creasing tendency for these to be technical rather than popular in character, as is also the case in our own national association. There is printed above the address by Professor Halliburton on physiology, and we hope to be able to publish subsequently the address by Professor Armstrong before the Section of Education, these being perhaps the two most interesting of the presidential addresses. In the physical section papers were presented by Lord Kelvin and Lord Rayleigh, perhaps the two greatest physicists now living. Lord Rayleigh discussed the question as to whether motion through the ether causes double refraction of light, reviewing the evidence which has led physicists to conclude that the earth in its motion does not drag the ether with it. Lord Rayleigh's experiments have confirmed those of our American physicists, Michelson and Morley, which showed that light travels through a body traversed by a stream of ether with the same speed along it as against or across it. Another paper of considerable interest before the Mathematical and Physical Section was one by Professor Schuster discussing the relative importance of collecting observations in a science such as meteorology and of deducing laws from them. Before the Chemical Section the subjects which seem to have attracted special interest were the action of enzymes and the aromatic compounds. Papers before the Zoological Section were presented by Professor Poulton and others on mimicry, and by Professor Herdman on his expedition to study the pearl oyster beds in the Gulf of Manaar, and on the plans for protecting the North Sea fisheries. The Sections of Economics, Geography and Anthropology usually attract the greatest general interest, but space does not permit reference to the papers and discussions. A word should, however, be said in regard to the Section of Education, established last year, which bids fair to become one of the most attractive departments of the Association, setting a model which the American Association should follow.
The attendance at the meeting was 1,620 as compared with 1,951 at the Belfast meeting twenty-eight years ago. The decrease in attendance was not, however, due to fewer scientific men being present, but to a smaller local interest in the meeting. One of the most interesting features of the general meeting was the invitation presented by Professor Charles S. Minot, last year president of the American Association, asking as many members as possible to attend the Washington meeting of the American Association. Professor Minot described the steps that have been taken in America to secure the reorganization of scientific societies under the auspices of the American Association and the securing of a convocation week in mid-winter for the meetings. President Dewar, in replying on behalf of the Association, emphasized the importance of a visit to America, and expressed the hope that there would be a large attendance of English men of science at the meeting to be held at Washington beginning on the Monday after Christmas.
The meeting of the British Association next year will be at Southport under the presidency of Sir Norman Lockyer, one of the most prominent of living astronomers and editor of Nature. The meeting in 1904 will be at Cambridge, where efforts will doubtless be made to rival the important meeting at Oxford in 1894. Plans are being made which may lead to a meeting in South Africa in 1905, the colonies having offered to defray a large part of the expenses of delegates.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANTHRACITE COAL.
Anthracite differs from ordinary or bituminous coal in that it contains a
