at
our modern conception of nature, when re-
viewed from a scientific standpoint. He
will point out the reasons why the philoso-
phers of Greece missed the true interpreta-
tion of nature, and, passing on to the Roman
period and the dark ages, will show how
there has gradually grown up the concep-
tion with which we are all so well ac-
quainted and with which before us, when
studying natural phenomena, the mind is
freed from all preconceived notions derived
from other realms of study. The address
will be illustrated by a chronological chart
likely to prove useful to all scientific men.
It extends from 1550 to the present time,
and includes, collated with the births and
deaths of the many distinguished men to
whom we are indebted, the principal his-
torical, scientific, and other data which mark
the various periods, as well as the dates of
discoveries and of publications bearing upon
the subject. There is, as usual, a large
number of papers down for reading in this
Section. We can only refer to the more im-
portant. The very fine waterworks belong-
ing to Bradford will be described, on Thurs-
day, by Mr. Watson, a local engineer. On
Friday the papers will be mainly devoted
to civil engineering. Professor Hele Shaw
proposes to collect together, in his paper
on ' Resistance on Roads,' all the known
data on frictional resistance on common
roads, and will, it is believed, strongly
advocate the appointment of a committee
of the Association to carry on some fur-
ther experiments on rolling friction on
common roads. The immediate value of
the paper by Mr. J. H. Glass, on ' Pro-
posed Railway Construction in China,' is
likely to be lessened by the terrible events
which have happened there since his paper
was promised. His plan is to describe the

August 31, 1900.]

SCIENCE.

339

great trunk line which it was intended to
construct in Southern and Central China,
and to give some account of the immense
mineral wealth which lies there almost un-
developed. The paper will be illustrated
by many beautiful lantern slides reproduced
from photographs. For Saturday there are
down two papers, dealing with the great
staple industry of Bradford and Yorkshire
— textile manufacture. They will describe
the more modern methods of mechanical
and photo-mechanical designing for textile
fabrics, and will be read by Professor
Beaumont and Mr. Barker, who are both
engaged locally in the technical teaching
of textile work. Monday, as usual, will
be given up to the electrical engineers.
First on the program for the day comes
the reading of the final report of the
Small Screw Gauge Committee, which has
now practically decided which form of
thread it will advocate. Mr. A. Mallock
will then deliver a paper paper on ' Resis-
tance and Acceleration of Trains — Meas-
urement of the Tractive Force,' in which
he proposes to give an account of the recent
experiments made by him on electric and
other railways to determine the accelera-
tion, the tractive force, and the running
resistance to which trains are subjected.
This will be followed by some interesting
particulars about the ' Liverpool and Man-
chester Electric High Speed Railway,'
contributed by Sir "William Preece. Mr.
Gibbings will deal with ' The Design and
Location of Electric Generating Stations '
on a large scale for supplying electric power
and lighting to large districts, and Mr.
Barker will describe ' A Maximum Demand
Meter,' the joint invention of himself and
Professor Ewing. Tuesday, the last day
on which the section meets, will begin with
a paper by Mr. J. G. W. Aldridge, entitled
' The Automobile for Electric Street Trac-
tion.' It is hoped that the cinematograph
will be used — for the first time, it is be-

lieved, at a British Association meeting —
to illustrate this paper, which will deal
with an actual service in operation in
Paris, and will show how, under certain
conditions, a tramway service may be or-
ganized without the usual tramway lines.
Professor Goodman will describe ' A New
Form of Corimeter for measuring the Wet-
ness of Steam,' which he has himself in-
vented. Two other papers are of consider-
able importance. In the first, Professor
Arnold of Sheffield, will deal with what he
terms 'the internal architecture of steel,'
and will develop his theories on the ulti-
mate molecular structure of steel and the
micrographic analysis of steel in physical
researches. The second, by Mr. E. K.
Clark, of the firm of Messrs. Kitson &
Co., will deal, under the title of 'Shop
Buildings,' with modern engineering, work-
shop buildings, and methods of laying them
out and organizing the work in them.

Professor John Rhys, who will preside
over Section H (Anthropology), will prob-
ably deal in his address with the early
ethnology of the British Isles, approaching
the subject from the sides of language and
folklore. It is hoped that other contribu-
tions to this subject, which are anticipated,
may give opportunities of discussing some
of the vexed questions which it includes.
A discussion is also proposed on the subject
of ' Animal- cults : their Relation to Totem-
ism,' which has been variously interpreted of
late years ; and on the present state of our
knowledge of the origin of writing in the
Mediterranean. Mr. Arthur Evans will
describe the pictographic system of writing
of which he has disinterred numerous
specimens at Knossos in Crete ; and Mr. F.
Griffith offers a paper on the development
of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Dr. Haddon
will describe the results of the recent Cam-
bridge expedition to Sarawak ; and Mr.
David Boyle, of Toronto, has a paper on
recent revivals of native religious beliefs

340

SCIENCE.

[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 296.

among the aboriginal tribes of Canada.
Professor Cunningham, Dr. Beddoe and
Professor A. F. Dixon send papers dealing
with questions of anthropometry,

Professor Sydney H. Vines will preside
over the Botanical Section (J). His ad-
dress will deal with Botany in the 19th
century, and will be a review of the more
important advances made in the different
departments of the science. As has already
been stated, this Section will have a joint
discussion with the Geological Section on
the Coal Period Vegetation. A museum is
being arranged to illustrate the Yorkshire
Coal Measure Flora, etc., in connection with
the discussion. Mr. Percy Groom, of Coop-
ers Hill Engineering College, is to deliver a
semi-popular lecture before the Section en-
titled ' Plant-form in Relation to Nutrition.'
There will also be papers on Fossil Plants,
Plant Anatomy, Plant Physiology, etc.

The Friday evening discourse will be de-
livered by Professor Gotch, the subject be-
ing Animal Electricity, while that on Mon-
day evening will be by Professor W. Stroud,
whose subject will be 'Kange Finders.'
Professor Sylvanus P. Thompson will give
the lecture to the operative classes on Sat-
urday, and will take as his subject ' Elec-
tricity in the Industries.'

VARIATION AMONG HYDROMEDUSj®.*
The announcement of Bateson in his
' Materials for the Study of Variation ' that
medusae best illustrated the principle which
he designated as ' Discontinuity of Meristic
Variation ' led me, in connection with re-
searches which have been under way for sev-
eral years, to note more specially any indica-
tions which might either confirm or discredit
this statement. Accordingly I have from
time to time made such collections of the
Hydromedusse as might afford a means of
testing the matter. While as yet these

* Abstract of a paper presented before the Section
of Zoology of the American Association.

have not been extensive, except in a few
genera, they seem to be sufficient to war-
rant a brief summary of facts bearing upon
the general problem of variation. The
collections have been chiefly of the follow-
ing genera : Eucope, Obelia, Margelis, Pen-
naria and Gonionemm.

The facts exhibited by Eueope have re-
cently been published by Agassiz and Wood-
worth, and while I have made observations
upon those which I had collected in larger
numbers than any other, they are yet so
similar to those made by these observers that
I shall make no particular reference to them
at this time. Of the species of Obelia and
Margelis I have as yet had no opportunity
for extended study. Facts presented here
will have reference only to the species of
Pennaria and Oonionemus.

Of Pennaria the medusae are very small
and of a shape which renders rather diffi-
cult an examination of the radial canals, a
feature which, in my observations, has beer*
among the most variable of structural char-
acters. From the examination of only
about a hundred specimens I have found
no marked variation of this feature except
in the direction of atrophy. The medusa
of Pennaria seems to be in a somewhat
degenerate condition. In many specimens
the marginal canal is wholly atrophied and
in some cases also the radials, to a greater
or less extent. I have elsewhere* pointed
out that in many cases the medusae of this
species never become free, but discharge the
generative products while remaining con-
nected with the polyp. Another feature
which may prove to be a variation is the
appearance of small wart-like or vesicu-
lar protuberances at various points of the
exumbrella. Agassiz, in the North American
Acalephce, refers to a similar feature but ex-
plains it as probably due to the distortion
caused by ova in the subumbrellar cavity.
This, however, I am strongly convinced is

*Am. Nat., May, 1900.