174 RESEARCH 



e reports on progress ' which were in early years 

 requested from prominent scientific men, dealing, in 

 this instance, with meteorology generally. Forbes 

 was able to show that the existence of ' native heat 

 below the invariable stratum ' in the body of the 

 earth was proved ; but he pointed out that the 

 relation between atmospheric temperature and that 

 of the earth was not sufficiently classified. 



TIDES AND WAVES 



Progress in knowledge of the tides has been 

 associated with the British Association to a much 

 greater extent than with any other institution of 

 any nationality. This progress the Association has 

 fostered throughout its existence. The first grant 

 which it made in aid of research was one of 20 in 

 1834 for the reduction of tidal observations ; at 

 recent meetings it has given grants for the same 

 purpose, and altogether it has spent over 2600 in 

 this connexion. During the early years of the Associa- 

 tion it was mainly Lubbock and Whewell whom it 

 assisted. To these we owe the first reduction of 

 tidal observations on an extensive scale, and the 

 establishment of methods of analysis and prediction 

 which have been very largely used by the principal 

 naval and shipping authorities of the world. When 

 Thomson (Kelvin) conceived the idea of harmonic 

 analysis, he immediately placed its development 

 in the hands of the Association, and the result 

 was the establishment of those methods which have 

 exercised such a profound influence on the subject 

 and become so widely used. When the details of 

 these methods required scrutiny, the Association 



