118 EXPERIMENTS PROPOSED ATMOSPHERE. 



It is satisfactory to all lovers of the sciences to know, that 

 the absurd opinions of the fancied opposition of philosophy to 

 religion, have ceased to exist in the most prejudiced minds ; 

 and that discoveries in the nature of the PHYSICAL LAWS of 

 the UNIVERSE, so far from creating irreverence, promote our 

 ardent desires to pay our voluntary homage and adoration to 

 the Divine Author of our being. 



I shall add a few suggestions in reference to the subjects for 

 experiment, which it had been my intention to have proposed 

 to the learned and scientific gentlemen who composed the Com- 

 mittee of Mathematics and Physics, at the late Meeting of the 

 British Association at Liverpool, had opportunity permitted ; 

 but as the Section was so very much occupied to the last hour 

 with matters of more importance, I pledged myself to Mr. Lub- 

 bock, the Vice-President, occupying the chair at the moment of 

 finally closing the transactions, that I should take the earliest 

 opportunity of placing before the Royal Institution (of which I 

 have the honor to be a member) a complete epitome of my views ; 

 and that I should publish them, for the purpose of exciting 

 investigation as soon as possible, with the hope that something 

 might be elicited BY EXPERIMENT, previous to the next annual 

 meeting of the British Association. 



First Subject of Experiment. 



That observations should be made at distant stations, by the 

 gentlemen habitually engaged in astronomical pursuits, 

 to ascertain the electrical state of the atmosphere at a 

 certain hour, say 9 o'clock of the morning, at noon, and 

 at 10 o'clock at night, for a given period*, with a view 



* I had in September last, when at Liverpool, proposed to Lieut. Mor- 

 rison, R.N., to undertake, with his excellent electrometer, the necessary 

 series of observations at Cheltenham ; at the same time I had the pleasure to 

 communicate to him some of my views, as well as to other gentlemen, mem- 

 bers of the British Association ; which views I had then hoped to have imme- 

 diately submitted to that body, that more general tests as to its fallacy, or 

 rectitude, of conception, might be applied, in reference to the Theory here set 

 forth. 



