Uoyal Society, 347 



For a similar reason, in discussing the possibility of effecting 

 those very general transformations given in my " Mathema- 

 tical Researches," in which X may have a fixed value while m 

 is increased without limit, the question does not arise respect- 

 ing the illusory form of the series for 3/. But below a certain 

 limit the method of proof there followed evidently leaves us 

 without any information respecting the occurrence of the form 



— - ; and it becomes interesting to inquire how far the general 



solution may extend itself even through the form -— to a 



particular value of ?w. 



West Park, Bristol, March 13, 1838. 



LIX. Proceedings of Learned Societies, 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 280.] 



Rep(yrt of the Proceedings of the Council for th£ past year, 



THE principal business of public interest which has occupied the 

 attention of the Council relates to the extension of accurate 

 magnetical and meteorological observations in different parts of the 

 world. 



A communication having been made by Lieut. William Denison, 

 of the Royal Engineers, of a proposal from General Mulcaster, In- 

 spector-General of Fortifications, that the officers of engineers ge- 

 nerally should be employed, under the direction of the Royal Society, 

 in promoting the advancement of science, by carrying on connected 

 series of observations relating to Natural History, Meteorology, 

 Magnetism, and other branches of physical science, and suggesting 

 an application to Government for a grant of funds necessary for ef- 

 fecting so desirable an object; a Committee was appointed to con- 

 sider of the proposed measure, and of the means of carrjnng into 

 effect the recommendations contained in the letter of Baron Von 

 Humboldt, addressed in April last to His Royal Highness the Pre- 

 sident*. Conformably with the report made by this Committee, the 

 Council fixed on the ten following places, namely, Gibraltar, Corfu, 

 Ceylon, Hobart Town, Jamaica, Barbadoes, Newfoundland, Toronto, 

 Bagdad, and the Cape of Good Hope, as being the most eligible for 

 carrying on magnetic observations according to the plan recom- 

 mended by Baron Von Humboldt ; those places being permanent 

 stations, where officers of engineers and clerks are always to be 

 found. The Council also determined that, for the present, the ob- 

 servations of magnetism may be limited to those of the direction of 

 the magnetic needle, and the meteorological observations restricted 



• See p. 271. 



