PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 13 



to make them correspond. It had been suggested in the 

 French Chamber that they should wait for this alteration 

 to see whether the English intended to adopt that most 

 unscientific and inconvenient proposal called the Daylight 

 Saving Bill, but relying, I suppose, on our good sense in the 

 matter, the objection was ignored. It is hoped that a Solar 

 Physics observatory may be founded at Caterham on a very 

 suitable site belonging to the Government, the present 

 observatory being at South Kensington, in a very much 

 worse position for such observations. 



METEOROLOGY. 



One is accustomed to look upon the Chinese as the in- 

 ventors of most things besides porcelain long before they 

 were thought of in Europe, and it has recently been found 

 that an order was given by the King of Korea in the year 

 1442 A.D. that rain gauges should be used in different parts 

 of that country, and the records kept and transmitted to him 

 for comparison. Unfortunately, none of these records have 

 yet been discovered, so that the rainfall of those times cannot 

 be compared with the present. In regard to this country, 

 I the other day came across some monthly rainfall tables 

 for 1677 and some following years kept at Townley, in Lan- 

 cashire, the fall varying from 31 '40m. in 1691 to 50 '66 in 

 1682. These are contained in Leigh's Natural History of 

 Lancashire, &c., 1700, Book II., p. 25, with elaborate ex- 

 planations of the methods and details of other natural 

 phenomena. I have brought the book for the inspection of 

 any who are interested. The year 1910 was a wet one, the 

 British Isles having as a whole an excess of 8 p.c., but this 

 was in many parts much exceeded. In Dorset generally, and 

 certainly in the gauge kept by Mrs. Richardson, the fall was 

 above the average. The forecasts issued for the British 

 Isles are now much helped by wireless communications from 



