REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. 



Ixxxiii 



venient for him to attend the Meeting at Toronto, they have requested 

 Professor Roberts- Austen to undertake the duties of General Secretary 

 during the Meeting in his place. 



The Council have received reports from the General Treasurer during 

 the past year, and his accounts from July 1, 1896, to June 30, 1897, 

 which have been audited, will be presented to the General Committee. 



The Council have elected the following Foreign Men of Science, who 

 have attended Meetings of the Association, to be Corresponding 

 Members : — 



Dr. F. Kohlrausch, Berlin. 



Dr. van Rijckevorsel, Kotterdam. 



Prof. E, Zacharias, Hamburg. 



The following Resolutions were referred to the Council for considera- 

 tion and action, if desirable :— 



(1) ' That the Council be requested to take such steps as they think 

 best to bring before the Government the question of the establishment of 

 a National Physical Laboratory, in general accordance with the recom- 

 mendations contained in the Report appended hereto, and to invite the 

 •co-operation of the Royal Society of London, the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh, the Royal Astronomical Society, the Physical Society, and 

 other kindred societies, in securing its foundation.' 



The Council, after considering this question, resolved to appoint a 

 Committee to bring the proposal before the Government. 



The Committee consisted of the following Members : — 



The President of the Royal Soc 

 Lord Kelvin 

 Lord Rayleigh . 

 Mr. Francis Galton . 

 Professor A. W. P.iicker . 

 Sir Douglas Galton . 

 Sir H. E. Roscoe 

 Mr. R. T. Ulazebrook 

 Professor Oliver Lodge . 

 Professor A. Schuster 

 Professor G. F. Fitzgerald 

 The Astronomer-Royal . 

 Mr. A. Vernon-Harcourt . 

 Captain Abney 

 Dr. John Hopkinson 

 Professor W. E. Ayrton . 



ety 



-Royal Society. 



British Association 



Royal Irish Academy. 



Royal Astronomical Society, 



Chemical Society. 



Physical Society. 



Institution of Civil Engineers. 



Institution of Electrical Engineers. 



The Royal Society of Edinburgh was also represented by Lord Kelvin. 



The Council have been informed that, at the request of the Committee, 

 ■a Deputation waited upon Lord Salisbury, and have recently learned 

 that a Committee has been appointed by the Treasury : ' To consider 

 and report upon the desirability of establishing a National Physical 

 Laboratory for the testing and verification of instruinents for physical 

 investigation ; for the construction and preservation of standards of 

 measurements and for the systematic determination of physical constants 

 4ind numerical " data" useful for scientific and industrial purposes, and to 

 report whether the work of such an institution, if established, could be 

 associated with any testing or standardizing work already performed 

 wholly or partly at the public cost.' 



The following will be the members of the Committee :— 



e2 



