^56 Professor FoFbes*s Address to the British Association. 



' Were these annual Reports the only fruits of the labours of 

 this Society, there would be no reason to complain. But yet more 

 specific results of its impulsive action on science may be quoted. 

 The questions suggested by the reporters and others, recom- 

 mended for investigation, have met with ready attention from se- 

 veral individuals capable of satisfactorily treating them. Profes- 

 sor Airy has himself investigated, from direct observation, the 

 mass of Jupiter, suggested as a desideratum in his report on As- 

 tronomy ; and, since the last meetingof the Association, has con- 

 firmed his first results by new observations, which give almost 

 the same mass by the observed elongations of the satellites, as 

 had been deduced from the perturbations of the small planets 

 by Jupiter. Hourly observations of the Thermometer in the 

 south of England have, in two instances, been commenced ; and 

 we are assured that the same desirable object is about to be at- 

 tained by the zeal of the Committee in India, where the Asso- 

 ciation has established a flourishing colony. A series of the 

 best observations, conducted for ascertaining the law which 

 regulates the fall of Rain at different heights, has been under- 

 taken at the suggestion of the Physical Section, by Messrs 

 Phillip and Gray of York, which have been ably discussed 

 by the former gentleman, in last year*'s Report, and have since 

 been continued. A regular system of Auroral observation, ex- 

 tending from the Shetland Isles to the LandVEnd, has been esta- 

 blished under the superintendence of a special committee, and 

 specimens of the results have been published. Observations 

 on the supposed influence of the Aurora on the Magnetic Needle, 

 have likewise been pursued in consequence of this proceeding. 

 The conditions of Terrestrial Magnetism in Ireland have been ex- 

 perimentally investigated by Professor Lloyd. An important in- 

 quiry into the law of Isomorphism has been undertaken by a Spe- 

 cial Committee, which has likewise reported progress ; and an ela- 

 borate synopsis of the whole Fossil Organic Remains found 

 in Britain is in progress, under the hands of Professor Phillips. 

 Many specific inquiries are besides going forward, under parti- 

 cular individuals, to whom they were confided ; whilst it is not 

 to be doubted that numberless persons, many of them perhaps 

 new to the world of science, are at this moment pursuing invcs- 



