228 British Association for the Jclvancement of Science. 



all parts of the country by the exertions of individuals, and still more 

 effectually by those of societies. 



The nature and value of the aid which provincial societies might 

 render to science through the system of the British Association, and 

 the advantages which they may themselves derive from it, have been 

 lately adverted to by the Council of the Yorkshire Philosophical So- 

 ciety in the following manner*. 



" The effect of such a system will be not only to give connection 

 to the efforts of insulated inquirers, but to link societies themselves 

 togetlier in unity of purpose, and in a common participation and 

 division of labour. There are many important questions in philoso- 

 phy, and some whole departments of science, the data of which are 

 geographicalltj distributed, and require to be collected by local ob- 

 servations extended over a whole country ; and this is true not only 

 of those facts on which single sciences are founded, but of many which 

 are of more enlarged application. Thus, for instance, were the ele- 

 vation above the sea of all the low levels, and chief heights and emi- 

 nences, of a country ascertained so generally, that every observer of 

 nature might have a station within his reach from which he could fix 

 the relative position in this respect of whatever might be the object 

 of his research, of how many questions, in how many sciences, would 

 these facts contribute to the solution ? Again, supposing it to be 

 ascertained also, at these stations, what is the temperature of the air, 

 and of the water, — as it falls from the sky, and as it is held in the 

 reservoirs of the earth — these are data of the same kind, interesting 

 not only to meteorological science, but to the philosophy of organized 

 and animated existence. Yet, extensive as might be the importance 

 of such facts, and simple as are the processes for ascertaining them, 

 and numerous as are the individuals capable of contributing to their 

 investigation, how little, nevertheless, even of this elementary work 

 has yet been accomplished, either by insulated observers, or by those 

 who are associated together for the express purpose of advancing 

 those sciences to which it is of so much interest ! 



" None of our Societies has ever pretended to collect observations 

 of this kind on a regular system, nor to form a national catalogue 

 of the scattered particulars of any one science, accurately detailed ; 

 and yet the great value which would attach to such collections of 

 facts, when reduced and analysed, must often have occurred to the 

 enlightened conductors of such institutions; but that which has pre- 

 vented any single body from venturing on the undertaking, has been 

 the impracticability of carrying it on over so extensive a territory 

 as an entire kingdom. There is a method, however, by which these 

 important objects might be achieved. Were there in every county 

 one or more provincial Societies, having some members competent 

 to superintend, and others ready to execute, the observations within 

 definite limits, and were these societies willing to work together 

 under a common plan, the natural history of the country, and all 

 the geographical data of philosophy included within it, might easily 



• Report ol' the Council of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society for 

 1831—1832. 



be 



