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With regard to the position of Anthropology, as including Ethnology, and comprehending the whole natural history of man, there may be still some differences of opinion, according to the point of view from which its phenomena are regarded: as by some they may be viewed chiefly in relation to the bodily structure and functions of individuals or numbers of men; or as by others they may be considered more directly with reference to their national character and history, and the affinities of languages and customs; or by a third set of inquirers, as bearing more immediately upon the origin of man and his relation to animals. As the first and third of these sets of topics entirely belong to Biology, and as those parts of the second set which do not properly fall under that branch may with propriety find a place under Geography or Statistics, I feel inclined to adhere to the distinct recognition of a department of Anthropology, in its present form; and I think that the suitableness of this arrangement is apparent, from the nature and number of the appropriate reports and communications which have been received under the last distribution of the subjects.

Condition of Biological Research

The beneficial influence of the British Association in promoting biological research is shown by the fact that the number of the communications to the sections received annually has been nearly doubled in the course of the last twenty years, and this influence has doubtless been materially assisted by the contributions in money made by the Association in aid of various biological investigations; for it appears that out of the whole sum of nearly 34,500/. contributed by the Association to the promotion of scientific research, about 2,800/. has been devoted to biological purposes, to which it would be fair to add a part at least of the grants for Palæontological researches, many of which must be acknowledged to stand in close relation to Biology.

The enormous extent of knowledge and research in the various departments of Biology has become a serious impediment to its more complete study, and leads to the danger of confined views on the part of those whose attention, from necessity or taste, is too exclusively directed to the details of one department, or even, as often happens, to a subdivision of it. It would seem, indeed, as if our predecessors in the last generation possessed this superior advantage in the then existing narrow boundaries of knowledge, that it was possible for them to overtake the contemplation of a wider field, and to follow out researches in a greater number of the sciences. To such combinations of varied knowledge, united with their transcendent powers of sound generalisation and accurate observation, must be ascribed the wide-spread and enduring influence of the works of such men as Haller, Linnæus, and Cuvier, Von Baer, and Joannes Müller. There are doubtless brilliant instances in our own time of men endowed with similar powers; but the difficulty of bringing these powers into effectual operation in a wide range is now so great, that, while the amount of research in special biological subjects is enormous, it must be reserved for comparatively few to be the authors of great systems, or of enduring broad and general views which embrace the whole range of biological science. It is incumbent, therefore, on all those who are desirous of promoting the advance of biological knowledge, to combat the confined views which are apt to be engendered by the too great restriction of study to one department. However much subdivision of labour may now be necessary in the original investigation and elaboration of new facts in our science (and the necessity for such subdivision will necessarily increase as knowledge extends), there must be secured at first, by a wider study of the general principles and some of the details of collateral branches of knowledge, that power of justly comparing and correlating facts which will mature the judgment and exclude partial views. To refer only to one bright example; I may say that it can scarcely be doubted that it is the unequalled variety and extent of knowledge, combined with the faculty of bringing the most varied facts together in new combinations, which has enabled Mr. Darwin (whatever may be thought otherwise of his system) to give the greatest impulse which has been felt in our own times to the progress of biological views and thought; and it is most satisfactory to observe the effect which this influence is already producing on the scientific mind of

this country, in opposing the tendency perceptible in recent times to the too restricted study of special departments of natural history. I need scarcely remind you that for the proper investigation an judgment of problems in physiology, a full knowledge of anatomy in general, and much of comparative anatomy, of histology an embryology, of organic chemistry and of physics, is indispensable as a preliminary to all successful physiological observation and experiment. The anatomist, again, who would profess to describe rationally and correctly the structure of the human body, mus: have acquired a knowledge of the principles of morphology derived from the study of comparative anatomy and development, and he must have mastered the intricacies of histological research The comparative anatomist must be an accomplished embryolgist in the whole range of the animal kingdom, or in any single division of it which he professes to cultivate. The zoologist and the botanist must equally found their descriptions and systemati data. And thus the whole of these departments of biologica! distinctions on morphological, histological, and embryological

science are so interwoven and united that the scientific investi gation of no one can now be regarded as altogether separate from that of the others. It has been the work of the last forty years to bring that intimate connection of the biological sciences more and more fully into prominent view, and to infuse its spirit into all scientific investigation. But while in all the departments F Biology prodigious advance has been made, there are two more especially which merit particular mention, as having almost taken their origin within the period I now refer to, as having made the most rapid progress in themselves, and as having influenced mort powerfully and widely the progress of discovery, and the views of biologists in other departments - I mean histology and embryology.

Histology

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I need scarcely remind those present that it was only within a few years before the foundation of the British Association that the suggestions of Lister in regard to the construction of achro matic lenses brought the compound microscope into such a state of improvement as caused it to be restored, as I might say, to the place which the more imperfect instrument had lost in the previous century. The result of this restoration became apparent in the foundation of a new era in the knowledge of the minute characters of textural structure, under the joint guidance of Robert Brown and Ehrenberg, with contributions from many other observers, so as at last to have entitled this branch of inquiry to its designation, by Prof. Huxley, of the "exhaustive investigation of structural elements." All who hear me are fully aware of the influence which, from 1839 onwards, the researche of Schwann and Schleiden exerted on the progress of Histology and the views of anatomists and physiologists as to the structure and development of the textures both of plants and animals, and the prodigious increase which followed in varied microscopic observations. It is not for me here even to allude to the steps of that rapid progress by which a new branch of anatomical science has been created; nor can I venture to enter upon any the interesting questions presented by this department of microscopic anatomy; nor [attempt to discuss any of those difficult problems possessing so much interest at the present moment, such as the nature of the organised cell, or the properties of protoplasm. I would only remark that it is now very generally admitted that the cell wall (as Schwann indeed himself pointed out) is not a constant constituent of the cell, nor a source of new production, though still capable of considerable structural change after the time of its first formation. The nucleus has also lost some of the importance attached to it by Schwann and his earlier fol lowers, as an essential constituent of the cell, while the protoplasm of the cell remains in undisputed possession of the field as the more immediate seat of the phenomena of growth and organisation, and of the contractile property which forms so remarkable a feature of their substance. I cordially agree with much of what Prof. Huxley has written on this subject in 1853 and 1869. The term "physical basis of life" may perhaps be in some respect objectionable, but I look upon the recognition of protoplasm which he has enforced, as a most important step in the recent progress of histology; adopting this general term to indicate that part of the tissue of plants and animals which is the constant seat of the growing and moving phenomena; but not implying identity of nature and properties in all the variety of circumstance in which this substance may occur. To Haeckel the fuller history of protoplasm in its lowest forms is due. To Dr. Beale we owe the minutest investigation of the properties by the use of magnifying powers beyond any that had previously

been known, and the successful employment of reagents which appear to mark out its distinction from the other elements of the textures. I may remark, however, in passing, that I am inclined to regard contractile protoplasm, whether vegetable or animal, as in no instance entirely amorphous or homogeneous, but rather as always presenting some minute molecular structure which distinguishes it from parts of glassy clearness. Admitting that the form it assumes is not necessarily that of a regular cell, and may be various and irregular in a few exceptional instances, I am not on that account disposed to give up definite structure as one of the universal characteristics of organisation in living bodies. I would also suggest that the terms formative and nonformative, or some such other, would be preferable to those of "living and dead," employed by Dr. Beale, to distinguish the protoplasm from the cell-wall or its derivatives, as the latter terms are liable to introduce confusion.

Embryology

To the discoveries in embryology and development I might have been tempted to refer more at large, as being those which have had, of all modern research, the greatest effect in extending and modifying biological views, but I am warned from entering upon a subject in which I might trepass too much on your patience. The merits of Wolff as the great first pioneer in the accurate observation of the phenomena of development were clearly pointed out by Prof. Huxley in his presidential address of last year. Under the influence of Döllinger's teaching, Pander, and afterwards Purkinge, Von Baer, and Rathke, established the foundations of the modern history of embryology. It was only in the year 1827 that the ovum of mammals was discovered by Von Baer; the segmentation of the yelk, first observed by Prevost and Dumas in the frog's ovum in 1824, was ascertained to be general in succeeding years, so that the whole of the interesting and important additions which have followed, and have made the history of embryological development a complete science, have been included within the eventful period of the life of this Association. I need not say how distinguished the Germans have been by their contributions to the history of animal development. The names of Valentin, R. Wagner, Bischoff, Reichert, Kölliker, and Remak are sufficient to indicate the most important of the earlier steps in recent progress, without attempting to enumerate a host of others who have assisted in the great work thus founded. I am aware that the mere name of development suggests to some ideas of a disturbing kind as being associated with the theory of evolution recently promulgated. To one accustomed during the whole of his career to trace the steps by which every living being, including man himself, passes from the condition of an almost imperceptible germ, through a long series of changes of form and structure into their perfect state, the name of development is suggestive rather of that which seems to be the common history of all living beings; and it is not wonderful therefore that such a one should regard with approval the more extended view which supposes a process of development to belong to the whole of nature. How far that principle may be carried, to what point the origin of man or any animal can by facts or reasoning be traced in the long unchronicled history of the world, and whether living beings may arise independently of parents or germs of previously existing organisms, or may spring from the direct combination of the elements of dead matter, are questions still to be solved, and upon which we may expect this section to guide the hesitating opinion of the time. I cannot better express the state of opinion in which I find myself in regard to the last of these problems than by quoting the words of Professor Huxley from his address of last year, p. lxxxiii.:"But though I cannot express this conviction of mine too strongly (viz., that the evidence of the most careful experiments is opposed to the occurrence of spontaneous generation), I must carefully guard myself against the supposition that I intend to suggest that no such thing as abiogenesis ever has taken place in the past, or ever will take place in the future. With organic chemistry, molecular physics, and physiology yet in their infancy, and every day making prodigious strides, I think it would be the height of presumption for any man to say that the conditions under which matter assumes the properties we call 'vital,' may not some day be artificially brought together. And again, if it were given me to look beyond the abyss of geologically recorded time, to the still more remote period when the earth was passing through physical and chemical conditions which it can no more see again than a man can recall his infancy, I should expect to be a witness of the evolution of living protoplasm from not living matter." I will quote further a few wise words from the dis

course to which many of you must have listened last evening with admiration. Sir William Thomson said-"The essence of science, as is well illustrated by astronomy and cosmical physics, consists in inferring antecedent conditions, and anticipating future evolutions, from phenomena which have actually come under observation. In biology, the difficulties of successfully acting up to this ideal are prodigious. Our code of biological law is an expres. sion of our ignorance as well as of our knowledge." And again, “Search for spontaneous generation out of inorganic materials ; let any one not satisfied with the purely negative testimony, of which we have now so much against it, throw himself into the inquiry. Such investigations as those of Pasteur, Pouchet, and Bastian are among the most interesting and momentous in the whole range of natural history; and their results, whether positive or negative, must richly reward the most careful and laborious experimenting."

Organic Chemistry and Vital Force

The consideration of the finest discoverable structures of the organised parts of living bodies is intimately bound up with that of their chemical composition and properties. The progress which has been made in organic chemistry belongs not only to the knowledge of the composition of the constituents of organised bodies, but also to the manner in which that composition is chemically viewed. Its peculiar feature, especially as related to biological investigation, consists in the results of the introduction of the synthetic method of research, which has enabled the chemist to imitate or to form artificially a greater and greater number of the organic compounds. In 1828 the first of these substances was formed by Wöhler, by a synthetic process, as cyanate of ammonia, or urea. But still, at that time, though a few no doubt entertained juster views, the opinion generally prevailed among chemists and physiologists that there was some great and fundamental difference in the chemical phenomena and laws of organic and inorganic nature. Now, however, this supposed barrier has been in a great measure broken down and removed, and chemists, with almost one accord, regard the laws of combination of the elements as essentially the same in both classes of bodies, whatever differences may exist in actual composition, or in the reactions of organic bodies in the more complex and often obscure conditions of vitality, as compared with the simpler, and, on the whole, better known phenomena of a chemical nature observed in the mineral kingdom. Thus, by the synthetic method, there have been formed among the simpler organic compounds a great number of alcohols, hydrocarbons, and fatty acids. But the most remarkable example of the synthetic formation of an organic compound is that of the alkaloid conia, as recently obtained by Hugo Schiff by certain reactions from butyric aldehyde, itself an artificial product. The substance so formed, and its compounds, possess all the properties of the natural conia-chemical, physical, and physiological-being equally poisonous with it. The colouring-matter of madder, or alizarine, is another organic compound which has been formed by artificial processes. It is true that the organised or containing solid, either of vegetable or animal bodies, has not as yet yielded to the ingenuity of chemical artifice; nor, indeed, is the actual composition of one of the most important of these, albumen and its allies, fully known. But as chemists have only recently begun to discover the track by which they may be led to the synthesis of organic compounds, it is warrantable to hope that ere long cellulose and lignine may be formed; and, great as the difficulties with regard to the albumenoid compounds may at present appear, the synthetic formation of these is by no means to be despaired of, but, on the contrary, may with confidence be expected to crown their efforts. From all recent research, therefore, it appears to result that the general nature of the properties belonging to the products of animal and vegetable life, can no longer be regarded as different from those of minerals, in so far at least as they are the subject of chemical and physical investigation. The union of elements and their separation, whether occurring in an animal, a vegetable, or a mineral body, must be looked upon as dependent on innate powers or properties belonging to the elements themselves; and the phenomena of change of composition of or. ganic bodies occurring in the living state are not the less chemical because they are different from those observed in inorganic All chemical actions are liable to vary according to the conditions in which they occur, and many instances might be adduced of most remarkable variations of this kind, observed in the chemistry of dead bodies from very slight changes of electrical, calorific, mechanical, and other conditions. But because the conditions of action or change are infinitely more complex and far

nature.

less known in living bodies, it is not nececsary to look upon the phenomena as essentially of a different kind, to have recourse to the hypothesis of vital affinities, and still less to shelter ourselves under the slim curtain of ignorance implied in the explanation of the most varied chemical changes by the influence of a vital principle.

Zoology and Botany

On the subjects of zoological and botanical classification and anthropology, it would be out of place for me now to make any observations at length. I will only remark, in regard to the first, that the period under review has witnessed a very great modification in the aspect in which the affinities of the bodies belonging to these two great kingdoms of nature are viewed by naturalists, and the principles on which groups of bodies of each are associated together in systematic classification; for, in the first place, the older view has been abandoned that the compli cation of structure rises in a continually increasing and continuous gradation from one kingdom to the other, or extends in one line, as it were, from group to group in either of the kingdoms separately. Evolution into a gradually increasing complexity of structure and function no doubt exists in both, so that types or general plans of formation must be acknowledged to pervade, presenting typical resemblances of construction of the deepest interest; but in the progress of morphological research, it has become more and more apparent that the different groups form radiations, which touch one another at certain points of greatest resemblance, rather than one continuous line, or a number of lines which partially pass each other. The simpler bodies of the two kingdoms of nature exhibit a gradually increasing resemblance to each other, until at last the differences between them wholly disappear, and we reach a point of contact of which the properties become almost indistinguishable, as in the remarkable Protista of Haeckel and others. I fully agree, however, with the view by Professor Wyville Thomson in his recent extraordinary lecture, that it is not necessary on this account to recognise an intermediate kingdom of nature. Each kingdom presents, as it were, a radiating expansion into groups for itself, so that the relations of the two kingdoms might be represented by the divergence of lines spreading in two different directions from a common point. Recent observations on the chorda dorsalis (or supposed notochord) of some Ascidians tend to revive the discussion at one time prevalent, but long in abeyance, as to the possibility of tracing a homology between the vertebrate and invertebrate animals; and, should this correspondence be confirmed and extended, it may be expected to modify greatly our present views of zoological affinities and classification. It will also be an additional proof of the importance of minute and embryological research in systematic determinations. The recognition of homological resemblance of animals, to which in this country the researches of Owen and Huxley have contributed so largely, form one of the most interesting subjects of contemplation in the study of comparative anatomy and zoology in our time; but I must refrain from touching on so seductive and difficult a subject.

Natural Science in Schools

There is another topic to which I can refer with pleasure as connected with the cultivation of biological knowledge in this country, and that is the introduction of instruction in natural science into the system of education of our schools. As to the feasibility of this in the primary schools, I believe most of those who are intimately acquainted with their management have expressed their decidedly favourable opinion-it being found that a portion of the time now allotted to the three great requisites of a primary education might with advantage be set apart, for the purpose of instructing the pupils in subjects of common interest, calculated to awaken in their minds a desire for knowledge of the various objects presented by the field of nature around them. As to the benefit which may result from this measure to the persons so instructed, it is scarcely necessary for me to say anything in this place. It is so obvious that any varied knowledge, however easily acquired or elementary, which tends to enlarge the range of observation and thought, must have some effect in removing its recipients from grosser influences, and may even supply information which may prove useful in social economy and in the occupations of labour. Nor need I point out how much more extended the advantages of such instruction may prove if introduced into the system of our secondary schools, and more freely combined than heretofore with the too exclusively literary and philosophical study which has so long prevailed in the approved British education. Without disparagement to those |

modes of study as in themselves necessary and useful, and excellent means of disciplining the mind to learning, I cannot but Leid it as certain that the mind which is entirely without scientific cal tivation is but half prepared for the common purposes of moder life, and is en irely unqualified for forming a judgment on some the most difficult and yet most common and important questions of the day, affecting the interests of the whole community. I refer with pleasure to the published Essay of Dr. Lankester on this subject, and to the arguments addressed two days ago by Dr. Bennett to the medical graduates of the University, in favour the establishment of physiology as a subject of general education in this country, with reference to sanitary conditions. It is gratifying, therefore, to perceive that the suggestions made some years ago in regard to this subject by the British Associatum, through its committee, have already horne good fruit, and that the attention of those who preside over education in this country, as well as of the public themselves, is more earnestly directed to the object of securing for the lowest as well as the highest classes derived from education, which will duly cultivate all the faculus of the community that wholesome combination of know.edge of the mind, and thus fit a greater and greater number for applying themselves with increased ability and knowledge to the purposes Survival of the Fittest be applicable to the mental as well 23 of their living and its improved condition. If the law of the to the physical improvement of our race (and who can doubt that in some measure it must be so), we are bound by motives of interest and duty to secure for all classes of the people that kind of education which will lead to the development of the highest and most varied mental power. And no one who has been observant of the recent progress of the useful arts, and its influence upon the moral, social, and political condition of our population, can doubt that that excation must include instruction in the phenomena of external nature, including, more especially, the laws and conditions of life and health; and that it ought to be, at the same time, su h as will adapt the mind to the ready acquisition and just compre hension of varied knowledge. It is obvious, too, that while this more immediately useful or beneficial effect on the common mind may be produced by the diffusion of natural knowledge among the people, biological science will share in the ga accruing to all branches of natural science, by the greater far which will be accorded to its cultivators, and the increased freedom from prejudice with which their statements are received and considered by learned as well as by unscientific persons.

Spiritualism

I cannot conclude these observations without adverting to one aspect in which it might be thought that the appreciation of biological science has taken a retrograde rather than an advanced position. In this, I do not mean to refer to the special culti vators of Biology in its scientific acceptation, but to the fact that there appears to have taken place of late a considerable increase in the number of persons who believe, or who imagine that they believe, in the class of phenomena which are now called spiritual, but which have been known since the exhibitions of Mesmer, and, indeed, long before his time, under the most varied forms, as liable to occur in persons of an imaginative turn of mind and peculiar nervous susceptibility. It is still more to be regretted that many persons devote a large share of their time to the prac tice-for it does not deserve the name of study or investigationof the alleged phenomena, and that a few men of acknowledged reputation in some departments of science have lent their names, and surrendered their judgment, to the countenance and attempted authentication of the foolish dreams of the practitioners of spiritualism, and similar chimerical hypotheses. The natural tendency to a belief in the marvellous is sufficient to explain the ready acceptance of such views by the ignorant; and it is not improbable that a higher species of similar credulity may frequently act with persons of greater cultivation, should their scientific information and train. ing have been of a partial kind. It must be admitted, further, that extremely curious and rare, and to those who are not acquainted with nervous phenomena, apparently marvellous phenomena, present themselves in peculiar states of the nervous system-some of which states may be induced through the mind, and may be made more and more liable to recur, and are greatly exaggerated by frequent repetition. But making the fullest allowance for all these conditions, it is still surprising that persons, otherwise appearing to be within the bounds of sanity, should entertain a confirmed belief in the possibility of pheno mena, which, while they are at variance with the best established

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physical laws, have never been brought under proof by the evidences of the senses, and are opposed to the dictates of sound judgment. It is so far satisfactory in the interests of true biological science that no man of note can be named from the long list of thoroughly well-informed anatomists and physiologists, who has not treated the belief in the separate existence of powers of animal magnetism and spiritualism as wild speculations, devoid of all foundation in the carefully tested observation of facts. has been the habit of the votaries of the systems to which I have referred to assert that scientific men have neglected or declined to investigate the phenomena with attention and candour; but nothing can be farther from the truth than this statement. Not to mention the admirable reports of the early French academicians, giving the account of the negative result of an examination of the earlier mesmeric phenomena by men in every way qualified to pronounce judgment on their nature, I am aware that from time to time men of eminence, and fully competent, by their knowledge of biological phenomena, and their skill and accuracy in conducting scientific investigation, have made the most patient and careful examination of the evidence placed before them by the professional believers and practitioners of so-called magnetic, phreno-magnetic, electro-biological, and spiritualistic phenomena; and the result has been uniformly the same in all cases, when they were permitted to secure conditions by which the reality of the phenomena, or the justice of their interpretation, could be tested-viz., either that the experiments signally failed to educe the results professed, or that the experimenters were detected in the most shameless and determined impostures. I have myself been fully convinced of this by repeated examinations. But were any guarantee required for the care, soundness, and efficiency of the judgment of men of science on these phenomena and views, I have only to mention, in the first place, the revered name of Faraday, and in the next that of my life-long friend Dr. Sharpey, whose ability and candour none will dispute, and who, I am happy to think, is here among us, ready, from his past experience of such exhibitions, to bear his testimony against all classes of levitation, or the like, which may be the last wonder of the day among the mesmeric or spiritual pseudo-physiologists. The phenomena to which I have at present referred are in great part dependent upon natural principles of the human mind, placed, as it would appear, in dangerous alliance with certain tendencies of the nervous system. They ought not to be worked upon without the greatest caution, and they can only be fully understood by the accomplished physiologist who is also conversant with healthy and morbid psychology. The experience of the last hundred years tends to show that while there are always to be found persons peculiarly liable to exhibit the phenomena in question, there will also exist a certain number of minds prone to adopt a belief in the marvellous and striking in preference to that which is easily understood and patent to the senses; but it may be confidently expected that the diffusion of a fuller and more accurate knowledge of vital phenomena among the non-scientific classes of the community may lead to a juster appreciation of the phenomena in question, and a reduction of the number among them who are believers in scientific impossibilities.

SECTION E. GEOGRAPHY

OPENING ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, COL. H. YULE, C.B. THE first natural duty in circumstances like the present is to pay a tribute, however inadequate, to the memory of the eminent geographer whom we expected to fill this chair. The long list of his works has been rehearsed in so many of the notices that have honoured his memory, as well as in the address of the Vice-President of the Geographical Society, when presenting the medal which he had won by so many years of faithful labour in the cause of Geography, that I need not now repeat them Indeed, when contemplating the catalogue of such an amount of work achieved, an amateur geographer like myself stands abashed; but feels at the same time that his own limited experience and desultory studies serve at least to furnish him with some just scale by which to estimate the vast labours involved in the accomplishment of such a life's work as Dr. Keith Johnston's. I shall in this address attempt no general view of the geographical desiderata of the time, and of recent geographical progress in discovery and literature throughout the world. Living habitually far from new books and meetings of societies, I am not sufficient for these things, nor, if I were, could I easily vary from the comprehensive epitome of the year's geography, which

but two months ago was issued, though, as we know with sorrow, not delivered, by him who has been so long the Dean of the Faculty of Geographers in Britain, and whose name is identified throughout the Continent with English geography. Sir Roderick Murchison has desired me to take occasion to express his deep regret at his inability to be present at this meeting. It is, he said, one of the most painfully-felt disappointments that his illness has occasioned. For he had looked forward with strong interest to taking part once more in a meeting of the Association at the chief city of his native country--with which city, I may remind you, he the other day bound his name and memory by strong and enduring ties in the foundation of a Chair of Geology in this University. Instead, then, of attempting a review which in my case would be crude, and therefore both dull and uninstructive, I propose to turn to one particular region of the old world with which my own studies have sometimes been concerned, and to say something of its characteristics, and of the progress of knowledge, as well as of present questions regarding it.

There are, however, one or two points on which I must first touch lightly. Of Livingstone, all that there is to tell has already been told to the world by Sir Roderick Murchison. We know the task that Livingstone had laid out for himself in dispersing the darkness that still hangs over some of the greatest features of Central African hydrography, by determining the ultimate course of the great body of drainage which he has followed northward from 12° south latitude-whether towards the Congo and the Atlantic, or towards Baker's Lake and so to the Nile; as well as the kindred question of the discharge of Lake Tanganyika ; but of his progress in the solution of those questions we know nothing. I can but add that Sir Roderick himself has lost none of his confidence in the accomplishment of the task, and in the return of the great traveller at no distant period. That confidence of his has been so often before justified by the arrival of fresh news of Livingstone, however meagre, that we may well retain strong hope, even if it be not granted to all of us to rise from hope into confidence. We trust, then, that Livingstone will never have a place among the martyrs of geography.

One addition, however, has been made during the past year to that long list, in the name of the undaunted George Hayward, formerly a lieutenant in the 72nd Regiment, who had for some years resolutely devoted himself to geographical discovery. After having proved his powers in a journey to Yarkand and Kashghar, which obtained for him last year one of the medals of the Geographical Society, he had started again, with aid from that Society, to attempt an examination of the famous plateau of Pamir, hoping to succeed in crossing it, and to descend upon the Russian territory at Samarkand. In the Darkot Pass above Yassin, he was foully murdered by the emissaries of the chief of that district, Mir Wali by name. Public suspicion in India first turned upon the Maharajah of Kashmir, on whose alleged oppressions Hayward, in a private letter, had made severe remarks, which were rashly published by the editor of a local newspaper. The latest intelligence seems to exonerate the Maharajah, and to throw the guilt of complicity rather on the Mahomedan Chief of Chitral. If he be the guilty man, it may be difficult to punish him, so inaccessible is his position at present; for, to apply the old saw of the Campbells, "It is a far cry to Chitral." I may observe, however, that some sixteen or seventeen years ago, a similar murder took place on the persons of two poor French priests at the other extremity of India, and within the Thibetan boundary on the Upper Brahmapootra, and the apprehension of the criminal must have seemed almost as hopeless as in this case. Yet eventually he fell into the hands of our officers of the province of Assam, and paid the due penalty of his crime.

The geographical field on which, with your permission, I propose to expatiate for a little, is that of India beyond the Ganges. I mean in the largest sense of the expression, and inclusive, at least, in some points of view, of the Indian Islands. India, indeed, in old times was a somewhat vague term, or at least it had always a vague as well as an exacter interpretation. In the latter, it had the same application that we give it now when we speak with precision; it meant that vast semi-peninsular region roughly limited by the valleys of the Indus and the Ganges, which embraces many nations and many tongues and many climates, but yet all pervaded by a certain almost intangible character, which gives it a kind of unity recognised by all. In its vaguer sense, India meant simply the Far East. The traces of such use still survive in such expressions as the East Indies or the Indian Archipelago. Though this vague and large application of the name probably arose only from the vagueness of knowledge, it coincides roughly with a fact, and that is the extraordinary expansion of Hindoo

influence which can be traced in the vestiges of religion, manners, architecture, language, and nomenclature over nearly all the regions of the East to which the name has been applied. Another name has been applied to the continental part of this region-Indo-China. This, too, expresses the fact that on this area the influences of India and of China have interpenetrated. But the influence of China has, except on the eastern coast, been entirely political, and has not, like India, affected manners, arts, and religion.

The address concluded with a long and interesting account of the land trade which has been maintained for many centuries between Western China and the Valley of the Iriwadi.

SECTION F.

ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS

OPENING ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, LORD NEAVES The greater part of this address deals with subjects beyond our scope; we may, however, make the following extracts :

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Economic science is sometimes spoken of as having a very modern date; but I think that this is an error. More or less the subject has entered into all the codes or systems of law that have been established from the earliest times. Alongside of political philosophy, which may be considered as peculiarly the science of government, great attention has always been bestowed upon matters which form an important part of political economy, or economic science-such as taxation, trade, commerce, wealth, and population. Those writers also who have presented us with ideal or imaginary states or Utopias are full of discussions and speculations of the same kind. The rival "Republics" of Plato and Aristotle afford abundant illustrations of this statement. It is peculiarly interesting to see this fact brought out so vividly in the admirable introduction to the Republic" of Plato, prefixed to that treatise in Prof. Jowett's translation of that great philosopher; and if we had a similar translation and exposition of Aristotle's kindred work, which I think we might have from the hand of one of our own vice-presidents, to whom we owe so excellent an exposition of the "Ethics," we should see in a remarkable manner how many of the most interesting questions of the present day were considered and dealt with by those wonderful men according to the varying lights and tendencies which characterised their several minds. It is true that in more recent times a great advance has been made in economic science, and the chief feature and excellency of that change is the tendency to leave things as much as possible to their natural operation, and to the inherent laws of nature and society. It is to the credit of Scotland that she has produced the two greatest leaders in this altered movement-David Hume and Adam Smith-who are still high authorities on the whole subject, and whose principles have been made the basis of our recent legislation. The subject of Statistics is added to the title of this section as an auxiliary to the main subject of Economic Science.

The subjects to which statistics may be extended seem to be innumerable, and new ones are cropping up every day. In the pages of NATURE there lately appeared a letter of a somewhat curious kind, which may perhaps engage the attention of our fellow-associate member Mr. Tyler. The suggestion in that letter was that the degree of civilisation existing in any country is connected with the quantity of soap there consumed. The writer gave as a formula the equation of

S

x = P

* being the amount of civilisation inquired for, S being the soap consumed, and P the population consuming it. So that the amount of civilisation depended on the proportion of S, the numerator, to P, the denominator. If S is large in proportion to P, then the civilisation is great, and vice versa. How the civilisation of Scotland in the olden times would come out accord

ing to this test I shall not inquire; but if there is any truth in the proposition, it gives additional relevancy and interest to the question which is sometimes vulgarly put by some people to their friends as to how they are provided with that commodity. I have not yet seen any tables framed upon this principle, but I have no doubt that the Registrar-General will keep it in view. An inquiry of a more serious nature, and indeed peculiarly important and impressive, is connected with one of the most remarkable phenomena in human nature-I mean the occasional appearance in the world of men of great genius. From time to time men have arisen whose mental powers have far transcended the ordinary average of human intellect, and who have thereby been enabled, within the space

of a single life, and by the effort of a single mind, to give an impulse to science and discovery which they could not have received throngh long generations of average mediocrity. Whether this singular boon and blessing to mankind can be traced to any law is a natural but mysterious inquiry. Some persons have considered the production of exceptional genius as quite an insulated fact; and Savage Landor declared that no great man had ever a great son, unless Philip and Alexander of Macedon constituted an exception. Mr. Galton, however, in his interesting work on "Hereditary Genius," has endeavoured to prove that genius runs in families, or, at least, that men of genius have generally sprung from a stock where great mental power is conspicuous; and he adheres to the view commoni, taken as to the importance of the maternal character and tofluence in the formation of genius. I do not venture to give any opinion upon Mr. Galton's theory, but his book contains an important collection of facts bearing on the subject, and a great deal of very curious collateral speculation. Mr. Galton attributes great power in many ways to the principle of heredity, as it seems now to be called. He does not indeed go so far as the Irish statist, who, as mentioned by Sydney Smith, announced as a fact that sterility was often hereditary; but he states that comparative infertility is transmitted in families; and adduces as a remarkable example, a fact not generally known, if it be a fact, that in the case that frequently happens of Peers marrying heiresses, the family is apt to die out very soon, the heires being naturally, in the general case, an only child, and bequeathing to her descendants a tendency to produce small families who do not afford the usual chance of a numerous supply of descendants. Whatever may be said of some of his other opinions, I hesitate to concur with Mr. Galton in his proposition that as it is easy to obtain by careful selection a breed of dogs or horses, gifted with peculiar powers of running, or of doing anything else, so it would be quite practicable to produce a highly-gifted race of men by judicious marriages during several consecutive generations." I doubt greatly the practicability of such a plan; and suspect there are some elements in human nature that would counteract it. Persons of proud family descent have often a horror of mesalliances; but I scarcely think it would be possible to inspire people of genius with the same esprit de corps or desire to wed with those on a par with them. Men of genius don't seem to me apt to fall in love with women as clever as themselves, and I rather suspect the tendency is to look for some difference of character, an instinct of which it is the object, or at least the result, to keep up the average of talent rather than to multiply the highest forms of mental power. At any rate we may here ask poor Polly's question, "Can love be controlled by advice?" and however we may in other respects agree with Horace's maxim, "Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis," I question whether a high mental stature could be maintained by coupling male and female genius together, or whether the experiment might not fail as signally as it is said sometimes to have done with Frederick William's

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attempts to breed Grenadiers, I strenuously advise, however, that a marriage with a fool of either sex should be always considered as a mesalliance, and I would particularly warn the ladies against such a step, taken, sometimes it is said, in the hope that their sway may in that way be more easily maintained. A fool is as difficult to be governed as a mule, and the couplet, I believe, is strictly true, that says-

Wise men alone, who long for quiet lives,
Wise men alone are governed by their wives.

SCIENTIFIC INTELLIgence frOM
AMERICA*

THE geological expedition under Prof. Hayden, at last advices, had reached Fort Hall, in Utah, on June 21, after a march from Ogden, during which much of interest was obtained by the party. The heat was very great, reaching from 95" to

105° in the shade during the day, with a difference of 25° to 35° pected to pass Fort Ellis by the middle of July, on its way to the between the wet and dry bulb thermometers. The party exbasin of the Yellow Stone Lake, where it will probably spend the greater part of the season. Mr. Thomas Moran, of Philadel phia, and Mr. Bierstadt, were to join the expedition before long for the purpose of making sketches for paintings.-In the August number of the American Journal of Science, will be found a con*Contributed by the Editor of Harper's Weekly.

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