396 Meeting of British Association, 



or selected individuals. They are in most cases not unattended 

 with considerable expense, and the Association, not content with 

 merely suggesting and directing, furnishes by special grants the 

 pecuniary means for defraying the outlay caused by the nature 

 and extent of the enquiry. If we consider that the income of the 

 Association is solely derived from the contributions of its mem- 

 bers, the fact that no less a sum than £17,000 has, since its com- 

 mencement, been thus granted for scientific purposes, is certainly 

 most gratifying. 



The question how to observe, resolves itself into two — that of 

 the scientific method which is to be employed in approaching a 

 problem or in making an observation, and that of the philo- 

 sophical instruments used in the observation or experiment. The 

 Association brings to bear the combined knowledge and expe- 

 rience of the scientific men, not only of this but of other coun- 

 tries, on the discovery of that method which, while it economizes 

 time and labour, promises the most accurate results. The method 

 to which, after careful examination, the palm has been awarded, 

 is then placed at the free disposal and use of all scientific investi- 

 gators. The Association also issued, where practicable, printed 

 forms, merely requiring the different heads to be filled up, which, 

 by their uniformity, become an important means for assisting the 

 subsequent reduction of the observations for the abstraction of 

 the laws which they may indicate. 



At the same time most searching tests and inquiries are con- 

 stantly carried on in the Observatory at Kew, given to the 

 Association by Her Majesty, the object of which is practically 

 to test the relative value of different methods and instruments, 

 and to guide the constantly progressive improvements in the 

 construction of the latter. 



The establishment at Kew has undertaken the further impor- 

 tant service of verifying and correcting to a fixed standard the 

 instruments of any maker, to enable observations made with them 

 to be reduced to the same numerical expression. I need hardly 

 remind the inhabitants of Aberdeen that the Association, in one 

 of the first years of its existence, undertook the comparative 

 measurement of the Aberdeen standard scale with that of Green- 

 wich, — a research ably carried out by the late Mr. Baily. 



We may be justified in hoping, however, that by the gradual 

 diffusion of Science, and its increasing recognition as a principal 

 part of our national education, the public in general, no less than 



