latter? He thought not upon the principle of river excavation, because there were proofs that the valley of the Somme had been subjected to upheaval. This was followed by a paper from Mr. Godwin Austen, in which the writer maintained that the bones of extinct animals found in connection with the flint instruments had been washed out of older formations, and therefore did not indicate that those creatures were coeval with man. Thus challenged, Sir Charles Lyell, who had now arrived, mounted his cheval de bataille, and after expressing his satisfaction at finding that the two learned gentlemen differed less widely from his views than he anticipated, he joined issue upon the main points on which they disagreed. This was done calmly and temperately; but as he admitted that the movements referred to might have occurred, and as those movements would certainly abridge the time demanded, the worthy knight left the question in a very dubious condition, though he contended that even if Professor Phillips's views were conceded, they would not compel any very essential departure from his own.

Bearing upon this topic, a paper was also read by Professor W. King. Our readers will remember that when some better evidence of the enormous antiquity of our race was required than a collection of clumsy flints, two or three skulls were put into the witness-box, and expected to speak for themselves. One of these was from Neanderthal. The testimony it gave was sadly marred by the peculiarities of its cranium, which left it in great doubt whether the owner was not more of an ape than a man. Professor King did not dispute the genuine age of the skull, whose possessor he thought might really have flourished during the latter part of the Glacial or Clydian period. But, then, being satisfied that it was eminently simial' in its great features, and that such cranial peculiarities were utterly 'unimprovable,' he was driven to the conclusion that the genus Homo has been represented by more species than the present lords of creation.* * Why,' he asked, 'may there not have been 'a Pliocene or a Clydian species, possessed of no higher faculties than such as would enable it to erect a protecting shed, fashion a stone for special purposes, or store up food for winter; but 'like the gorilla or chimpanzee, be devoid of speech, and equally as unconscious of the existence of a God?'

The same exciting subject was also mooted in the Ethnological Department in connection with Lord Lovaine's communication respecting the 'Lacustrine habitations found in Wigtonshire.'

The reader will find this idea propounded in our article on Sir Charles Lyell's book, as an assumption which would strip the question of any theological unpleasantness in case the geological data should afterwards be established.

A Physiological Foray.

115

This and other papers led to much discussion upon Sir C. Lyell's doctrine, during which Mr. Jukes told the audience in confidence that twenty years ago he had been accustomed to ascribe to man a longevity of not less than 100,000 years, though he frankly intimated that he had no data for the opinion; and Dr. James Hunt quoted the remark of a German (equally without data), that the race may have existed for not less than 9,000,000 years! Sir Charles also maintained his full faith in the legitimacy of most of the stone implements, though he candidly confessed that doubts might reasonably be suggested by the fact, that after specimens of the true type had appeared so rarely in the course of twenty years (two or three only turning up during a whole winter's digging at Abbeville), a perfect 'epidemic' of flints seemed to break out all at once 'in three different places, several 'miles apart, and in gravel of a different character. Further, a paper was read upon a human skull found at Amiens, and supposed to have belonged to one of the pre-Adamites, who little suspected the honour for which his cranium was reserved; but Mr. Godwin Austin did his best to put this individual out of court by declaring that the locality from which he had been brought had been an enormous burying-place, and that his relics had been embedded in an accumulation of drift from the neighbouring hills.

In the Zoological and Botanical Section Professor Balfour, with his mild, dreamy face, occupied the chair. He was surrounded by a brilliant staff of naturalists, and assisted by that most active of secretaries, Mr. Tristram, the Saharan traveller, now on his way to the valley of the Jordan, which he and a troup of scientific companions are to 'do,' and describe for the benefit of the public. The most entertaining event in the transactions of this department was an irruption of savans from the Physiological Subsection, headed by their President, Professor Rolleston, in chase of Mr. Carter Blake, who had distinguished himself so unfavourably in the debate upon the negro's affinity to the monkey. This latter anthropologist had a paper to read on the 'Syndactylous Condition of the Hand in Man and the Anthropoid Apes." In this it was expected that the cloven foot might appear. Properly speaking, the memoir should have been produced in the Physiological region, where Dr. Embleton had already dealt with the subject to some extent. But Mr. Carter Blake had reasons of his own for carrying his wisdom to Department D. Greatly to the amusement, however, of the initiated, a rush of physiologists into the elegant council-chamber where Professor Balfour presided, showed that some sport was in preparation. At the conclusion of the paper Professor Rolleston opened the attack. Mr.

Blake had intimated in the Edinburgh Review,' as a fact which every anatomist knew, that the muscle which bent the great toe in the ape was also a bender of the other toes, whereas in man it was but a single muscle concentrating its powers upon that particular member. So far from this being the case, every anatomist could contradict the assertion; for in the human being the flexor of the great toe sends out branches to other toes as well. Borne down by the weight of authority which was now produced, the author could only plead that the mention of a 'solitary tendon' did not necessarily exclude the idea of others, or 'divergent slips;' an explanation, however, which was shown to be lamentably evasive, because, as Dr. Cleland conclusively remarked, the object of the reviewer was to compare the human foot with that of the monkey, in which it was asserted that three tendons went to three different toes. To a general auditor the point at issue might appear to be of trivial importance, and so far as Mr. Carter Blake was concerned le jeu might seem scarcely worth la chandelle; but there was more in this physiological foray than met the eye, and to a pert and pretentious individual like the anthropologist in question it is to be hoped that the lesson thus publicly read would prove of lasting service.

Our limits will not permit us to do more than mention the Mechanical Section, where the most varied inventions were discussed, from a 'universal bottle-stopper' to a plan for rendering 'ships impregnable and unsinkable,' by Sir E. Belcher; the Chemical Department, where the topics ranged from 'lucifer ' matches,' or the 'musical sounds produced by carbon,' to the 'new metals,' or elaborate reports on the 'chemical manufactures of the Tyne;' the Physiological Subsection (by no means the weakest in ability), where you might hear of an apparatus for producing perspiration, or of the wonderful effects of bromide of ammonium, which improves the temper and gradually reduces corpulent people to reasonable dimensions without at all impairing their health; or lastly, the little Economic Section, where the attention of the audience might be called to the important but inelegant subject of transportation by Colonel Torrens, or riveted upon Mr. Henry Fawcett, whose physical blindness finds some compensation in the marvellous acuteness of his mental vision, whilst propounding his startling views respecting the effects of the recent discoveries of gold.

Looking, then, at the varied nature of the fare provided for the members of the British Association, is it surprising that it should do more to popularize science in a week than the Royal Society ever did in a year? That it can make philosophers, it would be absurd to assert. The information picked up by the most acute

and attentive auditor, on these occasions, must necessarily be fragmentary and superficial. But the great object, we presume, is to diffuse a taste for science, to divest it of its austere aspect and crabbed technicalities, to stimulate those who have sufficient love and leisure for its pursuit, and above all to show that it is no longer the mystic patrimony of the Few, but the property and the broad heritage of the Many. It is for no chosen class or tribe in particular to minister at the high altar of Nature: she takes her priests from every rank, and is willing to tell her secrets to a carver's son like Sir Humphry Davy, or a bandboy like Sir William Herschel.

To what an extent the Association has been successful in overcoming the impression that Natural Philosophy was some harsh, forbidding thing, may be inferred from the number of ladies who take out tickets. The doors were first thrown open to them at Newcastle in 1838, when 1,100 availed themselves of the privilege, and at the recent meeting in the same town the space required for crinoline was something prodigious. The flowers of creation were to be seen flourishing in every section. The Geographical region was a perfect parterre. Even in the Physiological Department, where we might have imagined that feminine curiosity would scarcely penetrate, there were strong-minded matrons and enterprising maidens. Nor let any slanderer of the sex presume to assert that none but spinsters of a certain age, or of a positive amount of plainness, betake themselves to the study of the stars or the collection of entomological rarities. A single glance at the audience, at any of the great meetings, would satisfy an observer that neither age nor ugliness was a necessary qualification for female associateship. Did not Dr. Robinson speak like a gentleman when, as President, in 1849, he remarked that in admitting ladies they had done well; for 'without referring to Mrs. Somerville, Mrs. Marcet, or others whom I could name were they not present, I have myself 'known some whose proficiency in several of our departments 'might have put even an F.R.S. to shame, who were not sur'passed in all the graces of the sex, and who were perfect in all the relations of domestic life.'

Then, as we have seen, everything is done to connect science with enjoyment. To say nothing of the soirées, concerts, and banquets which are generally given, there are lectures on a large scale by some distinguished individuals. Two of these were delivered in the new Town Hall at the Newcastle Congress. The one was a masterly discourse by Professor Williamson, of University College, London, on the Chemistry of the Galvanic 'Battery,' illustrated by some beautiful experiments: the other

was an account, by Mr. Glaisher, of his aërial adventures and their philosophical results. Only the day before, this atmospheric navigator had made an ascent (by way of adding to the attractions of the week), and the audience were well pleased to see him back again upon the solid ground without a broken leg or even a bandaged arm; for he told them how, on one occasion, he had been in great peril from the wantonness or malignity of some miscreant, who bore the name of a man, but possessed the heart of a demon. After attaining a considerable height in the air, his companion, Mr. Coxwell, discovered a gash in the balloon which had evidently been cut by design. No time was to be lost. The rent might extend to the top of the machine. With all speed, therefore, they made sail for the earth, and reached it in safety. Still more diabolical was the attempt which, as he related, was once made upon Mr. Green's balloon; for scarcely had that veteran weighed anchor and commenced his aërial voyage, than the ropes began to give way, one after another, until the car was suspended by a single cord alone. To this the aeronaut managed to cling, the machine shooting upwards with great rapidity when lightened of much of its load. How he escaped destruction was a marvel; but in the end he fell to the ground from some distance, and sustained injuries from which he was never expected to recover.

Then, too, the Excursions are a favourite feature in the proceedings of the Association. These are not mere holiday sightseeing expeditions, but journeys to inspect some localities of scientific interest, to examine the geology of a district, or to observe some manufacturing process in full play and under the most favourable circumstances. One day the visitor might transport himself to Sunderland, and then (as his taste might dictate) either descend one of the deepest, and till recently the very deepest coal-pit in the kingdom, or proceed to some curious quarries in the neighbourhood, or stroll over the extensive shipbuilding yards of this bustling seaport, or betake himself to the famous iron bridge across the Wear, or direct his steps to Messrs. Hartley's glass-works, where one-third of the whole window-glass in the country is produced, or saunter round the spacious docks; winding up his travels by partaking of the Mayor's hospitality in the shape of a late luncheon. Or if he preferred a jaunt in which archæology, geology, botany, and natural history might be gloriously blended, all he had to do was to secure a ticket at the Reception Rooms for the excursion to Crag Lough and the Roman wall; every arrangement being made for his accommodation, from a railway-pass to a refreshment-tent, and the Tyneside Naturalist Club undertaking to conduct him to the district