8 



pointed Committees, some of which have been recipients 

 of the grants mentioned above. These reports are in the 

 main of two kinds, first, accounts of observations carried 

 on for a series of years, and intended as records of infor- 

 mation on the special subjects ; such for instance have 

 been those made by the Kew Committee, by the Com- 

 mittees on Luminous Meteors, on British Eainfall, on 

 the Speed of Steamships, on Underground Temperature, 

 on the Exploration of certain Geological Caverns, &c. 

 These investigations, frequently originating in the 

 energy and special qualifications of an individual, but 

 conducted under the control of a Committee, have 

 in many cases been continued from year to year, until 

 either the object has been fully attained, or the matter 

 has passed into the hands of other bodies, which 

 have thus been led to recognize an inquiry into 

 these subjects as part and parcel of their appropriate 

 functions. The second class is one which is perhaps even 

 more peculiar to the Association ; viz., the Reports on 

 the progress and present state of some main topics of 

 Science. Among these may be instanced the early 

 Reports on Astronomy, on Optics, on the Progress of 

 Analysis ; and later, those on Electrical Resistance and 

 on Tides; that of Prof. G. G. Stokes on Double 

 Refraction ; that of Prof. H. J. Smith on the Theory of 

 Numbers ; that of Mr. Russell on Hyperelliptic Transcen- 

 dents ; and others. On this head Professor Carey Foster, 

 in his address to the Mathematical and Physical Section at 

 our meeting last year, made some excellent recommenda- 

 tions, to which, however, I need not at present more parti- 

 cularly refer, as the result of them will be duly laid before 

 the section in the form of the report from a Committee 

 to whom they were referred. It will be sufficient here to 



