40 REPORT— 1840. 
on national undertakings ; in the mean time we may enumerate 
the principal ones by their titles. 
I. Instructions pour faire des Observations Météorologiques 
et Magnétiques, par A. T. Kupffer. St. Petersbourg, 1836, 
8vo, pp. 77. Chiefly instrumental details ; including, however, 
a theory of the wet bulb hygrometer. 
II. Instructions for making and registering Meteorological 
Observations in Southern Africa. Drawn up under the direc- 
tion of Sir John Herschel*. 
III. Instructions pour le Voyage de la Bonité; Physique 
du Globe, par M. Arago, Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des 
Sciences de Paris, I. 380. Annuaire du Bureau des Longi- 
tudes, 1836. 
IV. Instructions pour |’Expédition d’Algérie, 1838. Par le 
méme, Comptes Rendus, VII. 206. 
V. Report of the Committee of Physics and Meteorology 
of the Royal Society, on the Objects of Scientific Inquiry in 
those Sciences ; drawn up for the Antarctic Expedition of 1839. 
Instructions for making Meteorological Observations, pp. 53— 
79; with an appendix of Tables. 
10. But of all periodical literature, the work which gives the 
fairest representation of the progress of physical science north 
of the Alps, is Poggendorff’s dnnalen der Physik, which, even 
as a bibliographical compendium, is invaluable. In the nu- 
merous volumes of this admirably edited work, are to be found 
the best papers published on meteorology, and all the kindred 
sciences, whether in Germany, France, or Britain. The edi- 
torial skill and impartiality with which this work is conducted, 
render it most deserving of support in every country; whilst 
the high scientific standard, according to which articles are ad- 
mitted or selected, is highly creditable to Germany ; where 
alone, perhaps, in Europe, so learned a work would find ade- 
quate support}. 
11. I regret very much that, from the difficulty of procuring 
* These instructions, printed by the South African Institution, have, I be- 
lieve, been republished in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. See 
also Instructions for Observation, and Suggestions for Meteorological Inquiry, 
in the first volume of the Transactions of the Meteorological Society of Lon- 
don, 8vo. 
+ M. Poggendorff, not satisfied with translating the best foreign memoirs of 
the day (to facilitate which he has recently added an annual supplementary 
part), has, on various occasions, published, for the first time in German, older 
memoirs, of considerable length and difficulty, for the purpose of presenting his 
readers with a complete view of the progress of any science, without searching 
further than his own pages. Thus, he has lately translated Fresnel’s Memoir 
on Diffraction, and Sir James Hall’s papers on the Consolidation of Strata. 
