The Report of the meeting of the British Association held last year at Glasgow has just been published in a goodly volume of more than three hundred pages. Among its contents are Reports of Committees, of which it may be said that the more widely they are known the better; and bearing in mind recent disasters at sea, the Investigation of the Steering Qualities of Ships by Professor Osborne Reynolds of Owens College, Manchester, appears the more interesting. 'The experiments of the Committee on large ships,' he remarks, 'have completely established the fact, that the reversing of the screw of a vessel with full way on, very much diminishes her steering power, and reverses what little it leaves; so that where a collision is imminent, to reverse the screw and use the rudder as if the ship would answer to it in the usual manner, is a certain way of bringing about the collision.' This is an important fact, for it is well known that collisions have been occasioned by the very means made use of to avoid them. And Professor Reynolds says further: 'It appears that a ship will turn faster, and for an angle of thirty degrees, in less room when driving full speed ahead, than with her engines reversed, even if the rudder is rightly used. Thus when an obstacle is too near to admit of stopping the ship, then the only chance is to keep the engines on full speed ahead, and so give the rudder an opportunity of doing its work. These general laws are of the greatest importance, but they apply in different degrees to different ships; and each commander should determine for himself how his ship will behave.... It is also highly important that the effect of the reversal of the screw should be generally recognised, particularly in the law courts; for in the present state of opinion on the subject, there can be no doubt that judgment would go against any commander who had steamed on ahead, knowing that by so doing he had the best chance of avoiding a collision.' The statements thus set forth are illustrated by diagrams which shew the position of the vessel after reversal of the screw, and the position after steaming ahead. The latter shews that collision would be entirely avoided. We frequently read that in future sea-fights the ram will be relied on for running down enemy's ships and sending them to the bottom. But where is the captain at the present day who has had experience of ramming, and of other evolutions which will be required in a fleet of steam ironclads under quite new conditions? Soldiers can go into temporary camps and get experience in 'autumn manœuvres;' but sailors cannot have mock-actions and run down ships which cost half a million sterling, nor venture to try the eighty-ton-gun on their consorts. Hence there will be very much to learn in the first great naval battle.