lo8 Mk. J. Bbyce on the Recent Progress oftlie 



Mr. Alex. B. M'Gregor, Writer, was elected a member. 



Mr. Robert Blackie moved that instead of the whole members of 

 Comieil retiring every yeai', and eight of the number being re-eligible, 

 only the four should retire whose names are at the bottom of the list, 

 and be ineligible for one year. 



The motion having been duly seconded, it was approved of unani- 

 mously by the first vote of the Society. 



Mr. Bryce read a i-eport " On the Recent Progress and Present State 

 of the Sciences of Meteorology and Terrestrial Magnetism." 



On the Recent Progress and Present State of the Sciences of Meteorology 

 and Terrestrial Magnetism. Part I. By J. Betce, M.A., F.G.S. 



General Histobt. 

 (1.) The last fifteen or twenty years have been distinguished above 

 almost any period of the same duration, by the progress which scientific 

 inquiry has made in almost every department. There has been a 

 remarkable increase of knowledge among all classes ; new sources of 

 commercial enterprise have been opened up in all parts of the world ; 

 the facihty of transit from place to place, and from country to country 

 has been wonderfully increased ; and there has thus been sent abroad, 

 into every field, a multitude of observers, with whose active bands the 

 inquirers of an earlier period can bear no comparison. Without stopping 

 to point out the various causes which have led to this result, it will be 

 sufficient to allude as bearing upon the subject now before us, to the efibrts 

 of the British Association, itself the product of aspirations and aims, 

 which are among the very causes referred to. Dividing itself at length, 

 after experience of several years, into sections which embraced all the 

 departments of physical inquiry, this great body appointed men of the 

 most eminent ability, specially conversant with particular branches, 

 to prepare Reports upon the existing state of those branches, which, 

 distinguishing the known from the unknown, the positive from the 

 doubtful, should serve as a carefvdly measured base from which to 

 advance, in fixing the doubtful and discovering the new. The path to 

 be followed in this discovery was also indicated in many of the Reports 

 to which we refer, and the particular line of inquiry most likely to 

 prove fruitful of results suggested for the guidance of those who should 

 attempt to consolidate the empire of science, or to enlarge its bounds. 

 (2.) In this recent advance, meteorology has so largely participated, that, 

 as a science, it may almost be said to have originated within the period 

 to which we now refer. Many of its phenomena, indeed, were matter 

 of careful observation from the earliest times. In constant dependence 



