PREFACE, 
Tur Makerstoun Observations down to the commencement of 1847 were published 
at length in Vols. XVII. XVIII. and XIX. of the “ Edinburgh Transactions.” 
Some time before the lamented decease of Sir T. Maxpoucat BrisBane, the 
munificent founder of the Makerstoun Observatory (which took place on the 27th 
January 1860), it had been determined to continue the publication of the “ Ob- 
servations” down to the year 1855. This was carried into effect at the jomt ex- 
pense of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of Sir T. M. Brispanz, who had the 
satisfaction of seeing these sheets in proof before his death. 
The Editor thinks it right to state somewhat more explicitly than has been 
done in the “ Introduction” which follows, the names of those who have been 
from the first connected with the Makerstoun Observatory, and more especially 
during the period to which the following pages refer; and this not only in token 
of acknowledgment to those whose skill and labour produced valuable results, but 
as a guarantee to men of science that the observations treated of in this volume 
were carefully made and faithfully recorded. 
The following statement is partly taken from a Report on the Makerstoun 
Observatory, made to General Sir T. M. Brispane by Mr Joun ALLAN Broun, 
and dated 1850. 
The building was commenced early in 1841, but no observations were made 
till July of that year. The system adopted was limited, in the first instance, to a 
few daily observations, together with a participation in the complete series on 
term days. 
In April 1842, the original observer, Mr RussELL, having resigned, the Obser- 
vatory was placed under the direction of Mr Jon ALLAN Broun. In the be- 
ginning of 1843 Mr Joun WeELsH was, at Mr Broun’s recommendation, appointed 
as assistant, and the scheme of the observations was very largely expanded. It 
was next thought desirable to obtain the diurnal laws of magnetism and meteor- 
ology, in consequence of which Mr Broun suggested the addition of another 
