Dec. 31, 1874J 



NA TURE 



177 



In carrying on the business of the Society the Council is much 

 indebted to committees appointed annually for special purposes, 

 or to whom an occasional question is referred. The annual ap- 

 pointments include the Government Grant, the Library, the Soiree, 

 and the Acton Estate committees. The temporary committees 

 of the past year have been the Circumnavigation, the Transit of 

 Venus Expeditions, the Arctic, the House, the Brixham Cave, 

 the Privileged Clashes, and the Davy Medal committees. Besides 

 these there are two permanent committees, the Meteorological 

 and the Scientific Relief, to which fresh members are appointed 

 as vncancies occur. From these designations, it will be under- 

 stood that some of the committees have been occupied with 

 questions connected with the Government service, while others 

 have devoted themselves exclusively to the business of the 

 Society. 



I shall now mention such of the labours of these committees 

 as .seem to be most worthy of your attention. 



The ASiicotvlcxk-al Commi//,\' of the Board of Trade, as it 

 ought to be called, discharges in all respects the most arduous 

 and responsible duties of any, controlling as it does the whole 

 machinery of the British Government for the making, register- 

 ing, and publishing of especially oceanic meteorological phe- 

 nomena throughout the globe. 



The primary purpose for which this and all similar offices were 

 established was the acceleration of ocean passages for vessels by 

 an accurate investigation of the prevalent winds and currents. 

 In other words, their great object is to aid the seaman in what 

 Capt. Basil Hall called " one of the chief points of his duty " — 

 namely, "to know when to find a (air wind, and when to fall in 

 with a favourable current. " The first impulse to the formation 

 of an office for this purpose was given by the late General Sir J. 

 Burgoyne, who in 1852 started the idea of land observations to 

 be carried out by the corps of Royal Engineers. 



Shortly afterwards our Government corresponded with the 

 United States Government on the subject of co-operating in a 

 scheme for land observations, which was followed by a sugges- 

 tion on the part of America that the operations should be ex- 

 tended to the sea. 



The correspondence was referred to the Royal Society, which 

 warmly approved the scheme of sea observations, but saw many 

 difficulties in carrying out that for the land. The Brussels Con- 

 ference followed in 1853, when representatives cf most of the 

 maritime nations assembled and adopted a uniform plan of 

 action. Soon after this. Lord Cardwell, then President of the 

 Board of Trade, established the Meteorological Department of 

 that office, and placed the late Admiral Fitzroy at the head of 

 it — the Royal Society, at the request of the Government, sup- 

 plying copious and complete instructions for his guidance, which 

 were drawn up mainly by Sir Edward Sabine. Admiral Fitz- 

 roy's zeal and his great labours are known to all ; he worked 

 out the system of verifying and lending instruments, planning 

 surveys, registering observations, publishing results ; and, lastly, 

 himself originated the plan of predicting the weather, and estab- 

 lishing storm-signals at the sea-porls along the coast. 



On Admiral Fitzroy 's death in 1S65 the Royal .Society was 

 again consulted as to the position and prospects of the office. 

 Its report, which did not differ materially from that of 1S55, w.is 

 in 1866 referred to a committee, composed of a representative of 

 the Board of Trade, of the Admiralty, and of the Royal Society. 

 This committee supported the previously expressed views of the 

 Society, and suggested the placing of the office under efficient 

 scientific superintendence ; upon wh'ch the Society, in the same 

 year, was requested by the Government to undertake the super- 

 intendence of what had been the Meteorological Department of 

 the Board of Trade. To this request the Council of the Society 

 so far acceded as to nominate a committee of eight Fellows 

 (subsequently increased to ten) to undertake the entire and abso- 

 lute control of the oflfice ; and a parliamentary grant of 10,000/. 

 per annum was provided to maintain it. 



This is in brief a history of the connection between the Royal 

 Society and the Meteorological OlTice on the one hand, and between 

 the office and the Government on the other. It is a very 

 anomalous position, and has been greatly misunderstood. It has 

 led to llie misconception on the part of some that the Society 

 controlled the office, and by others that the Government (Board 

 of Trade) controlled it, and by more th;it the annual grant of 

 lc,ooo/. is made to and in support o^ th;; Royal Society, or of i's 

 own object.s, whereas the grant is paid direct to the director of 

 the office as soon as voted. The Society's action is confined to 

 the selection of the committee, which superintends the office, 

 while the Board of Trade, leaving to the committee the details 



of their operations, exercise only a general control. The labours 

 of the committee are entirely gratuitous, and no part of the 

 10,000/. is touched by them or by the Royal Society. 



I believe there is no parallel to such an organisation as this in 

 any other department of the Government. It has its advantage 

 in securing to the office absolute freedom from that disturbing 

 element in the public offices, that their heads are chosen partly 

 on political grounds and change with every Government, and its 

 disadvantage in wanting the support of direct Government 

 authority and prestige. Hitherto, owing to the care of the 

 committee, which meets almost weekly, to the zeal and efficiency 

 of the director (who is also secretary to the commit'ee) and of 

 the Marine Superintendent, it has worked well. Into its working 

 it is not my purpo.se to enter; its efficiency and value are fully 

 acknowledged by the public. No more practical proof of this 

 can be cited than the general desire, supported by memorials 

 presented to Parliament, for the restitution of the storm-signals, 

 which were discontinued after Admiral Fitzroy's decease, on the 

 ground of their trustworthiness having been called in question. 

 It is no Httle testimony to the foresight of that zealous officer 

 that they are not only now re-established and in full working 

 order at 100 stations on the coast of Great Britain, but that the 

 very warnings issued from Paris to the coast of France by the 

 Government of tfat country are actually sent to Paris from the 

 Meteorological Office in London. The same warnings are trans- 

 mitted along the whole European coast, from Norway to Spain ; 

 and the system has been extended to Italy, Portugal, and 

 Australia. 



The Kew Observatory, which is used also as the central 

 observatory cf the Meteorological Committee, is supported by a 

 grant from that committee, and by the munificence of our 

 Fellow, Mr. Gassiot, who has settled on it a fund which pro- 

 duces 5oo/' a year for the carrying on of observations chiefly 

 magnetical. 



The Circumnavigation Committee. — The scientific results of 

 the Challenger Expedition have far exceeded our most sanguine 

 anticipations. The Temperature Survey of the Atlantic may, as 

 Dr. Carpenter informs me, be truly characterised as the most 

 important single contribution ever made to Terrestrial Physics, 

 presenting -as it does the whole thermal stratification of an 

 oceanic area of about 15 million square miles and with an 

 average depth of 15,000 feet. Nor are the results of the Pacific 

 Survey less important. Some of these were laid before you at 

 our meeting of the 26th inst. in Prof. Wyville Thomson's " Pre- 

 liminary Notes on the Nature of the Sea-Bottom in the South 

 Sea," which reveal the existence of hitherto unsuspected pro- 

 cesses of aqueous metamorphism at gi'eat depths in the ocean, 

 and throw an entirely new light upon the geological problem 01 

 the origin of " azoic " clays and schists. 



Valuable papers on new and little known marine animals have 

 lieen contributed to our Transactions and Proceedings by Mr. 

 Willemoes-Sul.m, Mr. Moseley, and other members of the 

 civilian scientific staff of the Challenger ; and a numlier of the 

 Journal of the Linnean Society is devoteil to the botanical 

 observations and collections made by Mr. Moseley during the 

 course of the voyage. 



Transit-of-T^enns Commitlie. — Upon the representation of 

 your Council, her Majesty's Government has attached naturalists 

 to two of the astronomical expeditions sent out from this country 

 to observe the Transit of Venus. The stations selected were 

 the two most inaccessible to ordinaiy cruisers, and at the same 

 time most interesting in regard to their natural productions — 

 namely, the island of Rodriguez in the Mauritius group, and 

 Kerguelen's Land in the South Indian Ocean. 



The objects and importance of these appointments were laid 

 before the Government in the following statement : — 



"It is an unexplained fact in the physical history of our globe 

 that all known oceanic archipelagos distant from the great con- 

 tinents, with the sole exception of the Seychelles and of a 

 solitary islet of the Mascarene group (which islet is Rodriguez), 

 are of volcanic origin. According to the meagre accounts 

 hitherto published, Rodriguez consists of granite overlaid with 

 limestone and other recent rocks, in the caves of which have 

 been found the remains of recently extinct birds of a very sin- 

 gular structure. These facts, taken together with what is known 

 of the natural history of the volcanic islets of Mauritius and 

 Bourbon to the west of Rodriguez and of the granitic archipelago 

 of the Seychelles to the north of it, render an investigation of 

 i's natural products a matter of exceptional scientific interest, 

 which, if properly carried out, cannot fail to be productive of 

 most important results. 



