508 ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 



cipal Scientific Societies of the metropolis may be locatedt ogether ; 

 and the formation of a Scientific Board, to have the control and 

 expenditure of the public funds allotted to the advancement of 

 science. This report was brought under the consideration of your 

 Committee of Recommendations at the last two Meetings of the 

 Association; and the opinions of the members of the General 

 Committee have been since invited in reference to its suggestions. 

 The Council of the Royal Society have likewise deliberated on the 

 same question, and have passed certain resolutions on the subject, 

 which accord in substance with the conclusions of the Parliament- 

 ary Committee. A copy of these resolutions was forwarded by 

 Lord Wrottesley, as President of the Society, to Lord Palmerston ; 

 and motions have been made in both Houses of Parliament for the 

 production of the correspondence. 



The first of the objects above referred to namely, the juxta- 

 position of the Scientific Societies of London in one locality has 

 been since accomplished by the grant of Burlington House for the 

 use of the Royal, Linnsean, and Chemical Societies; and the result 

 affords a fresh instance of the readiness of Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment to listen to, and comply with, the suggestions of men of 

 science, when deliberately and carefully made. I cannot but 

 think that this important step is fraught with consequences affect- 

 ing the promotion of science, and extending far beyond the ex- 

 ternal and obvious advantages, which it insures to the Scientific 

 Societies more immediately benefited. 



Another mode in which this Association has materially aided 

 in the advancement of science is through the instrumentality of its 

 Observatory at Kew. The objects which are at present attained 

 by that important establishment are, the trial and improvement of 

 instrumental methods, and especially of those connected with the 

 photographic registration of natural phenomena ; the verification of 

 meteorological instruments, and the construction of standard 

 barometers and thermometers ; the supervision of apparatus to be 

 employed by scientific travellers, and the instruction of the ob- 

 servers in their use; and lastly, the conduct of special experimental 

 researches, undertaken by members of the Association at its request. 

 In all these various ways, the labours of the Kew Observatory 

 have tended, in no small degree, to the advancement of the sciences 

 of observation and experiment in this country ; and the result is 



