300 Instruct ions for the Scientific Expedition 



INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAKING METEOROLO- 

 GICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



The Council of the Royal Society, while they have been occupiect 

 in preparing instructions for making meteorological observations at 

 the fixed magnetic observatories about to be established by the Go- 

 vernment at Montreal, St. Helena, the Cape of Good Hope, Van 

 Diemen's Land, and the different stations to be visited by the Ant- 

 arctic Expedition under Captain James Clark Ross, and in reporting^ 

 on various references made to them of applications for instructions 

 for similar observations by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 

 the Honourable Court of Directors of the East India Company, and 

 the Corporation of the Trinity House, have availed themselves of 

 this opportunity for proposing a plan of extensive co-operation, the 

 general adoption of which by observers cannot fail to produce the 

 most advantageous results to meteorological science. 



After maturely considering the subject, they do not presume to- 

 anticipate that what they may suggest will not be liable to objections, 

 for their object will be to include within their compass many excel- 

 lent series of observations which ai^e already in progress, rather than 

 to propose a degree of theoretical perfection, the attainment of which 

 the present state of the science may not perhaps admit of. Systematic 

 co-operation is the essential point to which at present every thing 

 else should be sacrificed ; and co-operation on almost any plan would 

 most certainly be followed by more beneficial results than any number 

 of independent observations, however perfect they might be ia 

 themselves. 



The plan of co-operation should, in fact, be regarded at present as 

 merely temporary and preparatory ; but if steadily adhered to for a 

 few years, it would certainly furnish the most perfect data for its own 

 correction, which could then from time to time be applied with fa- 

 cility and precision. 



The Council are not without hopes that amateurs of science may 

 be induced to conform to these suggestions, even at the temporary 

 sacrifice of their own views and convenience ; for no one can reflect 

 on the immense amount of labour which is now rendered useless for 

 want of the requisite uniformity and precision, without being con- 

 vinced of the necessity of remedying axi evil which has already been 

 of too long standing, and continues to be a reproach to science. 

 Many, of course, will not have it in their power to fill up the plan in 

 all its details ; but they will contribute greatly to forward the design, 

 if, in such observations as they may find it convenient to make, they 

 strictly comply with the rules proposed. They will be further encou- 

 raged to lend their aid to a comprehensive system, by the consider- 

 ation that it will be adopted by the Government Observatories, as 

 well as by those about to be established by the East India Company, 

 and will of course be acted upon in the comparison and discussion 



