4 REPORT — 1878. 



Among the communications to the Sections, undoubtedly the most 

 important, as a rule, are the Reports ; that is to say, documents issuing 

 from specially appointed committees, some of which have been recipients 

 of the grants mentioned above. These Reports are in the main of two 

 kinds, first, accounts of observations carried on for a series of years, and 

 intended as records of information on the special subjects ; such for 

 instance have been those made by the Kew Committee, by the committees 

 on Luminous Meteors, on British Rainfall, on the Sneed of Steamships, 

 on Underground Temperature, on the Exploration of certain Geological 

 Caverns, (fee. These investigations, frequently originating in the energy 

 and special qualifications of an individual, but conducted under the con- 

 trol of a Committee, have in many cases been continued from year to 

 year, until either the object has been fully attained, or the matter has 

 passed into the hands of other bodies, which have thus been led to 

 recognise an inquiry into these subjects as part and parcel of their appro- 

 priate functions. The second class is one which is perhaps even more 

 peculiar to the Association ; viz., the Reports on the progress and present 

 state of some main topics of Science. Among these may be instanced 

 the early Reports on Astronomy, on Optics, on the Progress of Analysis ; 

 and later, those on Electrical Resistance, and on Tides ; that of Professor 

 G. G. Stokes on Double Refraction ; that of Professor H. J. Smith on the 

 Theory of "Numbers ; that of Mr. Russell on Hyperelliptic Transcendents ; 

 and others. On this head Professor Carey Poster, in his address to the 

 Mathematical and Physical Section at our meeting last year, made some 

 excellent recommendations, to which< however. I need not at present more 

 particularly refer, as the result of them will be duly laid before the section 

 in the form of the report from a Committee to whom they were referred. 

 It will be sufficient here to add that the wide extension of the Sciences 

 in almost every branch, and the consequent specialisation of the studies 

 of each individual, have rendered the need for such reports more than 

 ever pressing ; and if the course of true Science should still run smooth 

 it is probable that the need will increase rather than diminish. 



If time and space had permitted, I should have further particularised 

 the Committees, occasionally appointed, on subjects connected with edu- 

 cation. But T must leave this theme for some future President, and 

 content myself with pointing out that the British Association alone among 

 scientific societies concerns itself directly with these questions, and is 

 open to appeals for counsel and support from the great teaching body of 

 the country. 



One of the principal methods by which this Association materially 

 promotes the advancement of Science, and consequently one of its most 

 important functions, cotisists in grants of money from its own income in 

 aid of special scientific researches. The total amount so laid out during 

 the forty-seven years of our existence has been no less than 44,0007. ; and 

 the average during the last ten years has been 1,4507. per aniram. These 



