xhi REPORT—-1846. 
Besides the narrative of his former voyages, Liitke has since published an 
account of the periodical tides in the Great Northern Ocean and in the 
Glacial Sea, which I have reason to think is little known in this country. 
Having since established a hypsalographe in the White Sea, and being also 
occupied from time to time in observations in Behring’s Straits, the Russians 
will soon be able to provide us with other important additions to our 
knowledge of this subject. Separated so widely as Admiral Liitke and Dr. 
Whewell are from each other, it is pleasing to see, that the very reeommenda- 
tion which the last-mentioned distinguished philosopher of the tides has re- 
cently suggested to me, as a subject to be encouraged by this Association, has 
been zealously advocated by the former. Let us hope then that this Meeting 
will not pass away without powerfully recommending to our own Government, 
as well as to that of His Imperial Majesty, the carrying out of systematic and 
simultaneous investigations of the tides in the Great Ocean, particularly in the 
Northern Pacific,—a subject (as Admiral Liitke well observes) which is not 
less worthy of special expeditions and of the attention of great scientific bodies, 
than the present inquiries into terrestrial magnetism; and one which, I may 
add, this Association will doubtless warmly espouse, since it has such strong 
grounds for being satisfied with the results which it has already contributed to 
obtain through its own grants, and by the researches of several of its associates. 
Lastly, in alluding to our foreign attendants, let us hope that our nearest 
neighbours may respond to our call, and may prove by their affluence to 
Southampton, that in the realms of science there is that “‘ entente cordiale” 
between their great nation and our own, of which, at a former meeting, we 
were assured by the profound Arago himself. No sooner was it made known 
that the Chair of Chemistry at this Meeting was to be filled by Michael 
Faraday, than a compeer worthy of him in the Academy of Sciences of Paris 
Was announced in the person of M. Dumas*, by a letter from that philoso- 
pher to myself. To M. Dumas it is well known that we owe, not only the 
discovery of the law of substitution of types, which has so powerfully aided 
the progress of organic chemistry, but also the successful application of his 
science to the arts and useful purposes of life; his great work on that sub- 
ject, ‘ La Chimie appliquée aux Arts,’ being as familiar in every manufactory 
in England as it is upon the Continent. 
Nor, if we turn from chemistry to geology, will such of us as work among 
the rocks be backward in welcoming any French geologists who may come 
to examine, in our own natural sections of the Isle of Wight, the peculiar 
development of their Paris basin, the identity of their chalk and our own, 
the fine sections of our greensand and of the Wealden formation of Mantell, 
and to determine with us iz situ the strict relations of their Neocomian rocks 
with those peculiar strata which at Atherfield, in the Isle of Wight, have 
been so admirably illustrated by Dr. Fitton and other native geologists, and 
of which such beautiful and accurate diagrams have been prepared by 
Captain Ibbetson. 
Will it not then be admitted, that the gathering together of such foreign 
philosophers, as those above mentioned, with our own men of science, must 
be productive of good results? Putting aside even the acknowledged fact, 
that numerous memoirs of value are published in one country which are 
unknown in another, where is the person, acquainted with the present acce- 
lerated march of science, who can doubt that the germs of discovery which 
are floating in the minds of distant contemporaries, must often be brought 
to maturity by the interchange of such thoughts? ‘The collision of these 
* The resolution of M. Dumas to visit the Meeting was arrested by a sudden illness, and 
his apology only reached the President towards the close of the Meeting. 
