xxviii REPORT — 1853. 



General Committee have reported to the Council, that having ascertained 

 that measures having those objects in view had already been adopted by Her 

 Majesty's Government, they have confined themselves to an expression of 

 satisfaction therewith, and of readiness to afford any practicable aid on the 

 part of the British Association. 



"11. On the subject of a grant in aid of the publication of Mr. Huxley's 

 zoological and physiological researches in H.M.S. Rattlesnake, the Council 

 have to report that the application made in the last year by the Presidents 

 of the Royal Society and of the British Association to the Earl of Derby, 

 has been renewed in the present year to the Earl of Aberdeen by the Earl of 

 Rosse, on behalf of both institutions. No reply has yet been received. The 

 Council desire to take this occasion of calling the attention of the General 

 Committee to the want which has been felt in this instance, as in many others, 

 of suitable and systematic arrangements on the part of Government for the 

 due publication of the results of scientific researches executed at the public 

 expense by naval officers acting under the instructions of the Admiralty. 



" 12. The Council, having been directed by the General Committee to take 

 into consideration the expediency of procuring copies of M. Dove's Maps 

 and Memoir on the Distribution of Heat over the Surface of the Globe, made 

 arrangements for obtaining from M. Dove 250 copies of the maps from the 

 original stones, and have directed them to be bound up with a translation of 

 M. Dove's Memoir, presented by Colonel Sabine, to be disposed of to mem- 

 bers of the Association at the cost price of the plates, the printing, and the 

 binding. 



" 13. In reference to the resolutions respecting the proposed cooperation 

 of the British Association in recommending to Her Majesty's Government, 

 in conjunction with the Royal Geographical Society, the examination of a 

 portion of the eastern coast of Africa, the exploration of the countries around 

 the river Magdalena with a view to their natural products, and the ascent of 

 the river Niger to its source, much delay was experienced from the circum- 

 stance that no papers whatsoever relative to those subjects were given at the 

 close of the Belfast Meeting to the Assistant General Secretary, and that the 

 Council were unable subsequently to procure such memorials, embodying 

 such statements of the objects and grounds of the recommendation, as it is 

 the practice of the British Association to obtain in all cases of application 

 to Government and to the East India Company. The subjects were thus 

 necessarily left in the hands of the Royal Geographical Society. 



" 14. The Council have great pleasure in expressing their conviction of 

 the increased and increasing usefulness of the establishment at Kew, and 

 subjoin the report which they have received from the superintending Com- 

 mittee. The Council recommend a continuation of a grant to this establish- 

 ment to the same amount as in the last year. 



" 15. The Council have been informed that the invitations formerly re- 

 ceived by the British Association from Liverpool and Glasgow, to hold the 

 meetings of the next two years at those places, will be renewed by deputa- 

 tions appointed to attend at Hull for that purpose. They have also been 

 informed that it is the intention of the mayor, aldermen, and citizens of 

 Gloucester, to present on the same occasion an invitation to the British 

 Association to hold an early meeting in that city." 



The Report of the Kew Committee, signed by J. P. Gassiot, Esq., Chair- 

 man, referred to in the Report of the Council, was read and ordered to be 

 entered in the Minutes. It is as follows ; — 



