314 report — 1865. 



Bath, appointing a committee, my own name standing as the first member, 

 • for the purpose of communicating to the Russian Government the opinion of 

 the British Association, that the establishment of magnetical observations on 

 the Kew system at the Observatory of Tiflis, by Professor Moritz of that 

 place, would largely conduce to the furtherance of magnetical science.' 



"A communication to a foreign Government is a serious and somewhat 

 delicate matter. The communication must necessarily pass, I believe, either 

 through our own Government, or through the Russian Ambassador in London ; 

 and must in either case, I apprehend, be made by the President of the Asso- 

 ciation. The duty of the Committee is therefore to supply the President with 

 such information, if they can obtain it themselves, as may enable him to fulfil 

 in the best manner the wishes of the General Committee. 



" Not having been present myself at the Bath Meeting, I have no knowledge 

 of the discussion, either at the Section which originated the resolution, or in 

 the Committee of Recommendation which adopted and recommended it, which 

 doubtless preceded and influenced its adoption. I wish, therefore, to seek 

 through you for information on some points on which more knowledge than I 

 possess is desirable. 



" Professor Moritz is, I believe, and has been for some years past, Director 

 of an Observatory at Tiflis, which is one of several observatories established 

 in different parts of the Russian empire, acting under and in concert with 

 the ' Observatoire Central Physique de la Russie' at St. Petersburg, receiving 

 instruments and instructions from the Central Observatory, reporting to and 

 transmitting their observations in MSB. to M. Kupffer, the Director-General 

 of the Magnetical and Meteorological Observatories in Russia, by whom the 

 whole of the observations so transmitted arc published annually in the well- 

 known work ' Annales,' &c, according to a uniform pattern. The purpose 

 of the resolution, if I understand it correctly, is, that the instruments and 

 system of observation hitherto pursued at Tiflis should be changed by the 

 addition of magnetical instruments on the pattern of those at Kew, compre- 

 hending the tabulation from the photograms, the reduction of the observations, 

 and their application to theoretical conclusions. Of course I do not entertain 

 the slightest doubt of the advantage that might be expected to result to 

 magnetical science if tho recommendation were acceded to and perseve- 

 ringly and faithfully carried out ; but in respect to the probability of its being 

 received with favour by the Russian Government, and acceded to, it is mate- 

 rial to inquire whether Professor Moritz's application for the interference of 

 the British Association on behalf of the Tiflis Observatory was made with tho 

 knowledge and concurrence of the head of the department under which he 

 acts. It is unnecessary to dwell on the very different aspect which the whole 

 matter would assume according as the reply to this question be in the affirma- 

 tive or in the negative. 



" The University of Kasan, a station of peculiar magnetical importance in 

 theoretical respects, but which is not one of the stations of the Russian system, 

 being desirous of forming such an establishment, sent its professor of mathe- 

 matics, Professor Bolzani, to England in 1862 to examine and report on the 

 magnetical instruments employed in England. Professor Bolzani strongly 

 recommended the adoption of instruments similar to those at Kew, with 

 which, and the modes of reduction of the results and their theoretical appli- 

 cations, he made himself fully conversant by attendance at Kew. Whereupon 

 the University addressed a Memorial to the Russian Government, offering, on 

 being supplied with instruments similar to those at Kew, to be at the whole 

 expense themselves of the locale, the staff for observation and for reduction, 



