ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL 

 SOCIETY. 



President: Sir NAPIER SHAW, Sc.D., F.R.S. 



THE Society has enjoyed a continuous existence for nearly 

 70 years, having been founded as the " British Meteorological 

 Society " on the 3rd April, 1850. More than one previous 

 attempt had been made to form a society of members 

 interested in meteorological questions, and a rather ambi- 

 tious volume of Transactions had been published in 1839, 

 but sufficient support had not been forthcoming to maintain 

 a permanent organisation. The new Society had the advant- 

 age of securing as its first Honorary Secretary Mr. James 

 Glaisher, F.R.S. , " who nursed it through its infancy and 

 youth and left it to other hands only when it was old enough 

 and strong enough to walk alone." He retained the office, 

 in fact, until 1873, having seen the Society established the 

 previous year in rooms of its own, with an office and library 

 for the use of the Fellows, and with a paid Assistant Secretary 

 in charge. 



Meanwhile the progress made by the Society had justified 

 an application being made for a Charter of Incorporation, 

 which was granted in 1866, the name being altered at the 

 same time to the " Meteorological Society," while in 1882 

 authority was obtained to use the prefix of " Royal." 



The appointment in 1872 of Mr. W. Marriott as Assistant 

 Secretary enabled a considerable enlargement of the sphere 

 of work of the Society to be undertaken and was followed 

 soon afterwards by the establishment of a number of obser- 

 vation stations of the second order i.e., where observations 

 are taken twice daily and the publication of their observa- 

 tions in the form of Quarterly Reports on the Meteorology of 

 England as an Appendix to the Journal. 



At that period the Meteorological Office maintained a 

 very limited number of stations of its own, other than the 

 telegraphic reporting stations used for the Daily Weather 

 Reports ; so that there was ample scope for the operations 

 of the Society in collecting systematic data of the climatology 

 of the country. In 1880 a large number of additional 

 stations were established, with a less elaborate scheme of 

 observations, which were made at 9 a.m. only and did not 

 include barometric pressure or wind. In the following year 



