418 Proceedings of the British Association. 



the land occupiers ; but undertook to prosecute such an inquiry in 



his own parish, and to furnish the results at the next meeting. 



Dr Brunton thought that no such difficulty would occur among 

 the tenantry of Scotland ; and stated, that the thing proposed had 

 been already done with commendable minuteness, as might be seen 

 on turning to any of the parochial accounts already published. 



Col, Sykes stated, that the returns which he had himself collect- 

 ed in the Deccan, embraced the stock and implements, and land in 

 cultivation, and that the village constitution in India afforded pe- 

 culiar facilities for obtaining minute information on all these points. 



Mr Holt Mackenzie remarked, it was most desirable that statis- 

 tical statements should be always the result of accumulated facts 

 rather than of computation j for that statements of computation were 

 only approximations to the mark, and in many cases lead to abso- 

 lute error. The discussion on the subject was continued, branch- 

 ing into a variety of details, until the Section separated ; in the 

 course of which it was suggested by Lord Jeffrey, that a recommen- 

 dation from the Section to the Society superintending the Statisti- 

 cal Account of Scotland, will not fail to meet with attention from 

 the Society ; and that a practical result of great value might thus 

 immediately follow from the discussion that had taken place. The 

 committee undertook to communicate with the Society in the man- 

 ner suggested. 



EVENING — George's street assembly rooms. 



The President having taken the chair, and the reports of the 

 various Sections having been read, Dr Buckland delivered a very 

 animated and instructive lecture on fossil amphibia and fishes ; 

 after which the meeting adjourned till the following evening. 



Friday, 12th September. 



MORNING — university. 



Section A. — Mathematics and General Physics. 



Rev. Mr Whewell in the Chair. 



Dr Knight exhibited to the Section a method of rendering the 

 vibrations of heated metals perceptible to the eye. 



Mr Russell gave an account of some recent experiments on the 

 traction of boats on canals, at great velocities. 



