REPORT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. XXIX 
entire approbation of the zeal and intelligence with which Mr. Welsh con- 
tinues to discharge the various duties entrusted to him from time to time, 
by the Superintending Committee. These qualities have been especially 
shown in the manipulations required in the construction of the standard ther- 
mometers, and in the processes for their verification. 
“ At the request of the Council, the Superintending Committee have made 
arrangements with Mr. Green for four ascents of the Nassau balloon, for the 
purpose of investigating the meteorological phenomena of the atmosphere. 
Two of these ascents have already taken place, one on the 17th and the 
other on the 26th of August, on each of which days Mr. Green aseended 
to between 19,000 feet and 20,000 feet, accompanied by Mr. Welsh and 
Mr. Nicklin, taking with them instruments prepared in the Kew Observatory. 
The observations made in these two ascents had reference chiefly to the laws 
of the decrement of temperature and of aqueous vapour in ascending into 
the atmosphere, and will be the subject of a communication from Mr. Welsh 
to the Mathematical and Physical Section. 
“Tn closing this report of the proceedings at the establishment at Kew, the 
Council are glad to be able to state that the expenditure during the year has 
not exceeded the sum placed at their disposal by the General Committee, 
and that there are no debts; and the Council strongly recommend that the 
establishment should continue to receive the support of the British Asso- 
ciation.” 
Report OF THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE OF THE BriTISH Asso- 
CIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PRESENTED TO THE 
GENERAL CoMMITTEE AT BELFAST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1852. 
The Parliamentary Committee have the honour to report as follows :— 
The Committee met for the first time on the 3rd of February last, they 
met again on the 11th of March and on the 17th of June. 
_ At these several meetings the following, among other business, was trans- 
acted. The Committee agreed to meet yearly on the day succeeding the 
meeting of Parliament, and on the second Thursday in July. 
In consequence of the dissolution of Parliament, the meeting of June was 
this year substituted for that of July. The Committee resolved to cooperate 
with the President and Council of the Royal Society, who had already taken 
steps in this behalf, in urging upon the Government the expediency of facili- 
tating the cheap and rapid international communication of scientific publi- 
cations ; and the Council of the Royal Society, by a resolution dated the 19th 
of February, informed this Committee that they would be much gratified by 
such cooperation. 
In pursuance of these resolutions, Lord Wrottesley, as Chairman of this 
Committee, in company with the Earl of Rosse as President, and Colonel 
Sabine as Treasurer of the Royal Society, had, on the 10th of March, an in- 
terview with Sir Thomas Freemantle, the Chairman of the Board of Customs, 
who suggested a plan by which eminent scientific individuals and institutions 
might be permitted to receive from abroad their presentation copies of scien- 
tific works duty free, through the medium of the Royal Society, and whereby 
certain facilities in this behalf might likewise be afforded to the Smithsonian 
Institution of the United States, in return for privileges conceded to that 
Institution by the Government of those States; and he recommended that a 

letter should be written to the Lords of the Treasury embodying these sug- 
_ gestions. 
1852. € 
