136 



NA TURE 



{June 7, 1883 



that the successful prosecution of such investigations by the 

 smaller Local Societies would be greatly encouraged and 

 facilitated by the general interest shown in their work by the 

 more influential societies in their neighbourhood, by a watchful 

 oversight, a readiness to discuss and publish results, and by the 

 personal influence of their leading members. The Committee 

 offer t e recommendations they are about to make in the tru-t 

 that, if the Council are pleased to publish them, they will serve 

 to remind the more important Local Societies of the high and 

 useful function they are able to perform by entering into friendly 

 and helpful relations with the small and scattered societies of 

 their respective districts, and by offering themselves as their 

 scientific representatives wherever representation may be 

 necessary. 



The Committee recommend that they be empow ered to print 

 and circulate among the Local Societies the following draft of 

 suggested rules, to give an opportunity to those societies of taking 

 that initiative without which no action on the part of the Asso- 

 ciation is likely to produce much effect. After the Committee 

 have been informed of the views of these societies, they will be 

 in a better position than they are at the present moment for 

 appreciating at its true value the desire for cooperation which 

 they believe to exist. They will also perhaps receive useful 

 suggestions from the societies that have not occurred to them- 

 selves, and they will probably be in a position to submit 

 their final recommendations before the approaching annual 

 meeting. 



"Suggested New Rules, the Existing Rules being 



altered accordingly. 



" Corresponding Local Societies. 



"Application maybe made by any society publishing scien- 

 tific memoirs to be placed on the list of Corresponding Local 

 Societies of the British Association. These applications must be 

 addressed to the Secretary, and be made on or before the second 

 day of the annual meeting, and they must be accompanied with 

 a copy of the publications of the Society during the preceding 

 year. 



" The Secretary shall transmit thee applications to a Com- 

 mittee appointed by the Council for the purpose of considering 

 them, as well as for that of keeping themselves generally informed 

 of the annual work of the Corresponding Local Societies. This 

 Committee shall make an annual report to the Committee of 

 Recommendations, and shall suggest such additions or changes 

 in the list as they may think desirable ; but the final determina- 

 tion of the list will rest with the Committee of Recommendations, 

 subject only to the conditions — (1) That the number of Societies 

 on the list shall not exceed that which is prescribed by the 

 Council ; (2) that the intended removal of any Society from the 

 list shall not take effect until immediately before the commence- 

 ment of the next annual meeting. 



" The privileges of a Corresponding Local Society shall con- 

 sist in — (a) The insertion in the Annual Report of the British 

 Association of an index, in such abbreviated form as the Council 

 may sanction, of the titles of the scientific memoirs published by 

 the Society during the previous year ; (/>) the right to nominate 

 any one of its members, who is also a member of the British 

 Association, as its delegate to the annual meeting of the Associa- 

 tion, who shall have for the time the rights of a member of the 

 General Committee. 



" Before the delegate can enter into his rights, he must trans- 

 mit to the Secretary of the British Association a copy of the 

 publications during the previous year of the Society he re- 

 presents. He must also fill up a schedule, that will be furnished 

 to him by the Secretary on application. This schedule wi'l ask 

 for — (<;) The names of the President and chief executive officer 

 of his Society ; (b) a list of the institutions, if any, in its neigh- 

 bourhood with which it has official relations and whose interests 

 it represents ; (c) a brief report on the character, number, and 

 results of any systematic local observations carried on during the 

 past year, either by itself or by any of the institutions on the 

 foregoing list : (1) at the instance of Committees of the British 

 Association, (2) at the instance of other Societies or private 

 persons ; (d) such other information as may be thought 

 desirable. « 



" The delegates of the various Corresponding Local Societies 

 shall constitute a Committee, which shall be summoned by the 

 Secretary of the Association to hold one or more meetings 

 during each annual meeting of the Association, under a Chair- 

 man and with a Sec.etary appointed by the Council. The 

 Secretaries of each Section shall be instructed to transmit to the 



Secretary of the Committee of Delegates copies of any recom- 

 mendations forwarded by the Pre-idents of Sections to the 

 Committee of Recommendations bearing upon matters in which 

 the cooperation of Local Societies is desired ; and the Secretary 

 to the Committee of Delegates shall invite the authors of those 

 recommendations to attend the meeting of the Committee an I 

 give verbal explanations of their objects and of the precise way 

 in which they would desire to have them carried into effect, and 

 to discuss difficulties that may be raised by any member of the 

 Committee, so that the Delegates may be qualified on their 

 return to bring those recommendations clearly and favourably 

 before the notice of their respective Societies." 



The Committee believe that the distinction accorded to a 

 Local Society through its selection and formal recognition by the 

 British Association as one of its Corresponding Societies, the 

 advantage of a widely-circulated notice of its work in so im- 

 portant a volume as the Report of the British Association, and 

 the honourable and useful duties assigned to its delegate, would 

 give considerable value to the title. 



They also anticipate that a Local Society, which had asked fur 

 and received recognition as the representative centre for the time 

 being of the institutions in its district, would be thereby stimu- 

 lated to exercise that very creditable and important function with 

 increased zeal and efficiency. The result would be to strengthen 

 the mutual relations of the larger and the smaller Local Societies, 

 to insure the encouragement of any disposition to engage in 

 systematic investigations, and to establish a practice of printing 

 the scattered results obtained by the smaller Local Societies of 

 any district in a consolidated form in the publications of their 

 leading Society. 



Finally, the Committee believe that the annual meetings of 

 the proposed Committee of Delegates, under the chairmanship 

 of a distinguished member of the Association, would have large 

 influence in harmonising the action of their several Societies, and 

 that it would offer a facility that does not now exist for the 

 natural and healthy growth of a federation between remote 

 Societies which have no more direct bond of union than through 

 the British A^sociation. 



THE RO YAL OBSER VA TOR i ' 

 THE following are the leading points referred to in the Report 

 of the Astronomer Royal to the Board of Visitors of the 

 Royal Observatory, Greenwich, read at the annual visitation on 

 June 2. 



On the subject of Astronomical Observations Mr. Christie 

 says : — 



"The regular subjects of observation are the sun, moon, 

 planets, and fundamental stars, with other stars from a selected 

 list. The working catalogue of 2500 stars down to the fifth 

 magnitude having been cleared off, a new working list of 2600 

 stars, comprising all stars down to the sixth magnitude inclusive 

 which had not been observed since i860, has been prepared, and 

 was brought into use at the beginning of March. About 1200 

 stars were observed in 1S82, but amongst these there are nearly 

 500 single observations, necessitating careful comparison with 

 catalogue place for the detection of any mistakes of observation 

 or reduction. The labour thus entailed is considerable, and 

 efforts will be made to obtain in this and each future year at 

 least two observations of every star observed. 



" The following statement shows the number of observations 

 with the transit-circle made in the year ending 1883, May 20: — 

 Transits, the separate limbs being counted as 



separate observations 4488 



Determinations of collimation error 354 



Determinations of level error 323 



Circle observations 44^5 



Determinations of nadir point (included in the 



number of circle observations) 298 



Reflection observations of stars (similarly in- 

 cluded) 484 



" Comet a 1882 has been observed seven times on the meri- 

 dian since the date of the last Report, and Comet b 1882 has 

 been observed three times. 



" As regards the computations — 

 Clock times of transit over the true meridian 

 after all corrections for instrumental errors 



are prepared to 1S83, May 13 



Clock errors and rates are determined to ... May 5 



Mean R. A.'s on 1S83, January 1, are formed 



to April 25 



