XX FOURTH REPORT — 1834. 



objects which required an outlay not to be expected from in- 

 dividuals. Among the most important of these is the collec- 

 tion of the Numerical Constants of Nature and Art, which are 

 of perpetual recurrence in physical inquiries, and which has 

 been confided to the superintendence of Mr. Babbage. When 

 objects of still more peculiar national importance presented 

 themselves, the Association has fulfilled its pledge of stimu- 

 lating Government to the aid of science. Five hundred pounds 

 have been advanced by the Lords of the Treasury towards the 

 reductions of the Greenwich Obsei*vations, at the instance of the 

 Association ; and more recently the observations recommended 

 by the Committee on Tides have been undertaken, by order of 

 the Lords of the Admiralty, at above 500 stations on the coast 

 of Britain. 



'* Individuals, as we have said, have been stimulated by the in- 

 fluence of the Association ; but so may nations and great bodies 

 of men. Its published proceedings have found their way into 

 every quarter, and are tending to produce corresponding efforts 

 in distant lands. Our reports on science have produced some 

 very interesting counterparts in the literary town of Geneva. 

 America has taken the lead in several departments of experiment 

 recommended by the Association ; and the instructions for con- 

 ducting uniform systems of observation have been reprinted and 

 circulated in the New World. We must likewise consider it as 

 an especial proof of the influence and importance of the Associa- 

 tion, that a Report on the Progress of American Geology has 

 been undertaken and executed by Professor Rogers of Philadel- 

 phia*. Similar contributions from some other foreign countries 

 have been promised, which will extend the utility of the Asso- 

 ciation, by making us acquainted with the more characteristic 

 state of science in the various parts of Europe. Nor can we fail, 

 on the present occasion, to consider as a most auspicious pro- 

 mise of the future success of the Association, that the distin- 

 guished Secretary of the Institute of France has not only ho- 

 noured this meeting by his presence, but has promised to interest 

 that powerful body on behalf of the important objects contem- 

 plated by the Association, which its cooperation might effec- 

 tually secure. The formation of a Statistical Section at Cam- 



• Some strictures having been made in America on the extracts from this re- 

 port which appeared in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, it may be 

 proper to remark that, in requesting from Professor Rogers a general outline 

 of what is known of the geology of the United States, the Association could not 

 expect that all parts of such a sketch should be verified by the personal obser- 

 vation of the author ; it is also due to him to state that his report is published 

 inider the unavoidable disadvantage of not having been revised by the author 

 in passing through the press. — Editor. 



