AMBULATORY SCTENTIFICS.
OUR readers may not be generally acquainted with the fact, that there has been established a moveable Metropolis of Science. Last year this capital invention was exhibited at York, and this year at Oxford. Last week, there assembled in the latter city, crowds of sevens from every part of England; who, during the short space of a few days, discussed a very considerable portion of the Animal Kingdom, with much apparent satisfaction to them- selves, and greatly to the relief of the graziers and breeders of that county. This locomotive institution is called the "British Association for the Promotion of Science." It is calculated by Mr. BABBAGE, III his Economy of Manufactures, that scientific men are apt to live on too slender a diet, and unless roused once a year, sink into a dingy state of repose, unfavourable to the progress of the sci- ences. In order to " produce that excitement favourable to the development of ideas," it has been resolved that all the savans of England shall meet once a year in some rich grazing country, and feed together an entire and glorious week. Lest the appetite should pall, and the best use not be made of a short time, professors are appointed to exercise the troops in the open air, on a new and scientific plan. Dr. BUCKLAND. for instance, this year, mounted all the swans, and the demi-savans (not those of the French army in Egypt, who used to call their donkeys by that name), on horseback, and galloped over the hills and throuol a eo- logical lecture at the rate of twenty miles an bouri-Dr. ILLIAMS and Professor BURNET, after another meal, set off on a botanical tour, followed at the heels by all the science cf the country; and, by an ingenious circuit, returned by another road, exactly as dinner was served at Christ Church for three thousand philosophers. The. mutton and the botany (in the shape of green peas and new potatoes) were said to be done to a turn. Professor WHEween. lectured on tides. The learned Professor observed, that as there were no tides in the Isis, and the sea was too distant to get back by dinner-time, he could not combine instruction and exercise in the admirable style of his brother Professors : he therefore sug- gested, that the scientific myriads who heard him, should, while he discussed the influence of the moon on the sea, connect them- selves, by means of their brachial elongations, into one mass, and then agitate themselves backe ards and fo:wards in a sea-saw manner, so as to imitate exactly the lunatic undulations of the ocean.
But the greatest promoters of science were Doctors SHUrrLE- WORTH and JONES.
"The Association was then invited by the liberal and enlightened Warden of New College, Dr. Shuttleworth, and by the Fellows, to dine in their hall, and nearly four thousand guests enjoyed every thing that hospitality could provide, the Fellows resigning in many instances their own privileges for the better ac- commodation of the strangers. After the dinner was concluded and the grace chanted with great effect by the choristers, the Wykehamist Duke Donnas was sung, and loudly called for again. A number of toasts for the prosperity of the different public institutions were proposed by Dr. Buckland, and the diffe- rent officers who were present returned thanks in appropriate terms, many of them with great eloquence. The following morning the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Jones, under whose sanction the Association assembled, and who richly deserves the warmest tribute of respect and admiration for his zeal, his ardour, and his anxiety to promote its objects, gave a sumptuous breakfast in the hall and gar- dens of Exeter College. After which, an adjournment took place to the theatre, where" Professor WILLIS climbed up a well-soaped maypole, and Dr. RITCHIE and Dr. TURNER danced on the tight-rope.
"Among those who were present, we observed—Lord Milton, Lord Morpeth, Lord Sandon, Lord Cole, Sir Henry Inglis, Sir Thomas Phillips, Sir James Fellowes, Sir David Brewster, Professors Airy, Babbage, Sedgewick, Philli- more, Milman, Dauberry, Ridd, Daniell, Turner, Burnett, Faraday, Doctors Birkbeck, Bostock, Forbes, Todd, Thompson, Sigmood, Whitlock, Nichol', Prout, Conolly, Clarke, Dalton, Messrs. Vigors, Clift, Children, Bicheno, Brown, D'Arblay, Halsewell, Sabine, Martin, Gray, Montgomery, Lindley, Davies Gilbert, M.P., Thomas Estcourt, M.P., &c."--11forning Post.
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