« REPORT OF 



observer of nature might have a station within his reach from 

 ■which he could fix the relative position in this respect of 

 whatever might be the object of his research, of how many 

 questions in how many sciences would these facts contribute to 

 the solution ? Again, supposing it to be ascertained also at 

 these stations what is the temperature of the air, and of the 

 water, as it falls from the sky, and as it is held in the reservoirs 

 of the earth, these are data of the same kind, interesting not 

 only to meteorological science, but to the philosophy of organ- 

 ized and animated existence. Yet, extensive as may be the 

 importance of such facts, and simple as are the processes for 

 ascertaining them, and numerous as are the individuals capable 

 of contributing to their investigation, how little nevertheless 

 even of this preliminary work has yet been accomplished, either 

 by insulated observers, or by those who are associated together 

 for the express purpose of advancing the sciences to which it is 

 of such essential interest. 



None of our Societies has ever pretended to collect observa- 

 tions of this kind on a regular system, nor to form a national 

 catalogue of the scattered particulars of any one science accu- 

 rately detailed ; and yet the great value which would attach 

 to such collections, when reduced and analyzed, must often 

 have occurred to the enlightened conductors of such Institu- 

 tions. But that which has prevented any single Society from 

 venturing on the undertaking, has been the impracticability of 

 carrying it on over so extensive a territory as an entire kingdom. 

 There is a method however, by which the object might be 

 achieved. Were there in every county one or more provincial 

 Societies, having some Members competent to superintend, and 

 others ready to execute the observations within definite limits, 

 and were these Societies willing to work together on a common 

 plan, the natural history of the country, and all the geogra- 

 phical data of philosophy, might easily be collected in a manner 

 far more perfect than has ever yet been attempted. 



