736 REPORT— 1898. 



The last meeting of the International Meteorological Conference was 

 held in Paris in September 1896. It was attended by several men of 

 science specially interested in Terrestrial Magnetism, and, perhaps on this 

 account, a new departure was taken by the International Committee, in 

 the appointment of a ' Permanent Committee for Magnetism and Atmo- 

 spheric Electricity,' to which certain specific questions were referred. 

 Eight gentlemen were nominated as members of this Committee, with 

 power to add to their number. We in turn co-opted eight other mag- 

 neticians, taking care that as far as possible all countries in which 

 Terrestrial Magnetism is specially studied should be represented. About 

 the same time, and, as I believe, in ignorance of the establishment 

 of this Committee, a suggestion for the assembling of an International 

 Conference on Terrestrial Magnetism was made in the Journal of that 

 name by Professor Arthur Schuster. It appeared to me and to Professor 

 Schuster himself that it would be a great pity if this suggestion resulted 

 in the establishment of a rival organisation, and I at once submitted to 

 the Committee the question whether, in their opinion, it was desirable 

 that we ourselves should take the responsibility of summoning an Inter- 

 national meeting, with the view of obtaining a wide discussion of the 

 points submitted to us by the Meteorological Conference. This sugges- 

 tion was approved, and, as the British Association was willing to allow us 

 to organise the conference as a branch of Section A (INiathematics and 

 Physics), to undertake the expense of sending out the necessary notices, 

 to print our papers in its Report, and to extend to foreign members of 

 the Conference all the privileges of foreign members of the Association, it 

 was also determined that so hospitable an invitation should be accepted 

 with the gratitude it deserved. But although the main result has been 

 achieved, and a representative gathering of magneticians has assembled in 

 Bristol, it cannot be denied that our x-elations to the various bodies with 

 which we are connected are somewhat complicated, and that our consti- 

 tution is devoid both of simplicity and symmetry. I take it that these 

 facts are signs of health and vigour rather than symptoms of decay. 

 Terrestrial Magnetism has been attracting far more attention of late years 

 bhan in the not very distant past. The necessity for meeting, for common 

 action, for common publication has been forced upon us. We have cared 

 more for meeting than for the terms on which we were to meet, more for 

 acting together than for drawing up an elaborate deed of partnership, 

 more for the promotion of science than for a flawless paper constitution. 

 Thus, and in my opinion most wisely, we have sought to attain our ends, 

 not by starting a brand new International Association, but by making use 

 of machinery which is already in existence, which has stood the test of 

 time, and is, as I believe, capable of being put to new uses in meeting our 

 wants and supplying our deficiencies. 



I confess, however, that in this arrangement we have been compelled 

 to pay scant attention to the simplicity and even to the logical consistency 

 of our schemes. We are an International Conference on special subjects 

 ■ — Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity — summoned by a 

 Committee owing its authority and bound to report to another International 

 Conference of wider scope, which regards our sciences as branches of 

 Meteorology. 



On the other liand, this Committee is for the moment a part of tlie Com- 

 mittee of the Section of Mathematics and Physics of the British Association, 

 though it retains its right of separate meeting, more especially for the 



