puts forth to secure that truth; for not by the possession of
truth, but by the search after it, are the faculties of man enlarged,
and in this alone consists his ever-growing perfection. Possession
fosters content, indolence, and pride. If God should hold in his right
hand all truth, and in his left hand the ever-active desire to seek
truth, though with the condition of perpetual error, I would humbly
ask for the contents of the left hand, saying, 'Father, give me this;
pure truth is only for thee.'"

At the close of his address a vote of thanks was passed to the
president, on the motion of the Mayor of Manchester, seconded by
Professor Asa Gray, of Harvard College. The president mentioned that
the number of members is already larger than at any previous annual
meeting, namely, 3,568, including eighty foreigners.

* * * * *

THE CRIMSON LINE OF PHOSPHORESCENT ALUMINA.

Crookes has presented to the Royal Society a paper on the color
emitted by pure alumina when submitted to the electric discharge _in
vacuo_, in answer to the statements of De Boisbaudran. In 1879 he had
stated that "next to the diamond, alumina, in the form of ruby, is
perhaps the most strikingly phosphorescent stone I have examined. It
glows with a rich, full red; and a remarkable feature is that it is of
little consequence what degree of color the earth or stone possesses
naturally, the color of the phosphorescence is nearly the same in all
cases; chemically precipitated amorphous alumina, rubies of a pale
reddish yellow, and gems of the prized 'pigeon's blood' color glowing
alike in the vacuum." These results, as well as the spectra obtained,
he stated further, corroborated Becquerel's observations. In
consequence of the opposite results obtained by De Boisbaudran,
Crookes has now re-examined this question with a view to clear up the
mystery. On examining a specimen of alumina prepared from tolerably
pure aluminum sulphate, shown by the ordinary tests to be free from
chromium, the bright crimson line, to which the red phosphorescent
light is due, was brightly visible in its spectrum. The aluminum
sulphate was then, in separate portions, purified by various processes
especially adapted to separate from it any chromium that might be
present; the best of these being that given by Wohler, solution in
excess of potassium hydrate and precipitation of the alumina by a
current of chlorine. The alumina filtered off,