ADDRESS. IxXXvii 



In the past year another representative man of British science is gone. 

 Mathematics has had no steadier supporter for hjlf a century than De 

 Morgan. His great book on the differential calculus was, for the mathema- 

 tical student of thirty years ago, a highly prized repository of all the best 

 thiiags that could be brought together under that title. I do not believe 

 it is less valuable now ; and if it is less valued, may this not be because it 

 is too good for examination purposes, and because the modern student, 

 labouring to win marks in the struggle for existence, must not suffer himself 

 to be beguiled from the stern path of duty by any attractive beauties in the 

 subject of his studj'^ ? 



One of the most valuable services to science which the British Association 

 has performed has been the establishment, and the twenty-nine years' 

 maintenance, of its Observatoiy. The Royal Meteorological Observatory of 

 Kew was built originally for a Sovereign of England who was a zealous 

 amateur of astronomy. George the Third iised continually to repair to it 

 when any celestial i)henomenon of peculiar interest was to be seen ; and a 

 manuscript book still exists filled with observations written into it by his 

 own hand. After the building had been many years unused, it was 

 granted, in the year 1842, by the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Woods 

 and Forests, on application of Sir Edward Sabine, for the purpose of con- 

 tinuing observations (from which he had already deduced important results) 

 regarding the vibration of a pendulum in various gases, and for the purpose 

 of promoting pendulum observations in all parts of the world. The 

 Government granted only the building — no funds for carrying on the work 

 to be done in it. The Boyal Society was unable to undertake the main- 

 tenance of such an observatory; but, happily for science, the zeal of in- 

 dividual Fellows of the Eoyal Society and Members of the British Asso- 

 ciation gave the initial impulse, supplied the necessary initial funds, and 

 recommended their new institution successfully to the fostering care of the 

 British Association. The work of the Kew Observatory has, from the 

 commencement, been conducted under the direction of a Committee of the 

 British Association ; and annual grants from the funds of the Association have 

 been made towards defraying its expenses up to the present time. To the 

 initial object of pendulum research was added continuous observation of the 

 phenomena of meteorology and terrestrial magnetism, and the construction 

 and verification of thermometers, barometers, and magnetometers designed 

 for accurate measurement. The magnificent services which it has rendered 

 to science are so well known that any statement of them which I could at- 

 tempt on the present occasion would be superfluous. Their value is due in a 

 great measure to the indefatigable zeal and the great ability of two Scotchmen, 

 both from Edinburgh, who successively held the office of Superintendent of 

 the Observatory of the British Association — Mr. Welsh for nine years, until 

 his death in 18-59, and Dr. Balfour Stewart from then until the present 

 time. Fruits of their labours are to be found all through our volumes of 

 Reports for these twenty-one years. 



The institution now enters on a new stage of its existence. The noble 

 liberality of a private benefactor, one who has laboured for its welfare with 

 self-sacrificing devotion unintermittingly from within a few years of its crea- 

 tion, has given it a permanent independence, under the general management 

 of a Committee of the Royal Society. Mr. Gassiot's gift of £10,000 secures 

 the continuance at Kew of the regular operation of the self-recording instru- 

 ments for observing the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism and meteorology, 

 without the necessity for further support from the British Association. 



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