Dec. 2, 1880] 



NATURE 



113 



outline of the results of the different observations ; and a 

 chapter epitomising the general results of the voyage," to;jetlier 

 with tlie second volume containing the meteorological, magnetic, 

 and Iiydrographic obserA-ations, will probably be published within 

 the same period. "The general report on the zoology of the 

 expedition will consist of about fifty distinct memoirs, which will 

 occupy from ten to twelve volumes." It has been arranged " to 

 print the Zoological Reports as they are prepared, and to pub- 

 lish tliem as soon as a suflicient bulk of memoirs is ready to 

 form a volume. Copies of each memoir may also be had 

 separately, in order that working naturalists may have them in 

 their hands at the earliest possible date." Two move volumes 

 on the geology and petrology, and one on the general chemical 

 and physical results, will probably complete the series. Into the 

 details of the zoological re-ults I am not competent to enter ; but 

 the greatest interest attaches to the fact that notwithstanding the 

 pre.-sure and absence of light, there is no depth-limit to animal life. 

 As the Council of the Meteorological Office is nominated by 

 the Council of the Royal Society, and as the Annual Report of 

 the Oftice is submitted to the Royal Society, I think it right to 

 mention a few points connected with the work of that depart- 

 ment during the past year. 



1. A method of recording the duration of bright sunshine by 

 <he charring of an object placed in the focus of a glass sphere, 

 freely exposed to the rays of the sun, was devised by Mr. J. 

 F. Campbell of Islay in 1856 ; and instruments, being modified 

 forms of that originally proposed, have been employed for some 

 time at Greenwich, at Kew, and at a few private observatories. 

 Certain difficulties in adjusting the paper about to be charred to 

 the path of the burning spot; which had hitherto prevented the 

 adoption of Mr. Campbell's invention as a part of the ordinary 

 equipment of a meteorological observing station, have been at 

 last successfully overcome by an arrangement designed by Prof. 

 Stokes ; and thirty stations in the British Isles have now been 

 .supplied with instruments of the pattern proposed by him. We 

 may thus hope to obtain in future a sufficient record of a 

 meterological element, which is of primary importance in its 

 relations to agricul.ure, and to the public health, but which has 

 hitherto been very imperfectly registered. 



2. The climatology of the Arctic regions, in addition to its 

 importance as a part of the general physics of the globe, possesses 

 a special interest in connection with geograi^hical exploration. 

 Asa contribution to our knowledge of this subject, the Meteoro- 

 logical Office has entrusted to Mr. R. Strachan the task of 

 bringing together, and discussing on an uniform plan, the results 

 of the observations taken at intervals during the last sixty years, 

 in the region extending from the meridian of 45° \V. to that of 

 120° W., and from the parallel of 60° to that of So°, either at 

 land stations or at the w inter quarters of Lritish and American 

 expeditions. A considerable portion of this discussion has 

 been already published ; the remainder may be expected in the 

 course of next year. 



3. Another publication of the Meteorological Office may be 

 mentioned as serving to mark the advance in meteorological 

 theory, which has been achieved during the last fifteen years. 

 The old ' ' Barometer Manual and Weather Guide " of the 

 Board of Trade has been replaced, so far as it relates to the 

 v.-eather of the British Isles, by a work entitled "Aids to the 

 Study and Forecast of Weather," prepared under the direction 

 of the Meteorological Office by the Rev. W. Clement Ley. 

 Though some of the views put forward in the later work may, 

 perhaps, be regarded as not sufficiently established by observa- 

 tion, yet a comparison of the two works cannot fail to leave 

 upon the reader's mind the impression that in the interval 

 betH eeu their respective dates of publication, some real progress 

 has been made in meteorology. Perhaps this is most con- 

 spicuous in the enlarged ideas that are now entertained con- 

 cerning the conditions upon which the changes of weather 

 depend. Local weather was first discovered to be contingent 

 upon travelling areas of disturbance, each of which averaged 

 many hundreds of miles in diameter, while, at the present 

 time, the relation of these areas to one another, as parts of a 

 single terrestrial system, has become a prominent topic of 

 inquiry. If meteorology has thus been, to a certain extent, 

 rescued from the ever-accumulating choas of numerical tabula- 

 tions, which threatened to engulf the whole science, the im- 

 provement is mainly due to the development in recent times of 

 the synoptic study of weather over large regions of the earth's 

 surface, to which so great an impetus has been given by the 

 extended facilities of telegraphic communication. 



4. Balloon ascents, with a view to military purposes, are now 

 systematically carried on under the direction of the War Office ; 

 and the endeavour has been made to take advantage of these 

 ascents for observations of the thickness of the aerial current 

 which causes our winds, and of the peculiarities of the currents 

 above it in the upper strata of the atmosphere. The military 

 authorities have offered their co-operation in the most cordial 

 manner ; but the attention of an aeronaut is often so much en- 

 grossed by the operations necessary forworking his balloon, that he 

 has but little leisure for taking systematic records. Nevertheless, 

 observations of considerable interest have aheady been ob- 

 tained, relating especially to the velocity and direction of the 

 upper air currents ; and there can be no doubt that a c mtinuance 

 of such observations affords the best prospect at present ojien to 

 us of adding to tlie very scanty knowledge which we possess of 

 the movements of the atmosphere, even at a moderate height 

 above tlie earth's surface. 



Among the various duties which the President of the Royal 

 Society is called upon to fulfil, there are those of a Trustee of the 

 British Museum ; and, as an operation 'of great importance to 

 science, namely the removal of the natural history collections to 

 the new building at South Kensington, is now going on, the 

 Fellows may be interested to hear what progress has been made 

 in the work. 



The plans for the new building were approved as long ago 

 as April, iS58 : but the works were not commenced until the 

 early part of 1873. Their progress was retarded by difficulties 

 in the supply of the terra cotta with which the building is faced 

 within and without, and in which the mouldings of arches and 

 other ornamental features are executed. 



The building was finally handed over to the Trustees in the 

 month of June of the present year. It contains cases for three 

 only of the departments for which it is intended, namely. 

 Mineralogy, Geology, and Botany ; the necessary funds for the 

 Zoological Department not having yet been voted. As the 

 latter collections are equal in bulk to the other three collectively, 

 it follows that only half the new building can at present be 

 actually occupied. The removal of the collections for which 

 cases had been provided, commenced in the last week of July, 

 and was virtually completed by the end of September. 



Geology, which was very inadequately displayed in the old 

 building, is now more eommodiously accommodated. It now 

 occupies a gallery 2S0 feet in length by 52 in breadth, forming 

 the ground floor of the east wing of the new museum, together 

 with eight other galleries covering an area of 200 x 1 70 feet at the 

 back, and admirably adapted for the exhibition of the specimens. 

 One of these galleries will be devoted to the illustration of 

 stratification. 



The principal part of the Minerals has been moved and 

 replaced in the cases in which they were arranged in the old 

 building. The collection now occupies the first floor of the 

 east wing of the new museum, and the space devoted to it is 

 2S0 X 50 feet in area. It is already arranged for exhibition. 



The Botanical collections are placed in the gallery over the 

 minerals, where the space for exhibition and the conveniences 

 for study are much greater than in their old quarters. 



The contraction of the cases for. the Zoological specimens, 

 and the ultimate removal of these collections, must depend upon 

 the amount of the Parliamentary vote for the purpose ; but under 

 the most favourable conditions it can hardly be hoped that this 

 department can be open to the public or to students for two 

 years from the present time. 



The "Index Museum," designed by Professor Owen, will 

 form a prominent feature iu the new museum. The object of it, 

 in his words, is "to show the type characters of the principal 

 groups of organised beings;" and "to convey to the great 

 majority of visitors, who are not naturahsts, as much informa- 

 tion and general notions of its aim as the hall they will first enter 

 and survey could be made to afford." 



One of the principal difficulties attending the transfer of the 

 Natural History Departments to a separate building consists in 

 the provision of books for the use of the keepers and their 

 staff, as well as for students who may visit the museum. Hitherto 

 the separate collections of books, known as departmental 

 libraries, supplemented as occasion might require from tlie main 

 library of the museum, have sufficed for all purposes. But now, 

 when the departmental libraries have to stand by themselves, it 

 is impracticable to carry on even the current work of arrange- 

 ment without additional resources. For an adequate supply of 

 the necessary works a very large outlay would be required, sup- 



