82 ORGANISATION 



experimental researches and reductions, which since 

 1834 have so often engaged the attention of Whewell 

 and Airy and Haughton, with results so valuable and 

 so suggestive of further undertakings. . . . Waves 

 their origin, the mechanism of their motion, their 

 velocity, their elevation, the resistance they offer 

 to vessels of given form these subjects have been 

 firmly kept in view by the Association, since first 

 Professor Challis reported on the mathematical 

 problems they suggest, and Sir J. Robison and Mr. 

 Scott Russell undertook to study them experimentally. 

 Out of this inquiry has come a better knowledge of 

 the forms which ought to be given to the ' lines ' of 

 ships, followed by swifter passages across the sea, 

 both by sailing vessels and steamers, of larger size 

 and greater length than were ever tried before. 1 One 

 of the earliest subjects to acquire importance in our 

 thoughts was the unexplored region of meteorology 

 laid open in Professor J. Forbes's reports. Several 

 of the points to which he called attention have been 

 successfully attained. ... In the same manner, by 

 no sudden impulse or accidental circumstance, rose 

 to its high importance that great system of magnetic 

 observations, on which for more than a quarter of 

 a century the British Association and the Royal 

 Society, acting in concert, have been intent.' With 

 these last investigations as a whole we shall deal more 

 appropriately when considering British Association 

 researches in Chapter VI. Against the modem 

 extension of facilities for publication, this type of 

 ' reports on the state of science ' has to some extent 

 lost place, but not entirely ; moreover, a somewhat 



1 See, further, Chapter VI, pp. 175 and 207. 



