Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 1913. CONGRESS REVIEWED.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 29 January 1913, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 1913. CONGRESS REVIEWED.

DESPITE THE fact that we hav« dealt repeatedly with matters discussed »at the recent meeting of the Australasian Association for the advancement of Science, we cannot help giving' a summary of an excellent article by Dr. T. S. Hall, in which he reviews with careful meditatation the lessons taught at the Congress. The Association, as is -well known, is a loose federation of scientific societies, and holds that nothing that is scientific is foreign to its work. This breadth necessitates its sub-division into sections and sub-sections, for,.as Dr Hall points'out, it is at least improbable that

anyone will be alike interested in the relation between pure and applied mathematics and tuberculosis in dog's. Over all is the president, and each section and sub-section has its own president and officers. The presidents are by custom chosen from the visiting States. With some fourteen presidential addresses, and about 120 papers, besides demonstrations and exhibits, it will be easily gathered, he goes on to say, that within a_ few short days an amount of wisdom has been poured out that no one man would dare t6 value. The v papers have, in many cases, been of a high character, and the discussion has sometimes been illuminating. But beyond the mere facts arid theories of papers and addresses there is the effect of personal contact with the men who have done and are doing the work, the men who by their depth of knowledge and breadth of view have been able to correlate apparently unrelated facts, and thus make easier the path, of advance into the unknown. Dr. Hall well remembers a stirring speech made by the late Baron von Mueller to the Field Naturalists' Club when preparations were being made for the first visit of the' Association toMelbourne in 1890. In his curious Ger-man-English he told how he, when a young man, had attended a similar German association ,• and then there rolled forth the names of the great men whom he had seen and talked to for the first time, Helmholtz, the physicist; and Johannes Mueller, the anatomist, and many another; and then hs told of the inspiration which he derived from the meeting. In addition to the reading of papers, excursions were made to various places of scientific interest. The astronomers" went to the observatory, the engineers to tHe Newport works, botanists to Ithe Dandenong Ranges, zoologists to the Jjeach at Beaumaris, while geologists had a riotous time among the hendecasyllabic rocks of Macedon and the weird gorge carved through glacial beds at Bacchus Marsh.

In dealing with the papers read. Dr. Hall is able to refer to them o'nly in very general terms. Besides the impossibility of comparing the relative «value, say, of a paper on chemistry with that of o"ne, say', on plant physiologVj there is the other difficulty that a man cannot be in a dozen places at once, and so he has been guided mainly by the general opinion amongst members. The physicists claim that the outstanding feature of the session was the demonstration of a model devised by Professor T. R. Lyle to represent the transmitting circuits in wireless telegraphy,, for not only does it clear much that is hard to understand, but gives hints of future developments. In chemistry Mi- H. G. Smith, of tho Sydney■{Technological Museum,, described the kinos o£ a hundred specie's of eucalyptus, kinos being astringent substances used in medicine'and tanning. This paper is of considerable economic value.' The flotation of minerals was dealt with by Mr D. Avery, and he, treated of the several.processes in use;at Broken Hill, and attempted to explain ' the difficult problems involved. Geologists had many good papers them. The president, Mr W. Hawchin, spdke on the evolution of the physiographic features of South Australia. The old deserted river courses were traced, and the effects of uplifts and faulting were shown, the most important result being the desiccation of the inland conn- j try. Of more general interest, as it affects ideas of the age of formations along the whole- of Eastern Australia, was a brief preliminary paper by Mr H. C. Richards, of Queensland "University. In the opinion of many this was a paper of supreme value. The Burrum ] coal measures have hitherto been | thought to be,-of Lower Trias-Jura *age, j and this view is based on a large variety J of fossil plants, which in other parts of ! the world are Jurassic or older. , But, : according to the views of Mr B. J. ] Dunstan, Government . Geologist of Queensland, and of Mr Richards, beds which appear to belong to the same series really overlie the lower cretaceous (rolling downs) formation. The latter are marine in origin, and are full pf fo'ssils, and no geologist -doubts their age. The general opinion'is that the pap.er gives one more instance of the folly of relying implicitly on. European sequences. - In biology, Mr W. D. Alexander, of Western Australia, after an examination of the small insects known as silver fish, and their allies, concludes that they afford one more link in the chain of evi- ' dence connecting Australia and South America. Mr R. M. Johnstone, ' Tasmanian statist, gave an important address on the "Production and tion of Consumable Wealth,'"- which is likely to be largely discussed. The new method of making «met.al drums, such as boilers and gasometers, by autogenous welds, was dealt with by Professor S. H. Barraclougli, of Sydney. The system is not as perfect as was at first believed. Perhaps in scientific agriculture, he points out, more advance has been made than in any other subject in recent years, and ideas of plantmanuring have undergone a radical change. Not long ago chemists boldly stated that if a soil were analysed, they could indicate what manures should be supplied to increase plant growth. No'w, as has already been explained here, it is found that the whole matter is ex- , tremely complicated, and scientists are still in the throes of discussion. The president of the agricultural section (Mr F. B. Guthrie) led the way in the address on "The Relation of Fertilisers to Soil Fertility." What conclusions were arrived at Dr Hall is unable to say, and probably unanimity was not reached. The physical condition of the soil, the asserted exudation by plant roots of actual poisons to themselves, and of waterproofing substances which prevent absorption, as well as other theories, have all to - be considered, and are being keenly debated the world over. _.