Miscellaneous Intelligence. 445 



Russell through the President, the Marquis of Northampton. They 

 have the pleasure of stating that the Observatory has been continued. 



2nd. Pursuant to the request of the General Committee, the Council 

 have taken into consideration the expediency of inserting in the Rules 

 I of the British Association, a paragraph to the effect that those gentle- 



men who have held the office of President of the Association Should 

 subsequently be ex officio members of the Council ; and the Council 

 now recommend that a paragraph to that effect should be inserted in 

 the Rules of the Association. 



3rd. The sum of 100/. placed by the General Committee at the dis- 

 posal of the Council for the disbursements connected with the Kew Ob- 

 servatory has sufficed, under Mr. Ronalds's general superintendence, 

 for the maintenance of the Observatory in the past year as a depository 

 for the books and instruments belonging to the Association ; and also 

 for the preparation of the self-registering magnetical instruments, on 

 Mr. Ronalds's plan, for the Toronto Colonial Observatory. Mr. Birt 

 has completed the reduction and discussion of the series of electrical 

 observations made at Kew; and Mr. Ronalds has drawn up a report 

 describing the modifications and improvements which he has introduced 

 in the self-registering apparatus during the last year. Both these re- 

 ports will be read to Section A. preparatory to a consideration of any 

 further recommendation which it may appear desirable to make for the 

 continued maintenance of the Observatory. In connexion with this 

 subject, the Council have great pleasure in announcing to the General 

 Committee that Her Majesty's government, on the joint application of 

 the Marquis of Northampton and Sir John Herschel, have granted to 

 Mr. Ronalds a pecuniary recompense of 250/. for the invention of his 

 method of constructing self-registering magnetical and meteorological 

 apparatus. It will be recollected by many members of the General 

 Committee that the subject of self-registering instruments was discussed 

 at the meeting of the British Association at Cambridge, in 1845, upon 

 the application for a grant of money from the funds of the Association 

 to enable Mr. Ronalds to complete an apparatus for that purpose at 

 Kew; and that a recommendation was made on that occasion by the 

 Association to government — which recommendation was concurred in 

 by the President and Council of the Royal Society— of the expediency 

 of encouraging, by specific pecuniary rewards, the improvement of 

 self-recording magnetical and meteorological apparatus. 



As the grant to Mr. Ronalds has been made in consequence of that 

 original recommendation and the favorable reply that was returned to 

 it, and as the apparatus itself has been constructed and its successful 

 operation shown at the Observatory of the Association, of which Mr. 

 Ronalds is the Honorary Superintendent, the Council have deemed it 

 proper to make this formal, and as they are sure acceptable, announce- 

 ment of the favorable reception which has been given to the appli- 

 cation on Mr. Ronalds's behalf; but they are glad, at the same time, to 



take the 

 learned th 



opportunity of expressing tiie satisfaction with which they have 

 hat the ingenious invention of Mr. Brooke, for similar purposes, 

 nave also received a pecuniary recompense from the government. 



U. The Council regret that they are still unable to announce the pub- 

 lication either of Professor Edward Forbes's Researches on the ^Egean 



Second Series, Vol VIII, No. U.— Nov., 1849. 5? 



