PROCEEDINGS OF THE MEETING. XVll 



ledgement, as during these discussions they have had, of what 

 it does not pretend to explain. The whole doctrine of the 

 absorption of light is at present out of the pale of its calcula- 

 tions ; and if the theory is ever extended to these phaenomena, 

 it must be by supplementary suppositions concerning the ether 

 and its undulations, of which we have at present not the slight- 

 est conception. 



" There are various of the Physical subjects to which your 

 Reports I'efer, which it is less necessary to notice in a general 

 sketch like the present. The recent discoveries in Thermo- 

 electricity, of which Professor Gumming has presented you 

 with a review, and the investigations concerning Radiant Heat 

 which have been arranged and stated by Professor Powell, are 

 subjects of great interest and promise ; and they are gradually 

 advancing, by the accumulation of facts bound together by 

 subordinate rules, into that condition in which we may hope to 

 see them subjugated to general and philosophical theories. 

 But with regard to this prospect, the subjects I have mentioned 

 are only the fragments of sciences, on which we cannot hope 

 to theorize successfully except by considering them with refer- 

 ence to their whole ; — Thermo-electricity with reference to the 

 whole doctrine of electricity ; Radiant Heat with reference to 

 the whole doctrine of heat. 



" If the subjects just mentioned be but parts of sciences, 

 thei'e is another on which you have a Report before you, which, 

 though treated as one science, is in reality a collection of several 

 sciences, each of great extent. I speak of Meteorology, which 

 is reported on by Professor Forbes. There is perhaps no por- 

 tion of human knowledge more capable of being advanced by 

 our conjoined exertions than this : some of the requisite ob- 

 servations demand practice and skill ; but others are easily 

 made, when the observer is once imbued with sound elemen- 

 tary notions ; and in all departments of the subject little can 

 be done without a great accumulation of facts and a patient in- 

 quiry after their rules. Some such contributions we may look 

 for at our present Meeting. Professor Forbes has spoken of 

 the possibility of constructing maps of the sky by which we 

 may trace the daily and hourly condition of the atmosphere 

 over large tracts of the earth. If, indeed, we could make a 

 stratigraphical analysis of the aerial shell of the earth, as the 

 geologist has done of its solid crust, this would be a vast step 

 for Meteorology. This, however, must needs be a difficult task : 

 in addition to the complexity of these superincumbent masses, 

 time enters here as a new element of variety : the strata of the 

 geologist continue fixed and permanent : those of the meteoro- 



