TIIE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.
Ii- the Association should riot promote science, it will undoubtedly encourage trade. Steam-boats and coach-proprietor, lodging-house and hutel-keepeisz, reporters, printers and paper-makers, will all be- nt:fit amazingly by its meetings. In fact, the increased demand for reporters and printers (which suggested the remark) has been so great, and their labours have been so suceessfid, that we are quite puzzled to know where to begin, and what, out of the immense mass which they have prepared, to select. Double sheets of the ilthenccum, fly-sheets of Felix Farleifs Bristol Journal, and whole armies of reporters, mar- shalled under some clever and skilful gentlemen " connected with the Tiows," may give the reader a faint idea of the increase of printing which the Association lots already occasioned. ‘Vhat it may hereafter cause, when all the elaborate papers are printed which were read— treating of all things in heaven or on earth, or in the waters under the earth, and of all that philosophers can imagine as hich is neither in heaven nor tu earth nor under the waters—would require a mathema- tician tolerably expert in the use of the calculus to tell. We make no pretensions to any such wonderful art ; and content ourselves with remarking, that the quantity which has already been printed concerning the proceedings of the Association, makes the task of adapting it to our pages one of considerable diffirulty. A single glass of wine or a handful of wheat will give a correct notion of a pipe or a sack ; but a single page or column can no more convey a notion of the varied merits of two or three huge volumes, than a single bunch of grapes or one ear of wheat could inform a person of the quality of the whole vintage or harvest. We must, however, endeavour to select a sample of the mul- tifarious product. We regret to find that even science has its rivalries, its jealousies, and its enmities. The report in the Athenerum tells us, that "all traces of the temporary estrangement of Sir D. BREWSTER from his old col- leagues in the Council had disappeared." Sir DAVID had supposed, we believe, that a sufficient homage was not been paid to his merit ; and, like rival beauties, the rival philosophers pouted and were sulky and sad. Their benevolence, however, was revived when they turned their thoughts from themselves to science, and discussed plans for improv- ing the resources of India. It was proposed to form a committee with affiliated branches to aid the Asiatic Society in collecting information concerning that continent, and developing its resources with vast magni- ficence; which was eloquently enforced by one gentleman saying, that there was used in a trade in which he was engaged 100,000/. worth of lichens annually, and as the supply was beginning to fail, he wished India to be searched to obtain more. Another learned gentleman en- forced the same view by sagaciously- remarking, that there was a time when many of the substances now used in our manufactures were un- known, and who could tell what new substances time and the researches of the affiliated committees, with an offset of exploring savans in India, might discover ? Lord SANDON, too, was great on this subject. His capacious, statesman-like mind, was filled with apprehensions lest the supply of cotton from the Southern states of the American Union might fail ; and he dwelt strongly on the necessity of encouraging the cultivation of cotton in India. This lord is one of the few great men of the Association who carried the superior eloquence and know- ledge of the House of Commons into the scientific halls of Bristol, and who discussed one of the higher branches of politics—that which concerns giving, by bounties and prohibitions, by taxes and restraints, a peculiar direction to the industry of nations—with all the acumen which distinguishes his orations in the Legislative Assembly. Know- ing something of his Lordship's capacity, we are enabled to appreciate that of the twelve hundred among whom be shone conspicuous. The scientific meeting which felt dignified and enlightened by his Lord- ship's acquirements, has supplied the world with an unerring test of its merits.
The labours of the different sections embrace, as might be expected, nearly all created things ; and while one was discussing the means of de- veloping the resources of mankind—planning gigantic schemes of inter- national communication so as to connect the most distant people another was solemnly discussing the birth of insects, and tracing the doctrines of a metempsychosis up to the spontaneous generations of the Nile mud. The ingenious author of this speculation, who is described as the Reverend Mr. Hon, with a minute attention to eco- nomy, which contrasts admirably with the gigantic schemes for im- proving India and establishing steam-navigation with nearly all parts of the world, informed the Association, that insects might be obtained in great numbers from turpentine; that there was no occasion to send to America for them, but only to hunt in this substance when liquefied and ; and they might obtain splendid collections for a few shillings, which now generally cost a great many pounds to bring them from America. The Reverend Mr. Hops will please the collectors at home more than those abroad by the suggestion ; and the score or two of ingenious Germans who now make a respectable livelihood, not to say are in hopes of acquiring a fortune, by traversing the Southern part of the American Continent from Cape Horn to the Gulf of Mexico, and from Peru to Brazils, to form collections of butter- flies, &e. will have all their hopes dashed at once to the ground, by the ingenious observation of Mr. Hon. But they can petition the Asso- ciation not to encourage such to them, ruinous pursuit. It has been long asserted that honey is extracted by the bee ready- made from plants, and that Nature elaborates it in the flowers, out of which it is sucked by the insect. One of the discoveries announced at the meeting is of a similar character. An ingenious gentleman of the name of Rovt.s, struck, it appears, by the increasing demand for eaoutchoue, has been led to make inquiries into the order of plants by whi at it is fabricated ; and he concludes that m toy others besides tin se already known, which have a milky juice, may be made to supply caotechoue. The leaf:of the lettuce may be turned to account, per- haps in this way : but the singular discovery is this, that cuoutchoue is found in mulberry-leaves, as well as lettuce-leaves, and gives its sup- posed tenacity to the silk made by the insects which feed on the former. Thus, the silk-worm, it is supposed, like the bee, only ex- tracts from the vegetable a principle already elaborated in it, and silk is caoutchoue in a peculiar form. This theory, these ingenious gentle- men think, is confirmed by the fact now known to nearly all the young gentlemen and ladies in the metropolis—for they are nearly all silk- worm feeders—that lettuce-leaves, which contain a great quantity of liquid caoutchoue, are theliest substitute fir mulberry-leaves which can be given to the caoutchone-spinners. Mr. Hort: also remarked, that the dandelion, which yielded caoutchouc, was one of those plants em- ployed as a substitute for feeding the silk-worm ; which he quoted as a striking instance of the utility of men of different pursuits meeting and discussing scientific subjects at Bristol. One told the fact of the dandelion yielding a -milky juice and its being given to silk-worms, and the other that the milky juice was the basis of silk. An ingenious gentleman about London, who is the owner, we believe, of vapour- baths impregnated with the refreshing juices of various herbs, will, doubtless, soon apply, if he has not already applied, this discovery as to caoutchoue to give a coating or delicate varnish to the skin of debili- tated patients, and preserve them from the influence of cold and in- tense perspiration. lie will add dandelions and lettuce. leavesto the herbs he generally uses, and subject his patients when necessary to a vapour-bath in which cuoutehouc is dissolved. Indeed, as one of the gentlemen remarked it was impossille to foresee what science might yet accomplish, we may perhaps anticipate the time when the toil of the poor worms, and the unwholesome labour of those who feed them and of the loom, may be wholly dispensed with, and the caout- chouc extracted in huge webs from the plants, or dissolved, like rags, in some menstruum, shall conic forth like paper from Mr. Diezesssos's mill in endless sheets. Sir WALTER SCOTT speaks of a machine into which raw flax was putot one end, and it came out at the other a "ruffled sark ;" but that will be nothing to the vista which now opens on us of extracting silken garments from the juice of the dandelion. The in- genious vapour- bathist we just now mentioned, holds, we believe an opinion that eating dandelions, butter-cups, and other similar rank weeds, by the cattle which nom feeds on, is the great cause of all human disease. It will be to him an unspeakable satisfaction to learn, that these plants may now be turned to so good an account ; and we hope that Dr. or Mr. Witerecaw, though we do not see his name in the list, is a member of the Association, and was at Bristol to hear the great discovery announced, and to communicate some of his own knowledge on this important matter. As we must rather select the wonders brought before the Associa- tion and published to the world by its means, than describe the whole week's labour of the twelve hundred gentlemen and perhaps double the number of ladies who were assembled, we can only further notice the discoveries of Mr. Fox. and the more extraordinary discoveries of Mr. Caoss. No language of ours ever can do justice to tine labours of these two gentlemen ; and we must dwrefore merely abridge the re- ports contained in the daily papers. They were both brought before the Association on the same day, Thursday,—which must hereafter be considered, in all the proceedings of the Society, as worthy to be marked .with a white stone. Mr. Fox mentioned in the section in which Geology and Geography are discussed, the fact, long known to miners, of nwtalliferous veins intersecting different rocks containing ore in some of these rocks, and being nearly barren or entirely so in others. This circumstance, he said, suggested the idea of some defi- nite cause ; and his experiments on the electric conditions of various ores to each other, seem to have proved that dectro-reagnaison was in a state of great activity under the earth's surface. His general conclu- sion was, that in the fissures of rocks metalliferous deposits will be de- termined according to their relative electrical conditions ; and that the direction of those deposits must have been influenced by the direction of the magnetic meridian. Thus we find the metallic deposits in most parts of the world having a general tendency to an east and west or north-east and north-west bearing. We are afraid that the reporter bad not done justice to Mr. Fox by the description ; fur let the reader mark the Chairman's (the celebrated Dr. BresLasan's) observations which followed.
"The Chairman said, it had been observed to them last evening, that the test of some of the highest truths which philosophy had brought to light was their simplicity. Ile held in his hand a blacking-pot, which; Mr. Fox had bought yesterday fur a penny, a little water, clay, zinc, and copper ; and by these bumble means Ire had "tated Ofle of the most secret and wondetful pro- cesses of nature—her mode of making metallic veins. It was with peculiar satisfactiou he contemplated the valuable results of this meeting of the Associ- anon.
To know how to make metallic veins—that is, mines of lead, copper, silver and gold—extraordinary as it may seem, and sure as it will be to make England the Potosi of the whole world, seems nothing, however, to what follows, which is to make her also the Golconda, and give her the command of thunder and lightning. The Chairman proceeded, ac- cording to an imperfect report of a Bristol paper- " There was also a gentleman now at his right hand, whose name he had never brand till yesterday, a man unconnected with any society, btu possessing the true spirit of a philosopher—this gentleman had actually on 1de no less than twenty- four minerals, and even crystalline quartz. (Lowl cries of " Hear ! ") He (Dr. H.) knew not how he had made them, but he pronounced them to be discoveries of the highest order they were not made with a blacking pot and clay, like Mr. Fox's, but the apparatus was equally hutnble—a bucket of water and a brick-bat had sufficed to produce the wonderful effects which Inc would detail to them."
We may expect granite to be manufactured, then, as well as gold, silver, and cotton cloth. Portland stone, too, will no longer be dug from the quarries ; and soon there will be an end to mining, and all the loss of life it causes by its fire-damps, etesetera ; for we shall make alt kinds of minerals, coals and all, in our furnaces amid crucibles, or rather in our slop-pails.
" Artificial Crystals and Minerals. — Cross,Esq. of Broomfield, sonierset,'. then came forward, and stated that he came to Bristol to be a listener only, and with no idea Ile should be called upon to address a section. He w,is Inn geolo- gist, and but a little of a mineralogist ; Ile had, however, devoted much of his time to electricity ; and he had latterly been occupied in improvements in the voltaic power, by which lie lord succeeded in keeping it in full force for twelve months by water alone, rejecting acids entircly. ( Cheers. ) Ile had obtained water 601111 a finely • crystallized cave at 1101way, and, by the action of the voltaic battery, had succeeded in producing from that water, in the course of ten days, numerous thomboidal crystals, resembling those of the cave. In order to ascer- tain if light had any influence in the process, he flied it again in a dark cellar, and produced sitnilar crystals in six days, with one-fourth of the voltaic !pioneer. Ile had repeated the experiments a hundred times, and always with the same results. Ile was fully convinced that it was possible to make even diamonds, and that at no distant period every kind of mineral woubl be formed by the in- genuity of man. by a variation of his experiments, he had obtained gray and blue carbonate of copper, phosphate of soda, and twenty or thirty other speci- mens. If any members of the Association would &your hint with a visit at his house, they would be received with hospitality, though in a wild and savage region on the Quantock 11 ills ; and he should be proud to repeat his experiments in their presence. Mr. Cross sat down amidst long continued cheering. " Professor Sedgwick said, Inc had discovered in Mr. Cross a 11 iend who some years ago kindly conducted him over tl:e Quantock I hits on the way to 'faunton. The residence of that gentleman WaS not, as he had described it, in a wild and savage region, but seated amidst t he sublime and ['emit's,' in nature. At that time he was engaged in catrying on the most gigantic experiments, attaching voltaic lines to the trees of the forest, and conducting, through them streams of lightning as large as the mast of a seventy-four gun ship, and even turning them through his house with the dexterity of an able charioteer. Sincerely did lie congratulate the section on what they had heard and witnessed that morning. The operations of electrical ploonamena, instances of u hich had been detailed to them, proved that the whole world, eren dar kne:,, itself, was steeped in ererlastiny kohl, the tirst-bot n of heaven. However Air. Cross may have hitherto concealed himself, from this tittle froth he must stand before the world as public property. " Professor Phillips said, the wonderful discoveries of Mr. Cross and Mr. Fox would open a field of science in which ages might be employed in exploring and imitating the plortiontena of nature. " Coat-Fie/11ir of South Wates.—The Chairman than called on Mr. Cony- !ware to read his paper on the subject. hut that gentleman said, that the subject would now he so uninteresting after the splendid discoveries that had been detailed to them, that he should only point them to the map, and request them to imagine that he hat] read his paper, and that they had been asleep all the Here was a great achievement crowned by great modesty. The wonderful discoveries made by means of a bucket of water and a brick - bat, and by a penny blacking - pot, astounded Mr. CONY- REARE ; and, despairing of exciting a sensation after the extreme sti- mulus of conducting streams of electricity as large as the mast of a seventy-four gun ship or about six feet in diameter, through the apart- ment of a house like an able charioteer, he was silent and abashed, at being outdone by Mr. Caoss, belonging to no learned society. We are humbled and abashed also, or ratl Cr' astounded, by such magnifi- cent announcements; and must at once say, that if the expectations held out by Mr. Fox with his blacking-pot and Mr. Citoss with his brick-bat be ever realized, the meeting at Bristol will be the most re- nowned in the annals of human knowledge. The National Institute of France, and Royal Societies ail over the world, will be forgotten in the vast glories accumulated round the 'latish Association by the wonderful achievements of Fox and Caoss.
We must here stop. To tell all that was said and done—to describe, worthily, the dinner and tea parties, the promenades, arid shows, which filled up the whole week—would employ a long life, and we can devote to it but one short evening. It is enough to say, that even science cannot keep enthusiasm alive for eight days ; and at the close of the week, every one seems to have bcen tired with too much learisiog and too inuch wisdom. We have not beard that the coolness between certain great men, which was warmed at the commencement, became ice at the end of the week ; but, overshadowed as some learned doctors, knights, and squires, must have been by the gigantic stature of him of the blacking-pot and him of the brick-bat, we caa fancy that the sepa- ration took place without reluctance, and with feelings the very reverse of those with which all glowed on Monday. We, however, have been so well pleased with the dissertations of M. CHARLES DUNN, the haraugues of Dr. BOWRING, the unpremeditated and flowing eloquence of Mr. Wvse, the excursive remarks of Dr. LARDNER, and the elo- quent expositions: of l'rofessor SEDGwice, with the displays of the other learned gentlemen there assembled, that we are glad to learn— and so, we believe, will our readers be—that, like 1317RNS'S "twat dogs," these gentlemen are all to " meet again some ither day," to go through the same or similar sports. The Association coneluded its readings, dis- cussions, breakfists, dinners, and zeological and other rambles, on Satur- day; and separated, sifter setting apart various sums to promote science in future,--sitnong which we are happy to see an additional 801. to Sir DAvin BREWSTER, for makiug a rock-salt lens.
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