ON THE OBSERVATORY AT KEW. 109 
Extracts, relating to the Observatory at Kew, from a Report presented 
to the Portuguese Government by Dr. JactntHo ANTONIO DE Sovza, 
Professor of the Faculty of Philosophy in the University of Coimbra. 
Communicated by J. P. Gassiot, F:R.S. 
[Ordered to be printed among the Reports. ] 
Dr. Jactnruo Antonto pE Souza has published an account of a visit in 1860 
to the Scientific Establishments of Madrid, Paris, Brussels, Greenwich, and 
Kew, and of a second visit in 1861 to the Observatory of Kew, both visits 
having been made by the desire of his Government, and having for their 
principal object to obtain information preparatory to the establishment of a 
Magnetical and Meteorological Observatory at the University of Coimbra. 
His first visit was to Madrid, where he states that he found nothing doing 
in magnetism; and that in meteorology the only instrument presenting any 
novelty was the ingenious and comprehensive meteorograph of Padre Secchi, 
intended to register atmospheric pressure, the amount of rain, and the direc- 
tion and velocity of the wind. Prof. de Souza commends this instrument for 
the small space which it occupies, but adds that some of its indications, 
particularly those of temperature, appeared to him to be subject to much 
uncertainty. He was disposed to attribute the absence of any magnetical 
investigations at Madrid rather to the indifference of the Government than 
to any want of zeal on the part of the distinguished Director, Don Antonio 
Aguilar, of whose kind reception he also speaks gratefully. 
He next proceeded to Paris, where he arrived on the 15th of August, “the 
birthday of the first Napoleon,” and was dazzled with the splendour of all 
that met his eyes in the general aspect of that brilliant capital. He had 
looked forward to finding in “the Imperial Observatory directed by Le Verrier,” 
besides a “ typical Astronomical Observatory,” one of the best in “‘ magnetism 
and meteorology, where there would be much to see and to study ;” but after 
obtaining access to that fine establishment, “not without difficulty and loss 
of precious time,” he derived, as he states, “little interest and profit from 
the hasty view which M. Le Verrier afforded him of the Astronomical Ob- 
servatory (which is indeed excellent),” whilst, in regard to the special objects 
of his journey, though MM. Desains and Charault courteously showed him 
whatever could be said to appertain to magnetism or meteorology, he states 
that he “‘ came away disappointed.” 
At Brussels he refers gratefully to the frank and delicate kindness with 
which, on presenting himself at the Observatory, he was received by M. 
Quetelet, and expresses his admiration of what that philosopher had accom- 
plished with means from which very few others could have educed similar 
results, and of the impulse imparted by him to the advancement of the 
‘* physique du globe,” saying at the same time that, without this knowledge, 
the inspection of the magnetical and meteorological portion of the Observatory 
would lead a visitor to regard it as not being at the present time in a state 
of prosperity. 
Approaching London by the Thames, and entering “the vast cupola of 
smoke which covers that great capital,” he seems to have been powerfully 
impressed by the dissimilarity to what he had previously seen in France and 
Belgium; and by the grandeur as well as the sombre character of the 
spectacle presented to his view. 
On arriving at Greenwich he was courteously received at the Royal Obser- 
vatory, admired the general arrangements of that great establishment, and 
inspected minutely the magnetical and meteorological portion, with the 
