354 ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE, 



Royal Society of England, has attained a very high degree of 

 perfection. 



The application of photography to magnetism and meteoro- 

 logy, by means of the most minute changes in the position of a 

 magnet, or in the height of the barometer and thermometer as at 

 any time self recorded, is an indication of improvement and 

 progress. 



It is a matter of surprise, as well as of regret, that electrical 

 observations are so much neglected. The importance of such 

 observations in connection with magnetism and meteorology need 

 not be enlarged upon, and I am not aware that in any observa- 

 tory, excepting those of Greenwich and Kew, are systematic 

 observations made of the electric condition of the atmosphere. 

 I am happy to inform this Society that I am now making 

 arrangements for carrying on electrical observations, at the 

 Sydney Observatory, at the usual meteorological hours, and 

 on occasions of unusual disturbance, with apparatus especially 

 constructed for the purpose. 



It would seem almost superfluous to comment upon the 

 " practical bearings " of a Scientific Observatory, yet is the 

 cui bono enquiry so frequently made, that it seems unavoidable to 

 overlook it. Surely when we consider that every nation, whether 

 old or young in the scale of importance, deems it expedient to 

 have a national observatory, it would seem impossible to avoid 

 the conviction that some practical benefit is to be derived from 

 it, either as a means for promoting knowledge and refinement, or 

 as the centre of operations whose utility is obvious. The general 

 importance of practical astronomy to navigation is well known, 

 and every available place for observation is called into requisition. 

 At every important place on the earth's surface, ought the 

 latitude and longitude to be determined by a long and careful 

 series of observations, made with a superior class of instruments ; 

 each of such places becomes in its turn a centre, to which stations 

 of secondary importance must be referred, and without which, 

 geography is incomplete, and much of the surveyor's labour spent 

 in vain. 



The discovery of general meteorological laws is of the highest 

 practical importance to navigation, agriculture, and public health : 



