10 KEPORT— 1895. 



measurement of electrical resistances, and in 1859 the British Association 

 appointed a special committee to devise a standard. The standard of 

 resistance proposed by that committee became the generally accepted 

 standard, until the requirements of that advancing science led to the 

 adoption of an international standard. 



In 1866 the Meteorological Department of the Board of Trade entered 

 into close relations with the Kew Observatory. 



And in 1871 Mr. Gassiot transferred 10,000?. upon trust to the Royal 

 Society for the maintenance of the Kew Observatory, for the purpose of 

 assisting in carrying on magnetical, meteorological, and other physical 

 observations. The British Association thereupon, after having maintained 

 this Observatory for nearly thirty years, at a total expenditure of about 

 12,000?., handed the Observatory over to the Royal Society. 



The ' Transactions ' of the British Association are a catalogue of its 

 efforts in every branch of science, both to promote experimental research 

 and to facilitate the application of the results to the practical uses of 

 •life. 



But probably the marvellous development in science which has 

 accompanied the life-history of the Association will be best appreciated 

 by a brief allusion to the condition of some of the branches of science 

 in 1831 as compared with their present state. 



Geological and Geographical Science. 



Geology. 



At the foundation of the Association geology Avas assuming a promi- 

 nent position in science. The main features of English geology had been 

 illustrated as far back as 1821, and, among the founders of the British 

 Association, Murchison and Phillips, Buckland, Sedgwick and Cony- 

 beare, Lyell and De la Beche, were occupied in investigating the data 

 necessary for perfecting a geological chronology by the detailed observa- 

 tions of the various British deposits, and by their co-relation with the 

 Continental strata. They were thus preparing the way for those large 

 generalisations which have raised geology to the rank of an inductive 

 science. 



In 1831 the Ordnance maps published for the southern counties had 

 enabled the Government to recognise the importance of a geological 

 survey by the appointment of Mr. De la Beche to affix geological colours 

 to the maps of Devonshire and portions of Somerset, Dorset and Cornwall ; 

 and in 1835 Lyell, Buckland and Sedgwick induced the Government to 

 establish the Geological Survey Department, not only for promoting 

 geological science, but on account of its pi'actical bearing on agriculture, 

 mining, the making of roads, railways and canals, and on other branches 

 of national industry. 



