NOTICE 



The Index, now completed, to the Reports and Transactions of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science from the beginning of its labours 

 in 1831 to 1860, was projected by Professor Phillips while holding the office 

 of Assistant General Secretary. He had hoped, by the cooperation of his 

 friend Mr. Griffith, and the aid of Mr. WiUiam Askham, who had been 

 engaged in many ways as an able and zealous assistant at the annual meet- 

 ings and in the printing of the volumes, to have been able to see this work 

 finished before retiring from office. By the regretted death of Mr. Askham 

 an unexpected delay occurred, and a larger share of personal labour has 

 fallen on the present Assistant General Secretary. 



The Proceedings of the Association, except those of the first Meeting, are 

 printed in two portions ; the first consisting of Reports and Researches in 

 Science, which have been drawn up by request of the General Committee, 

 and a larger number of Communications oifered to the several Sections com- 

 posing each Meeting. Por each of these portions an Index has been pre- 

 pared and printed in the Annual Yolumes. 



The present work is not merely a collection of these separate elements 

 into one Catalogue ; it was intended to bear the character of a revised and 

 arranged Table of Reference, assigning to each Author his share of the work, 

 to each Place the descriptive passages, and to each Subject the principal 

 notices relating to it. It was thought desirable to continue the plan of 

 separate reference to * Reports ' and * Sectional Proceedings,' and to con- 

 struct for each of these parts, separate registers of * Authors*,' * Places,' and 

 * Subjects.' In cases where Reports were drawn up by Committees appointed 

 by the Association, aU the Members of the Committee have usually been 

 quoted as Authors, though in some instances only one signature is annexed, 

 and in others, as in the Report on Zoological Nomenclature, the principal 

 features of plan and execution were impressed by one mind firmly directed 

 to every part of the subject. 



