peculiar directness by psychological inquiry. There is, also, a function truly philosophical which only the investigator of mind is in a position to discharge, the task, namely, of collating and sifting the results of the special sciences with a view alike to insight and conduct. But MIND will, further, expressly seek to foster thought of hold sweep—sweep that can never be too bold, so be that it starts from a well-ascertained ground of experience, and looks to come again there to rest."
The first number well justifies the promises here made, and there is every reason to believe that the succeeding issues will do so in a still greater degree.
Report of the Forty-fourth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science: held at Belfast, in August, 1874. London: John Murray, 1875.
One of the most valuable features of the yearly volumes of the British Association is the publication of extended "Reports on Researches in Science," which are annually made on special subjects by small committees of eminent men who are themselves working in those subjects. Thus, in the volume before us, there are no less than thirty such reports, occupying about 360 octavo pages. The Association often aids in an investigation by the appropriation of a small sum of money, and in return it receives a report on the progress of the work, besides the gratification of having assisted some research that otherwise might have been long delayed.
For instance, since 1848 reports have been given upon the observations of Luminous Meteors, which contain nearly all the known facts relating to meteorites, arranged in an orderly form, and in some degree sifted. This report for 1873-'74 contains 90 pages.
Reports on Earthquake Phenomena, on Tides, on the Waves of the Atmosphere, on Magnetic and Meteorological Observations, and many other similar subjects, are to be found in the pages of the past volumes, and often the facts of such reports are collected nowhere else. From the present volume we extract almost at random the titles of a few of these reports, which may serve to show the nature of the subjects which are yearly brought to the attention of the meetings: "Report on the Recent Progress and Present State of Systematic Botany" (27 pages); "On the Rainfall of the British Isles for 1873-'74" (43 pages); "On the Treatment and Utilization of Sewage" (14 pages); "On Cyclone and Rainfall Periodicities in Connection with Sun-spots" (23 pages); "On the Erratic Blocks of England and Wales" (8 pages); "On Instruments for measuring the Speed of Ships" (9 pages), etc. The committees making these reports counted among their members the most eminent men of England—Lyell, Lubbock, Boyd-Dawkins, Bentham, W. K. Clifford, Balfour Stewart, Clerk-Maxwell, Huxley, Galton, Sir William Thomson, Huggins, Lockyer, De la Rue, and many others scarcely less known. With such subjects reported on by so eminent specialists, it is easy to see how these reports have come to have so high a value.
The Belfast meeting was attended by nearly 2,000 members, and over £2,000 was received from fees, etc.; £1,080 was appropriated for scientific purposes; £400 for various works of the section of mathematics and physics (printing mathematical tables, rainfall and meteor reports, thermo-electricity, etc.); £155 for researches in chemistry; 280 for various geological explorations; £170 for biology; £100 for the Palestine Exploration Fund; £25 for statistics (economic effect of combinations of laborers or capitalists); and £50 for instruments for measuring the speed of ships. This abstract will give some idea of the practical benefit to science which the Association gives, and it is also instructive as showing for what purposes its money is spent.
The last 232 pages of the volume are devoted to an abstract of (he proceedings of the sections. We find that the section of mathematics and physics occupies 44 pages, the chemical section has 22 pages, geological 29 pages, biological 64 pages, geographical 24 pages, statistical 27 pages, and finally that the mechanical section occupies 20 pages. In a rough way this shows the amount of attention paid to the various branches at the 1874 meeting, and it is accurate enough to indicate the great amount of work now doing in biology in England, which is a noteworthy feature of this and preceding reports.
