PROGRESS OF MAGNETIC THEORY. 227 



Important steps in tlie prosecution of this subject were soor aftei 

 made by M. Gauss, the great mathematician of Gottingen. He con- 

 trived instruments and modes of observation far more perfect than any 

 before employed, and organized a system of comparative observations 

 throughout Europe. In 1835, stations for this purpose were establish- 

 ed at Altona, Augsburg, Berlin, Breda, Breslau, Copenhagen, Dublin, 

 Freiberg, Gottingen, Greenwich, Hanover, Leipsic, Marburg, Milan, 

 Munich, Petersburg, Stockholm, and Upsala. At these places, six- 

 times in the year, observations were taken simultaneously, at intervals 

 of five minutes for 24 hours. The Results of the Magnetic Associa- 



/ i/ 



tion (Resultaten des Magnetischen Yereins) were published by MM. 

 Gauss and Weber, beginning in 1830. 



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British physicists did not at first take any leading part in these plans. 

 But in 1836, Baron Hmnboldt, who by his long labors and important 

 discoveries in this subject might be considered as peculiarly entitled to 

 urge its claims, addressed a letter to the Duke of Sussex, then Presi- 

 dent of the Royal Society, asking for the co-operation of this count rv 

 in so large and hopeful a scheme for the promotion of science. The 

 Royal Society willingly entertained this appeal ; and the progress of 

 the cause was still further promoted when it was zealously taken up 

 by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, assem- 

 bled at Newcastle in 1838. The Association there expressed its strong 

 interest in the German svstem of magnetic observations : and at the 



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instigation of this body, and of the Royal Society, four complete mag- 

 netical observatories were established by the British government, at 

 Toronto, St. Helena, the Cape of Good Hope, and Van Diemen's 

 Land. The munificence of the Directors of the East India Company 

 founded and furnished an equal number at Simla (in the Himalayah ), 

 Madras, Bombay, and Sincapore. Sir Thomas Brisbane added another 

 at his own expense at Kelso, in Scotland. Besides this, the govern- 

 ment sent out a naval expedition to make discoveries (magnetic among 

 others), in the Antarctic regions, under the command of Sir James 

 Ross. Other states lent their assistance also, and founded or reorga- 

 nized their magnetic observatories. Besides those already mentioned, 

 one was established by the French government at Algiers ; one by 

 the Belgian, at Brussels ; two by Austria, at Prague and Milan ; one by 

 Prussia, at Breslau; one by Bavaria, at Munich; one by Spain, at 

 Cadiz ; there are two in the United States, at Philadelphia and Cam- 

 bridge; one at Cairo, founded by the Pasha of Egypt ; and in India, one 

 at Trevandrum, established by the Rajah of Travancore ; and one by 



