REPORT OP THE COUNCIIi. XXIU 



Report OF THE Proceedings of the Council in 1850-51, as presented 

 TO THE General Committee at Ipswich, Wednesday, July 2, 

 1851. 



I. With reference to the subjects referred to the Council by the General 

 Committee assembled in Edinburgh, the Council have to report as follows : — . 



1. Having communicated with Dr. Robinson, on whose suggestion the 

 General Committee directed that application sliould be made to the Admi- 

 ralty for the publication of the Reports of their Committee on Metals, and 

 having also communicated with the Admiralty, — the Council have requested 

 Mr. James Nasmyth, who was himself one of the members of the Metal 

 Committee, to undertake the task of drawing up an abstract of the principal 

 matters contained in its reports, to be presented to the British Association 

 at Ipswich, or at the Meeting in 1852 ; and the Admiralty, at the request 

 of the Council, have consented to place the three volumes of the Reports in 

 Mr. Nasmyth's hands for this purpose. 



2. In compliance with the direction that a Committee should be appointed 

 for the purpose of waiting on Her Majesty's Government, to request that 

 some means be taken to ensure to the science of Natural History an effect- 

 ive representation in the Trusteeship of the British Museum, the Council 

 proceeded to name a Committee ; but in consequence of one of two recent 

 vacancies in the Trusteeship of the British Museum having been filled up 

 by the appointment of a distinguished Naturalist, Sir Piiilip Grey Egerton, 

 Bart., the Committee have not deemed it requisite to make the application 

 to Government contemplated by the General Committee. 



3. On the subject of an application to Government to institute a Statisti- 

 cal Survey relative to the extent and prevalence of Infantile Idiotcy, the 

 Council having ascertained that the importance of such an inquiry had already 

 been pressed on the attention of Government by the Statistical Society of 

 London, and that the representation had been very favourably received, have 

 forborne to take any further step for the present. 



4. The Committee appointed at Edinburgh, for the purpose of urging on 

 Government the completion of the Geographical Survey of Scotland, recom- 

 mended by the British Association at their former meeting at Edinburgh in 

 1834, have presented a Memorial to Lord John Russell, showing that, in the 

 interval of IG years elapsed since the foi-mer meeting of the Association in 

 Edinburgh, but a single county, namely, Wigtonshire (less than a sixtieth 

 part of Scotland), has been mapped ; that the surveying force employed in 

 Scotland, and the funds allotted to that portion of the United Kingdom, have 

 been very much less than that allotted to either England or Ireland ; and 

 that on the present scale of procedure upwards of 50 years must elapse be- 

 fore the map of Scotland can be completed. The Memorial further solicits 

 Her Majesty's Government to endeavour to obtain from Parliament an 

 annual grant adequate to the completion of the map in the next 10 

 years. The Memorial was courteously received by the First Lord of the 

 Treasury, and has been followed by the appointment of a Committee of the 

 House of Commons to inquire into the whole subject of the survey of North 

 Britain. 



II. Since the last report of the Council to the General Committee was 

 presented at Edinburgh, the reply of Her Majesty's Government has been 

 received to the Memorial drawn up by Dr. Robinson, President of the British 

 Association, with the concurrence of the Earl of Rosse, President of the 



1851. e 



