=~ <o.. Se we 
AND INSTRUMENTS AT MUNICH. 50] 
In order to cooperate in this system it was urgent to lose no 
time in the construction and establishment of our observatory, 
the more so as three years had been named in the first instance 
as the duration of the research. A period so limited as to admit 
of the investigation of those relations only which most imme- 
diately presented themselves, may appear at first sight but little 
corresponding with the grandeur of the scheme in other respects; 
but we must remember that the progress of the accurate investi- 
gation of any natural force is certain to lead to new methods and 
new relations. The history of astronomy teaches us that whilst 
every exact result belonging to the foundations of science is sure 
to find a future place commensurate with its worth, it is not so 
with the arrangements: these are subject to the constant trans- 
formation which the progress of science no less than the chan- 
ging occurrences of time bring with them. 
The first magnetic observations in Munich were begun in the 
middle of 1836, in a room of the Astronomical Observatory. 
They were made daily at 84 a.m. and 15 p.m. mean Gottingen time. 
The influence of masses of iron rendered it impossible to deter- 
mine absolute values, which would have required a locality free 
from iron, as well as an accurate determination of the value of 
the scale divisions, &c. Means were wanting for this purpose, 
and in July 1837 the observations were discontinued. 
In June 1839 I received the Circular of the Royal Society, 
-} announcing that the British Government and Kast India Di- 
rectors, on the recommendation of British men of science, had 
undertaken to found magnetic establishments beyond the limits 
of Europe, and inviting cooperation for the attainment of a com- 
mon object. Two months later, M. Kupffer, whom the Russian 
Government had charged with the establishment and superin- 
tendence of the magnetic observatories in the Russian empire, 
| arrived in Munich for the purpose of advocating the desired co- 
operation. He had visited most of the principal cities of Ger- 
many without finding anywhere preparations for the more ex- 
tended system of observation proposed, or without being able 
to gain a reasonable hope that cooperation such as England and 
Russia desired would be attainable. Besides general considera- 
tions, this latter circumstance could not but have great weight 
in inducing the establishment of a magnetic observatory in Mu- 
nich. After many conversations with M. Kupffer and with M. 
von Schelling, whom he had interested in the subject, I deter- 
