REPORT OF THE KEW COMMITTEE. xlv 



in consequence of its not possessing central offices in London, where its 

 Council and numerous committees could hold their meetings, where the books 

 and memoirs which have been accumulating for years could be rendered 

 accessible to Members, and where information concerning the Association's 

 proceedings could be promptly obtained during the interval between annual 

 meetings. The Council have had the subject under consideration, and in the 

 event of the establishment at Kew being discontinued, they arc prepared to 

 recommend that suitable rooms, in a central situation, should be procured. 

 The additional annual expenditure which this would involve would probably 

 not exceed .£150. 



The Council having been informed by the Local Officers of their desire to 

 have ilr. Reginald Harrison appointed as an additional Local Secretary, to 

 assist in making arrangements for the present Meeting, have nominated that 

 gentleman to the office. 



Mr. Arnold Baruchson and Mr. "Wm. Crosflcld, Jun., have also been nomi- 

 nated Local Treasurers, vice Mr. Duckworth resigned. 



The Council have added the names of Professor H. A. Newton and Pro- 

 fessor C. S. Lyman, who were present at the Exeter Meeting, to the Hst of 

 Corresponding Members. 



Report of the Kew Committee of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science for 1869-70. 



The Committee of the Kew Observatory submit to the Council of the British 

 Association the following statement of their proceedings dm-ing the past 

 year : — 



At the Meeting of the General Committee at Exeter it was resolved that 

 the existing relations between the Kew Committee and the British Associa- 

 tion be referred to the Council to report thereon. 



In consequence of this resolution, the Kew Committee on the 23rd No- 

 vember, 1S69, prepared for the infox-mation of the Council a statement on 

 the past and present condition of the Observatory, which was presented to 

 the Council on the 11th December. 



In this statement it was shown that while the establishment at Kew Ob- 

 servatory received its main support from the British Association, and was 

 under the control of that body, yet much of the apparatus in use at Kew was 

 furnished from other sources. Thus the Eoyal Society had from the Go- 

 vernment-Grant Fund sujiplied the establishment with the apparatus for 

 testing Barometers, with that for testing Sextants, with the dividing-machine 

 for constructing Standard Thermometers, and also with the set of Self- 

 recording Magnetographs at present in use, while from the Donation Fund 

 they had furnished the Photoheliograph and the Whitworth lathe and plan- 

 ing-machine. - 



The Roj-al Society had likewise defrayed from the Donation Fund the 

 expense of introducing gas into the Observatory, and of building a house for 

 the verification of magnetic instruments, besides whicli they had borne from 

 the Government-Grant Fund since 18-63 the whole expense of working the 

 Photoheliograph (including the purchase of a Chronometer) and of reducing 

 its results. 



The instruments used at Kew for determining tlie absolute magnetic 

 elements are the property of Her Majesty's Government, and have been lent 



