THE president's ADDRESS. 101 



periodical character ; whicla together with those " secular clianges, 

 " which with slow but systematic progression alter the whole aspect 

 " of the magnetic phenomena on the surface of the globe, from one 

 " century to the nest, and which in their nature are not improbably 

 " intimately connected with the causes of the magnetism of the 

 " globe itself," were deemed subjects of inquiry of the highest im- 

 portance by "those who, by the inductive process, would seek to. 

 ascend to general laws and to the discovery of physical causes." 



It is beyond my province, and still more beyond my pov.^er, to 

 attempt to trace and deiine the progress of these observations, and 

 the results which, so far, have been attained. But lam justified in 

 remarking, that the observations recorded here in Toronto, occupy 

 a very high plaee in the estimation of those scientific men whose 

 attention is devoted to this interesting branch of science. Major 

 Creneral Sabine, himself a member of the Committee of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, by which the attention 

 of Her Majesty's Grovernment was solicited to the expediency of 

 establishing fixed Observatories in the British Colonies, has re- 

 marked that the observations at the station at Toronto considerably 

 exceeded 100,000 in number : that " Toronto is the first and, as 

 '' yet, the only station at which the numerical values at every lunar 

 " hour of the lunar-diurnal variations of the three elements," viz.: 

 the horizontal direction, the dip, and the intensity of the magnetic 

 force, " have been published." And he pays this handsome tribute 

 to those who have had charge of this Observatory : " It is with 

 " much satisfaction, and with a well-deserved recognition of the 

 " pains which have been bestowed by the successive Directors of the 

 " Toronto Observatory and their assistants, that I am able to refer 

 ** to the determinations of the absolute values and secular changes 

 " of the three elements contained in the third volume of the Toronto 

 *' Observatory, in evidence that the instrumental means that were 

 " devised, and the methods which have been adopted, have proved, 

 " under all the disadvantages of a first essay, sufiicient to determine 

 " the data with a precision which is greatly in advance of preceding 

 " experience, and, as far as may be judged, equal to the present re- 

 *' quirements of theoretical investigation. This is the more deserv- 

 " ing of notice, because Toronto is a station where the casual and 

 " periodical variations, which it was apprehended would seriousl/ 

 " interfere M'ith the determination of absolute values, are unusually 

 " large. We may derive, therefore, from the results thus attained, [the 

 " greatest encouragement to persevere in a line of research which is 



