PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 7 



importance. The four great colonies interested in this question 

 have each done a pait of the work which will be allotted to them 

 when the arc, wliich must extend from the south to the north of 

 the continent, is finally measured ; and if this As.sociation I'ightly 

 uses its intiuence the work will l)e done. At present our surveys 

 are quietly going on upon the assumption that the earth is a regular 

 spheroid, wlien it is more than probable, from the arrangement of 

 land and water, that it is nothing of the sort at this particular 

 part of its surface. Sir Thomas Brisbane evidently contemplated 

 this when he left England, for he took with him the pendulum 

 apparatus to determine the figure of the earth, and left his friends 

 in England to bring the necessary pressure to bear upon the 

 Government to get the arc measured under his administration. I 

 have introduced the suljject here as one in every way suitable to 

 occupy the attention of the Association, or at least one section of 

 it ; and I thouglit the early history of the conception would be 

 new to most of us. And its author is in every respect well 

 worthy of remembrance at our first meeting. He was the first 

 man who can faii-ly be called a patron of science in Australia, 

 having spent, in furnishing the Observatory alone, without 

 salaries, more than £1,600. He was the first to form an associa- 

 tion of scientific men in Australia, with a view of advancing 

 science, and Sir John Herschel justly said of him, when presenting 

 the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society for the Parra- 

 matta catalogue, " It will be to you a source of honest pride as 

 long as you live to reflect that the most brilliant trait of Aus- 

 tralian histoiy marks the era of your government, and that your 

 name will be identified with the future glories of that great 

 colony in ages yet to come, as the founder of her science. It it a 

 distinction worthy of a British governor. Our first triumphs in 

 those fair climes have been the peaceful ones of science, and the 

 treasures they have transmitted to us are imperishable records of 

 useful knowledge, speedily to be returned with interest to the im- 

 pi'ovement of their condition, and their elevation in the scale of 

 nations." Amongst the eleven men who formed the first scientific 

 society in Australia there was far more than an average amount 

 of ability. The gi-eat weakness of the society, and that which made 

 it impossible for it to exist except under the fostering care of the 

 Governor, was its want of numbers ; and unfortunately in many 

 l^ranches of science the same difficulty exists to-day, and makes it 

 always difficult, and in some sciences impossible, to keep alive 

 societies for their promotion only. Even in those societies which 

 include a number of subjects, and thereby add to their numbers 

 the workers in each, it is ofteii difficult to find enough original 

 work, and perhaps I ought to say enthusiasm, to keep a healthy 

 amount of vitality at its meetings. I am sure there are many 

 here present who have to do the work of .scientific societies who 

 must have felt this, and who have often wished, as I have, for 



