1 44 Royal Astronomical Society. 



lous revisal. The advantage of accuracy need not be insisted upon 

 here, and I feel confident that the present book approaches in this 

 respect as near perfection as, humanly speaking, that limit can be 

 attained. 



Such is the work which your Council have considered it their duty 

 thus to appreciate. The masses of results obtained by this opcrose 

 application of thought and labour may be likened to the extraction 

 of ore from the dross of an ancient furnace ; and I am gratified in 

 having already had the satisfaction of publicly expressing my high 

 sense of the vast importance of the task. Every stage of the under- 

 taking has stamped the Astronomer Royal as being fully in com- 

 mand of the whole process ; and in exhibiting the rare union of 

 large conception, profound learning, and pains-taking practice, prove 

 him worthy of being the leader of the astronomical establishments of 

 the kingdom. From the well-directed exertion of such talents the 

 scientific world now reaps the benefit of the enormous calculations 

 before us, the whole utility of which cannot yet, probably, be speci- 

 fically stated. But we know, that whatever improvement may be 

 made in the theory or constants of any one of the planets, or of the 

 earth, the effect will be shown in its corresponding influence on the 

 heliocentric places of the earth and planet. Now, the equations 

 which connect the variations of these elements with errors found by 

 observation are all tabulated and grouped ready for the geometer's 

 use, without requiring him to look beyond the fifth section, and with 

 a degree of precision which no single computer could ever hope to 

 arrive at. And as in botany we assume a new sera from the time 

 when Linnaeus reduced the disjointed facts and instances of his day 

 into a methodical system, by which men were able to make them- 

 selves masters of every truth which had been discovered up to that 

 period, and turn their attention to something certainly new and use- 

 ful ; so may we, perhaps, date a new epoch in planetary astronomy 

 from the appearance of the great work before you, since the deside- 

 rata in this department of the science are rendered visible, and the 

 necessity for exact instants, a greater refinement of methods, and 

 more delicate observations made apparent. 



The following Fellows were elected Officers and Council for the 

 ensuing year, viz. — 



President: Captain W. H. Smyth, R.N., K.S.F., D.C.L., F.R.S. 

 — Vice-Presidents : Samuel H. Christie, Esq., M.A., F.R.S. ; Bryan 

 Donkin, Esq., F.R.S.; Thomas Galloway, Esq., M.A., F.R.S.; 

 Rev. Robert Main, M.A. — Treasurer: George Bishop, Esq. — 

 Secretaries : William Rutherford, Esq. ; Rev. Richard Sheepshanks, 

 M.A., F.R.S. — Foreign Secretary : Sir John F. W. Herschel, Bart., 

 K.H., M.A., F.R.S. — Council: G. B. Airy, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., 

 Astronomer Royal ; Solomon M. Drach, Esq. ; Rev. George Fisher, 

 M.A., F.R.S.; John Russell Hind, Esq. ; Manuel J. Johnson, Esq., 

 M.A.; John Lee, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S. ; Augustus De Morgan, Esq. ; 

 Edward Riddle, Esq. ; William Simms, Esq. ; Lieut. William S. 

 Stratford, R.N., F.R.S. 



