AND THE STATE 233 



and the system invented by M. Alphonse Bertillon 

 in 1890, which is not so well known. 



1896-99. -The Association was fully represented 

 in the course of the preliminary action which led to 

 the appointment of a committee by the Treasury, 

 6 to consider and report upon the desirability of 

 establishing a National Physical Laboratory for the 

 testing and verification of instruments for physical 

 investigation,' etc. The famous institution which 

 was subsequently established as the result of this 

 inquiry has its origin at a much earlier period, and 

 the British Association is very intimately concerned 

 with it through its initiative and devotion in taking 

 over and maintaining the observatory at Kew, as 

 detailed elsewhere in this record (Chapter V). 



A movement for the establishing of a bureau of 

 ethnology for Greater Britain, initiated by the Asso- 

 ciation at this period, did not meet with the same 

 success ; although action was taken in regard to the 

 collection of reports by officers in various territories 

 under the administration of the Foreign Office, at the 

 British Museum. The proposal was a logical result 

 of the broadening of the interests of the Association 

 through its meetings overseas (in Montreal and 

 Toronto), and in dealing with these, in Chapter IV, 

 reference has been made to the important ethnological 

 investigations which the Association itself undertook 

 in connexion with them. In the same chapter are 

 mentioned matters taken up with Government 

 authorities, arising out of the Toronto meeting in 

 1897. 



1899-1902. Action was taken by the Council 

 in the direction of urging the Government of India 

 (a) to take advantage of the forthcoming census of 



