ON SCIENCES OF SURVEYING, HYDROGRAPHY, AND GEODESY. 849 



situation with regard to tides, and in a masterly report indicated the nnmher 

 and importance of the problems awaiting solution. Problems comparable in 

 insistence are connected^ with the land surveys of our Empire, and a similar 

 review of the general situation, also initiated by the B.A. under the stimulus 

 of -war, drew attention to the pressing need of some determined effort to 

 attack them. The report opened with this cogent sentence : ' There is no institu- 

 tion, association, or department whose business it is to deal with the higher 

 Geodesy.' Consideration of the report by a special committee, subsequently 

 enlarged, developed in the direction of urging the eetabli.shment of a Geophysical 

 Institute. The need for such an Institute has been formally recognised as 

 urgent by the Conjoint Board of Scientific Societies (formed during the war 

 for the study of urgent questions), who appointed a small executive com- 

 mittee (which included the President and Secretary of the Royal Society) to 

 press for the immediate establishment of such an Institute. 



A committee promoted by the ex-Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge was subse- 

 quently formed, and issued an appeal calling attention to the national import- 

 ance of the matter. Amongst its members are to be found the Astronomer- 

 Royal, the President of the Royal Society, Sir Charles Parsons, Col. Lyons 

 (formerly Director-General of the Survey of Egypt), Prof. Turner, Sir Charles 

 Close (Director-General of the Ordnance Survey), Sir Napier Shaw, Sir Joseph 

 Larmor, and other authorities on scientific matters. 



In an appeal issued by that committee it is stated that ' It is the widespread 

 British territories which are most closely concerned in the great international 

 surveys of the future, and indeed of the past ; and the consolidation and exten- 

 sion of their special .surveys is most necessary to the solution of the Geophysical 

 problems of the world. ... It would be a matter for regret if, from omission 

 of the relevant scientific development at home. Briti.sh official surveyors were 

 again compelled to rely on the Prussian Geodetic Institute at Potsdam for 

 information with regard to international work in the higher Geodesy.' 



The following are extracts from letters received by this committee : — 



Admiral Parry (then Hydrographer to the Admiralty) — ' Such an Institution 

 would be warmly welcomed by the Hydrographic Department, and it is sug- 

 gested that courses of instruction should be available, not only for geodesists 

 and land surveyors, but also for the cognate Naval Service, so that these 

 services would be able to collaborate more closely than at present as regards 

 geodetic problems, and as regards tidal problems would assist in bridging the 

 gap between the practical and theoretical sides which at present exists. I 

 am convinced that the establishment of such an Institute would be of the 

 greatest benefit to the Empire at large, more especially as the latter is so widely 

 distributed, and it seems most essential that there should be such an Institute 

 where surveyors, geodesists, etc., of the Empire could not only receive instruc- 

 tion but to which they could also refer any practical and theoretical problems 

 which may arise.* 



A letter from the Army Council states that — 'The war which is now drawing 

 to a conclusion has shown the great value to the Army of trained surveyors 

 from the skilled geodesist to the topographer and draughtsman. I am to say, 

 therefore, that the Council would view with great satisfaction the establishment 

 of an Institute which would encourage the study of Geodesy and Survey in 

 all its branches, and that such an Institute would undoubtedly be of immense 

 as.sistance to that study of survey work which it is the wish of the Council 

 to promote in the Army.' 



It will be seen from the above that both the Navy and Army authorities 

 are anxious to see a combined Survey and Geodetic School and Institute 

 established. 



Sir Charles Close (Director-General of the Ordnance Survey) writes — ' I 

 have no doubt that it ie in the national interest that a Geodetic Institute should 

 be created, and I think it would be a very satisfactoi-v arrangement if it were 

 est^ibh'shed at Cambridge, and. in connection with it, a Professorship of Greodesv-' 



We think it would he difficult to find, in any scientific matter, greater 

 unanimity among.st all the authorities concerned therein. We trust that suffi- 

 cient evidence has been given both as to the national importance of the suHect 

 3nd the urgency of the need for action. We await the advent of the ' Vivus 

 Benefactor.' for — as already indicated — there is a consensus of opinion that 



