Dec. 4, 1884] 



NA TURE 



a veteran in the study of animal morphology, whose first eom- 

 munica ciety bears the date of 1832. I need hardly 



say I mean Sir Richard 1 (wen. 



A few words must be said with regard to the acquisitions made 

 by our library and collections. Our gallery of portraits has, 

 through the kind liberalit) of Dr. Wilson of Florence, received 

 two important additions in the form of half-length original 

 portrait- of the distinguished mathematicians and philosophers, 

 Leibnitz and Viviani, both of whom were Foreign Members of 

 this Society. When we remember the warmth of feeling with 

 which the rival claims of Newton and Leibnitz to the invention 

 of Fluxions or the Differential Calculus were for many years 

 discussed, and call to mind that the question occupied the atten- 

 tion of a Committee of this Society in 1712, which reported in 

 favour of Newton's claims, we may rejoice that the heat of the 

 iversy is long since over, and congratulate ourselves that the 

 portraits of these rival intellectual giants now hang peacefully side 

 by side on our walls. The portrait of Viviani, the great geo- 

 metrician, the pupil of Galileo and the associate of Torricelli, 

 and a contemporary of Newton and Leibnitz, finds also a fitting 

 resting-place in our gallery. 



Our portfolio of engraved and lithographic portraits of scientific 

 men has been considerably augmented by liberal donations from 

 the executors of our former President, the late Sir Edward 

 Sabine, through Mr. R. H. Scott. 



The Lalande Medal, which had been awarded by the French 

 Academy to Sir Edward in 1826, and which, together with a 

 Royal Gold Medal, was presented to the Scientific Relief Fund, 

 was by the Council redeemed from the Fund, and will be pre- 

 served among our other medals as a memorial of one who for so 

 long a period rendered important services to the Society. A 

 bronze medal of our distinguished Fellow, Prof. Sylvester, has 

 been presented to our collection by the Johns Hopkins University, 

 at Baltimore. 



The library itself has during the past year received by donations 

 about 3S0 complete volumes, besides about 240 pamphlets, and 

 more than 2400 parts of serials ; 24 charts have also been 

 presented to it. 



With regard to our finances, I may venture to say, as your 

 Treasurer, that I consider them to be in a satisfactory condition. 

 I must now turn to some of the subjects which, during the 

 past year, have occupied the attention of the President and 

 Council, and which in more than one instance have brought 

 them into communication with Her Majesty's Government. 



In July of last year a letter from the Treasury was received 

 requesting our opinion as to the desirability of subsidising the 

 Armagh Observatory, the income of which had been materially 

 reduced, owing to recent legislation in Ireland. In reply to this 

 an answer was sent pointing out the good work that had been 

 done in the Observatory, and the exceptional character of the 

 institution, and recommending it to the favourable consideration 

 of the Government. Unfortunately, however, the loss of income 

 applicable to the maintenance of an Observatory has not been 

 made good, though the Treasury, "having regard to the advice 

 of the Royal Society, and to the diminution in the income of the 

 Observatory," has granted a sum of 2,000/. in aid of its funds, 

 the annual income derived from which sum is to be applied by 

 trustees to the maintenance and purchase of instruments and 

 apparatus. 



Another correspondence with the Treasury as to the bathy- 

 metrical survey of the lakes within the British Isles did not lead 

 to any concession in favour of such a necessary complement to 

 the National Ordnance Survey, though the omission in our 

 maps of all details relating to the depth of our lakes and the 

 contour of their beds, cannot be justified on practical, and much 

 less on scientific grounds. 



In May last the Astronomer- Royal brought under our notice 

 11 "I this country with respect to the International 

 I et Mesures, an institution established by what 

 is commonly known as the Metric Convention ; and it was re- 

 solved that in the opinion of the President and Council it was 

 highly desirable that our country should take part in the Inter- 

 national Commission of Weights and Measures, and contribute 

 the sum which our adhesion would entail. A deputation was 

 appointed to bring the subject under the notice of the Lords of 

 the Treasury, and, after some correspondence, the Society was 

 d to enter into informal negotiations with the officers 

 of the Bnreau, with the happy result that Great Britain was 

 invited to join the Metric Convention, and through her Ambas- 

 sador at Paris has, I believe, now given in her adhesion to it, 



and i- entitled to all the privileges accorded by the Bureau. 

 The appliances at the command of the Bureau for the verifica- 

 tion not only of the standards of the metric system, but of other 

 units of measure, far surpass in scientific accuracy anything that 

 is at present available in this country, and we now enjoy the 

 double advantage of being removed from the state of isolation 

 in which for some years we have stood in regard to the other 

 nations of Europe, and of now being affiliated to an establish- 

 ment in which the verification of standards has been carried to 

 the highest perfection. At the same time, it is distinctly under- 

 stood that our adhesion to the Bureau in no way commits the 

 Government of this country to any change of opinion favourable 

 to the adoption of the metric system, but that our entire freedom 

 to retain our own system of weights and measures is absolutely 

 preserved. Whatever may be the advantages of the metric 

 system from a scientific point of view, the question whether 

 a scale of weights, money, and measures, which in its lowest 

 denominations follows a duodecimal rather than a decimal 

 system, is not better adapted for the convenience of daily life, 

 it by many is regarded as fairly open to discussion. 

 Another event of both scientific and national importance has 

 been the meeting of an International Conference on the subject 

 of a Prime Meridian of Longitude. The desirability of a com- 

 mon starting-point from which to reckon degrees of longitude 

 has long been felt among all civilised nations, especially those 

 of a maritime character, and was discussed at some length during 

 I I ingress of the International Geodetic Association at Rome 

 in October 18S3. It was not, however, until the end of last 

 year that invitations were issued by the United States Govern 

 ment for different countries to send representatives to an Inter- 

 national Conference to be held in the city of Washington for 

 the purpose of discussing, and, if possible, fixing upon a 

 meridian proper to be employed as a common zero of longitude 

 and standard of time-reckoning throughout the globe. The 

 letter of invitation addressed to this country was referred to the 

 President and Council of this Society, with a request to advise 

 the Government whether it was advisable in the interests of 

 science to accept the invitation. In reply, an opinion was ex- 

 pressed as to the high importance, both for the interests of 

 science in general, and of our own country in particular, that 

 our Government should be represented at the Conference, and 

 the Treasury at once sanctioned the expense of sending two 

 delegates to Washington. These were Sir Frederick Evans, 

 the late Hydrographer to the Admiralty, and Prof. J. C. Adams.^, 

 General Strachey, the Chairman of the Meteorological Com- 

 mittee, was also nominated to represent India, and Mr. Fleming 

 to represent the Dominion of Canada. The delegates assembled 

 at Washington in the month of October last, and proceeded to 

 discuss the questions whether a single prime meridian for all 

 countries should be adopted, and if so, through what point on 

 the earth's surface should that meridian be drawn. After long 

 discussion it was eventually resolved that the meridian of Green- 

 wich should be generally adopted, twenty-two 1 of the nations 

 voting in favour of this measure, and only one, San Domingo, 

 against it. The representatives of France and Brazil abstained 

 from voting. The proposal for the adoption of Greenwich was 

 made by one of the representatives of the United States of 

 America, and was fully discussed. Our own representatives 

 ably supported the proposal, and another of our most dis- 

 tinguished Fellows, Sir William Thomson, who happened 

 to be in America at the time, was courteously invited to 

 attend the meetings of the Conference, and on the request 

 of the President to express his opinions. The arguments 

 adduced in favour of the adoption of Greenwich were such 

 as must commend themselves to all unprejudiced minds. 

 It could hardly be expected that there should be any special 

 spot upon the earth's surface from which longitude would 

 naturally be reckoned, and the whole question, apart from any 

 sentimental or patriotic feelings, is therefore one of the greatest 

 convenience. Were the employment of degrees of longitude as 

 general geographical units entirely unheard-of up to the present 

 time, it would, of course, be a matter of perfect indifference 

 whether the datum was at Greenwich, Paris, the Ferroe Isles, 

 or any other spot. The meridians most in use are those of the 

 two former places, and when we come to consider that, as was 

 pointed out, the shipping tonnage controlled by the Greenwich 



1 The following nations voted in favour of Greenwich :— Austria, Chili, 

 Colombia, Costa Rica, Great Britain, Guatemala, Hawaii, Italy, Japan, 

 Liberia, Mexico, Netherlands, Paraguay, Russia, Salvador, Spain, Sweden, 

 Switzerland, Turkey, United States, and Venezuela. 



