XKxIl SEVENTH REPORT—1837. 
tensive enterprises; yet the numbers annually desirous of admission 
supply funds, adequate to important undertakings; and the power 
thus given to the General Committee is acknowledged to have been 
exercised with a sound discretion. 
Without descending to minute particulars, it may be well to state 
some of the appropriations for various scientific inquiries. 
The application to the French government already noticed, was ac- 
companied by a vote of the General Committee of the Association to 
appropriate 5001. for a duplicate reduction of the Astronomical Obser- 
vations, with a view to secure the utmost accuracy in these important 
computations. This offer proves the value attached by the Association 
to whatever can improve Astronomy, and the zeal which carries its 
scientific views even beyond the limits of the British Empire. This 
sum is still devoted to the reduction of Astronomical Observations. 
701. have been devoted to the determination of a constant numerical 
expression for Lunar Notation, as deduced from the observations made 
with the Greenwich mural circle: 250/. have been appropriated for 
the Discussion of the Tides ; besides 150/. voted last year for the Dis- 
cussion of the Observations made on Tides at Bristol: 100/. were set 
apart for meteorological instruments, and experiments on subterranean 
temperature,—the last a problem of the highest interest to Geology, as 
involving the question whether or not there be a general source of ter- 
restrial heat, independent of solar influence: 500/. have been voted 
for ascertaining the permanence or fluctuation in the relative level of 
the land and of the ocean, on the coasts of the British Isles. This sub- 
ject affords matter for the highest speculations in Geology ; but it is 
doubly interesting to a maritime people, as affecting the permanence of 
our river navigation, and of our naval stations: 2101. were given to 
enable M. Agassiz to include the fossil fishes of our islands among his 
interesting Researches on Fossil Ichthyology, a publication which forms 
a new era in this department of Geology : 100/. have been assigned for 
Investigations on the Form of Waves, and the mode of their produc- 
tion: 150/. for the experiments on Vitrification, and the improvement 
of the manufacture of Glass: 80/. for experiments on Lenses of Rock 
Salt ; a subject of much interest to Optics: 50/. for determining the 
specific gravity of Gases: 60/. for an experimental inquiry into the 
strength of Iron: 50/. for ascertaining the Duty of Steam Engines: 
50. for an inquiry into the Origin of Peat Mosses: 250]. for con- 
ducting various Physiological Rearches : 150/. have likewise been voted 
for investigating the Statistics of Education in our large towns. While 
