156 RESEARCH 



the British Museum, King's College, London, the 

 College of Surgeons, and Armagh Observatory, and 

 among certain members of the Royal Family. The 

 Royal Society decided to apply for the building, 

 and it was made over to that Society, but on subse- 

 quent consideration the Council reversed its previous 

 decision. ' The building having thus become again 

 unappropriated, a number of fellows of the Royal 

 Society and members of the British Association, 

 desirous that it should be retained for the purposes 

 of science, recommended that an application should 

 be made for it in the name of the British Association, 

 and entered into a subscription for the purpose of 

 promoting ' 1 objects which they proceeded to state 

 at length. The Marquis of Northampton and Lord 

 Francis Egerton, as presidents respectively of the 

 Royal Society and the British Association, arid, 

 among others, the names of Herschel, Lubbock, 

 De la Beche, Rennie, Sabine, Buckland, Wheatstone, 

 Murchison, and Gassiot appear among the subscribers. 

 The objects detailed in the recommendation may be 

 summarised as concerned principally with the verifi- 

 cation and trial of old and new patterns of magnetic 

 and meteorological instruments of all sorts, the 

 observatory offering a favourable site for such pur- 

 poses and for those of instruction in the use of 

 instruments, and of occasional observations. 



In March 1842 Murchison stated in the Council 

 that ' there was reason to believe that, on a proper 

 application being made, Her Majesty the Queen might 

 be graciously pleased to place at the disposal of the 

 British Association, to be used for scientific purposes, 



1 Historical Remarks by Sir Charles Wheatstone, in Minutes of 

 Brit. Assoc. Council, December 11, 1869. 



