Address / by Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., &c.

  • Charles Lyell
Date:
[between 1800 and 1899]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address / by Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/24
    ADDRESS BY SIR CHARLES LYELL, Bart., LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., &c. Gentlemen of the British Association,—The place where we have been invited this year to hold our Thirty-fourth Meeting is one of no ordinary interest to the cultivators of physical science. It might have been selected by my fellow-labourers in geology as a central point of observation, from which, by short excursions to the east and west, they might examine those rocks which constitute, on the one side, the more modern, and on the other the more ancient records of the past, while around them and at their feet lie monuments of the middle period of the earth’s history. But there are other sites in England which might successfully compete with Bath as good sur¬ veying stations for the geologist. What renders Bath a peculiar point of attraction to the student of natural phenomena is its thermal and mineral waters, to the sanatory powers of which the city has owed its origin and celebrity. The great volume and high temperature of these waters render them not only unique in our island, but perhaps without a parallel in the rest of Europe, when we duly take into account their distance from the nearest region of violent earthquakes or of active or extinct volcanos. The spot where they issue, as we learn from the researches of the historian and anti¬ quary, was lonely and desert when the Bomans first landed in this island, but in a few years it was converted into one of the chief cities of the newly conquered province. On the site of the hot springs was a large morass from which clouds of white vapour rose into the air; and there first was the spacious bath-room built, in a highly ornamental style of architecture, and decorated with columns, pilasters, and tessellated pavements. By its side was erected a splendid temple dedicated to Minerva, of which some statues and altars with their inscriptions, and ornato pillars are still to be seen in the Museum of this place. To these edifices the quarters of the garrison, and in the course of time the dwellings of new settlers, were added; and they B