September 15, 1898] 



NATURE 



473 



Synopsis of grants of money appropriated to scientific 

 purposes by the Genet al Cofnmittee at the Bristol 

 ineeting, August 1898. The navies of the members 

 entitled to call oti the General Treasurer for the 

 respective grants are prefixed. 



Mathematics, 



*Rayleigh, Lord — Electrical Standards (and ;if 75 in hand) 225 



*Judd, Prof. J. W. — Seismological Observations 75 



*Riicker, Prof. A. W. — " Science Abstracts " loo 



Kelvin, Lord — Heat of Combination of Metals... ... 20 



Fitzgerald, Prof. G. F. — Radiation in a Magnetic Field 50 



Chemistry. 



*Thorpe, Dr. T. E.— Action of Li>;ht upon Dyed Colours 10 

 Hartley, Prof. W. N. — Relation between Absorption 



Spectra and Constitution of Organic Substances ... 50 

 Ramsay, Prof. W. — Chemical and Bacterial Examination 



of Water and Sewage 10 



Geology. 



»Hull, Prof. E.— Erratic Blocks 15 



*Geikie, Prof. J. — Photographs of Geological Interest ... 10 

 *Marr, Mr. J. E. — Life Zones in British Carboniferous 



Rocks ... 10 



Dawkins, Prof. W. Boyd. — Remains of Irish Elk in the 



Isle of Man 15 



*Dawson, Sir J. W. — Pleistocene Fauna and Flora in 



Canada 30 



Hicks, Dr. H. — Records of Drift Section at Moel Tryfan 5 



Hicks, Dr. H.—Ty Newydd Caves 40 



Lloyd-Morgan, Prof. C. — Ossiferous Caves at Uphill ... 30 



Zoology. 



"*Herdman, Prof. W. A. — Table at the Zoological Station, 



Naples 



*Bourne, Mr. G. C. — Table at the Biological Laboratory, 



Plymouth 



•Woodward, Dr. H. — Index Generum et Specierum 



Animalium 



*Newton, Prof. A. — Migration of Birds 



Hoyle, Mr. W. E. — Apparatus for keeping Aquatic 



Organisms under definite Physical Conditions 



iankester, Prof. E. R. — Plankton and Physical Conditions 



of the English Channel during 1899 



Geography. 

 Keltie, Dr. J. Scott. — Exploration of Socotra 



Economic Science and Statistics. 



^Sidgwick, Prof. H. — State Monopolies in other Countries 



(Balance in hand) 



•Price, Mr. L. L. — Future Dealings in Raw Produce ... 



Anthropology. 



*Munro, Dr. R. — Lake Village at Glastonbury 



•Brabrook, Mr. E. W. — Ethnographical Survey ... 



* Evans, Mr. A. J. — Silchester Excavation 



*PenhalIow, Prof. D. P. — Ethnological Survey of Canada 



(and unexpended balance in hand) ... 



Tylor, Prof. E. B. — New Edition of "Anthropological 



Notes and Queries " 



Garson, Dr. J. G. — Age of Stone Circles 



35 



Physiology. 

 *Schafer, Prof. E. A. — Physiological Effects of Peptone... 30 

 Waller, Dr. A.— -Electrical Changes accompanying Dis- 

 charge of Respiratory Centres 20 



Gotch, Prof. F. — Influence of Drugs upon the Vascular 

 Nervous System ... ... ... .., ... ... 10 



Schafer, Prof. E. A. — Histological Changes in Nerve 



Cells 20 



Schafer, Prof. E. A.— Micro-Chemistry of Cells ... 40 



• Re-appointed. 



NO. 1507, VOL. 58] 



Schafer, Prof. E. A.— Histology of Suprarenal Capsules 20 

 Gotch, Prof. F.— Comparative Hisstology of Cerebral 

 Cortex" iQ 



Botany. 

 •Farmer, Prof. ^. B.— Fertilisation in Phoeophyceje ... 20 



Darwin, Mr. J. Assimilation in Plants 20 



*Stebbing, Rev. T. R. R. —Zoological and Botanical 



Publication r 



Corresponding Societies. 

 •Meldola, Prof. R.— Preparation of Report... 



* Re-appointed. 





INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM 

 AND ATMOSPHERIC ELECrRICITV. 



Opening Address by Prof. A. W. Rijcker, M.A., D.Sc, 

 Sec R.S., President of the Conference. 



The President of the Section of Mathematics and Physics 

 has already expressed the pleasure with which British 

 physicists welcome the distinguished band of visitors who have 

 assembled to take part in the International Conference on Ter- 

 restrial Magnetism. None join in that welcome with more 

 cordiality than those who are especially interested in the science 

 with which the Conference will be occupied. To us it is a 

 source both of gratification and pride that the International 

 Committee, to whose action this meeting is due, should have 

 allowed us to play the part of hosts to the eminent men from 

 many lands who have responded to their call. Some, whom 

 we would gladly have seen here, but who have been pre- 

 vented from attending by various causes, have nevertheless 

 shown the interest which they take in our proceedings by send- 

 ing written communications. Thus our meeting is as fully 

 representative as we could have hoped. 



It may be interesting to those who are unaware of the fact 

 if I remind the Conference that this is not the first occasion on 

 which students of terrestrial magnetism have taken counsel 

 together during a meeting of the British Association. 



Fifty-four years ago the then President of the Association, 

 the Very Rev. George Peacock, Dean of Ely, slated in his 

 address that the period was drawing to an end for which a 

 series of magnetic observatories had been established by inter- 

 national co-operation. " Six observatories," he stated {Brit. 

 Assoc. Rep., 1844, p. xliv.), "were established, under the 

 zealous direction of M. Kupffer, in different parts of the vast 

 empire of Russia, the only country, let me add, which has 

 established a permanent physical observatory. The American 

 Government instituted three others, at Boston, Philadelphia, 

 and Washington ; two were established by the East India 

 Company, at Simla and Singapore ; from every part of Europe, 

 and even from Algiers, offers of co-operation were made." 

 The observations thus provided for were to be carried out for 

 three years only, but as nearly the whole of that time was spent 

 in preparation, the period was doubled. When the term thus 

 fixed drew to an end, the question arose as to whether it was 

 desirable to extend it further, and ^L Kupffer (Director-General 

 of the Russian System of Magnetic and Meterological Observ- 

 ations) addressed a letter to Colonel (afterwards Sir Edward) 

 Sabine, suggesting the propriety of summoning a Magnetic 

 Congress to be held at the next meeting of the British 

 Association. 



In accordance with that suggestion the Congress was held 

 during the meeting of the Association at Cambridge in 1845. 

 The number of distinguished foreigners who attended in person 

 was considerable in spite of the difticulties of travel fifty years 

 ago. Amongst those who were present was M. Kupffer, Dr. 

 Erman, of Berlin, the celebrated circumnavigator and meteor- 

 ologist. Baron von Senftenberg, the founder of the Astro- 

 nomical and Meterological Observatory of Senftenberg in 

 Bohemia ; M. Kreil, the director of the Imperial Observatory 

 at Prague ; Dr. von Boguslawski, the director of the Royal 

 Prussian Observatory at Breslau ; Herr Dove, professor of 

 physics in the University of Berlin ; and Baron von Walters- 

 hausen, a gentleman who had taken part in the magnetic ob- 

 servations of Gauss and Weber at Gottingen, and had executed 

 a magnetic survey of portions of Italy and Sicily. In addition 



