734 REPORT — 1898. 



fixed drew to an end, the question arose as to whether it was desirable to 

 extend it further, and M. Kupffer (Director-General of the Russian System 

 of Magnetic and Meteorological Observations) addressed a letter to Colonel 

 (afterwards Sir Edward) Sabine, suggesting the propriety of summoning a 

 magnetic congress to be held at the next meeting of the British Asso- 

 ciation. 



In accordance with that suggestion the Congress was held during the 

 meeting of the Association at Cambridge in 1845. The number of dis- 

 tinguished foreigners who attended in person was considerable, in spite of 

 the difficulties of travel fifty years ago. Amongst those who were present 

 was M. Kupffer ; Dr. Erman, of Berlin, the celebrated circumnavigator 

 and meteorologist; Baron von Senftenberg, the founder of the Astronomical 

 and Meteorological Observatory of Senftenberg, in Bohemia ; M. Kreil, 

 the Director of the Imperial Observatory at Prague ; Dr. von Boguslawski, 

 the Director of the Royal Prussian Observatory at Breslau ; Herr Dove, 

 Professor of Physics in the University of Berlin ; and Baron von Walters- 

 hausen, a gentleman who had taken part in the magnetic observations of 

 Gauss and Weber at Gottingen, and had executed a magnetic survey of 

 portions of Italy and Sicily. In addition to these a number of well- 

 known British men of science were invited to be present, amongst whom 

 I need only mention the Marquis of Northampton (President of the Royal 

 Society), Sabine, Sir John Herschel, Lloyd, Airy, Brown, and Sir James 

 Ross, then recently returned from his celebrated expedition to the Ant- 

 arctic Seas. Letters were also received from Wilhelm Weber, Gauss, 

 Loomis, Lamont, Quetelet, Von Humboldt, and othei's. 



The principal question which this conference had to decide was whether 

 ' the combined system of British and foreign co-operation for the investi- 

 gation of magnetic and meteorological phenomena, which [had then] been 

 five years in progress, must be broken up.' ' I will not trouble you with a 

 recapitulation of the recommendations of the Congress, some of which 

 have been carried out, v.diile others have not yet been realised ; but one 

 resolution will, I am sure, so exactly express your own sentiments that I 

 venture to quote it, viz. : ' That, the cordial co-operation which has hitherto 

 prevailed between the British and foreign magnetic and meteorological 

 observatories having produced the most important results, and being 

 considered by us as absolutely essential to the success of the great system 

 of combined observation which has been undertaken, it is earnestly recom- 

 mended that the same spirit of co-operation should continue to prevail.' 

 Whatever changes half a century may have wrought in the problems 

 which press upon magneticians, and in the difficulties which confront 

 them, there can be no doubt that they are still of the same spirit as that 

 in which this resolution was framed. 



It is true that we sometimes meet with the objection that interna- 

 tional conferences of all kinds are now too numerous, and that their 

 decisions, from their very number and complexity, cease to attract atten- 

 tion or to command respect. Admitting that this objection is not without 

 weight, it may be answered by two remai-ks. The closer union between 

 scientific workers in difi"erent countries which these meetings encourage, 

 the strengthening of the ties of intellectual sympathy by those of personal 

 friendship, are in themselves good. It is surely a hopeful omen that 

 science, as she reaches her maturity, forgets or ignores the political and 



' Brit. Assoc. 7?c/., 1845, p. G9. 



