PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, B.A., 1871. 143 



Association Mr. Welsh for nine years, until his 

 death in 1859, and Dr. Balfour Stewart from then 

 until the present time. Fruits of their labours are 

 to be found all through our volumes of Reports for 

 these twenty-one years. 



The institution now enters on a new stage of 

 its existence. The noble liberality of a private 

 benefactor, one who has laboured for its welfare 

 with self-sacrificing devotion unintermittingly from 

 within a few years of its creation, has given it 

 a permanent independence, under the general 

 management of a Committee of the Royal Society. 

 Mr. Gassiot's gift of 10,000 secures the continu- 

 ance at Kew of the regular operation of the self- 

 recording instruments for observing the phenomena 

 of terrestrial magnetism and meteorology, without 

 the necessity for further support from the British 

 Association. 



The success of the Kew Magnetic and Meteoro- 

 logical Observatory affords an example of the 

 great gain to be earned for science by the founda- 

 tion of physical observatories and laboratories for 

 experimental research, to be conducted by qualified 

 persons, whose duties should be, not teaching, but 



