86 



BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



[1854. 



vatory. It ia found to be attended with more labour than the old me- 

 thod ; but as it is free from errors to which the other method is liable, 

 it lays claim to general acceptance. At Greenwich, also, the galvanic 

 circuit is most usefully employed in maintaining the movements of dis- 

 tant sympathetic clocks, and in di-opping time-signal balls. A ball is 

 dropped every day at Deal by a galvanic current from the Royal Ob- 

 servatory. Some anxiety was felt by astronomers respecting the con- 

 tinuation of that most indispensable publication, the Astronomische 

 NachrichUn, after the decease of the editor, Mr. Petersen, in February 

 last. Thi? has been dispelled by a recent announcement that the King 

 of Denmark has resolved to maintain the Altona Observatory in con- 

 nection with that of the editorship of that work. The Astronomical 

 Journal, an American publication of the same kind, undertaken by a 

 young astronomer and mathematician, Mr. Gould, for the special in- 

 formation of his countrymen, has reached the end of Volume III, and 

 ■will, it is hoped, be continued. Generally, it may be said of astronomy, 

 at the present time, that it is prosecuted zealously and extensively, 

 active observations being now more numerous than ever, and that the 

 interests of the science are promoted as well by private enterprise as 

 by the aid of Governments. J. Challis." 



" Cambridge Observatory, September 14, 1854." 



You will have observed that Professor Challis speaks of the activity 

 of private enterprise in the cause of astronomy ; and can I in this place 

 pass over the labours of a Lassells, or the enlightened public spirit of 

 the corporation of this town, which, stimulated by your visit in the year 

 1837, has now for some j'ears maintained an excellent and well-provided 

 Observatory, under the able management of Mr. Hartnup, who has not 

 only conferred great benefits on the navigation of the place by the re- 

 gulation of its chronometers, but great honour upon the institution by 

 the general services which he has rendered to meteorological, as well 

 as astronomical science ? Mr. Hartnup's improvements in the chrono- 

 meter, by which the errors arising from variations are either corrected 

 or estimated and allowed for, have been : f the greatest value. In the 



words of a report of the Cuncilof the Royal Astronomical Society 



" It is found experimentally, that when a captain will apply the rate 

 thus corrected for temperature, the performance of chronometers is 

 much improved ;" and in regard to the importance of the subject to"the 

 practical interest? of navigation, I would take the liberty of quoting 

 farther — " There are risks at sea, against which no foresight can 

 provide; but loss from defective compnsses or ill-regulated chron- 

 ometers should be treated as a crime since common sense and common 

 care will secure the efiicacy of both these instrument-'. It is to be 

 feared that life and property, to a large amount, are yearly sacrificed 

 for a want of a little elementary knowledge, and a small amount of 

 precaution on the part of our seamen, who neglect the safeguards 

 furnished by modern science." 



You may remember, that at the period of your last meeting, ar- 

 rangements vrith Government were in progress for the construction of 

 a reflecting telescope of four-feet aperture, which should bring to bear 

 upon the Nebulse and other starry phenomena of the southern hemi- 

 sphere a far higher power than that to which they had been submitted 

 bj' Sir John Herschel. You will regret to hear that, although the 

 estimate was not objected to by the Government, it has not yet been 

 submitted to Parliament. We must make some allowance for the pre- 

 occupations of war. 



The labours of your Kew Committee are carried on with unabating 

 assiduity and extending usefulness. You will, perhaps, forgive me 

 for taking the liberty of urging upon you the importance of continuing 

 to them an unabated, if not an enlarged support. By giving accui-acy 

 to the various implements of observation, — the thermometer, the baro- 

 meter, and the standard weights and measures, they are doing a work 

 of incalculable benefit to science in general, in this and in other coun- 

 tries. At this moment they have in their hands for verification and 

 adjustment, 1,000 thermometers, and 50 barometers for the navy of 

 the United States, as well as 500 thermometers and 60 barometers for 

 our own Board of Trade, the instruments which are supplied in ordi- 

 nary commerce being found to be subject to error to an extraordinary 

 degree. At the suggestion of Sir John Herschel, they have also 

 undertaken, by the photographic process, to secure a daily record of 

 the appearance of the sun's disc, with a view of ascertaining, by a 

 comparison of the spots upon its surface, their places, size, and forms 

 whether any relation can be established between their variations and 

 other phenomena. The Council of the Royal Society has supplied the 

 funds, and the instrument is in course of completion. The same 

 beautiful invention, which seems likely to promote the interests of 

 Science in many branches, at least as much as those of Art, is en:- 



ployed under the able direction of the Committee, and of Mr. Welsh 

 the curator, to record, by a self-acting process, something similar to 

 that of the anemometer, the variations in the earth's magnetism. But 

 I will not pretend to anticipate the results of the careful and extended 

 study of this subject by our able associate. Col. Sabine, who has been 

 kind enough to promise that we shall hear them from his own mouth 

 in one of our evening meetings. Neither will I anticipate the report 

 of my learned and distinguished predecessor in this chair, Mr. Hop- 

 kins, on a subject to which he called the .attention of the Association 

 at its last Meeting, and on which, in conjunction with Mr. Fairburn 

 and Jlr. Joule, he has been engaged in a series of experiments. I 

 allude to the effects of pressure, on the temperature of fusion, — a 

 problem of great importance, as bearing on the internal condition of 

 our planet. 



A Report of a Committee of the Institute of France, consisting of 

 MM. Lionville, Lamg and Elie de Beaumont, on the subject of a theory 

 of Earthquakes, has been transmitted to me for the use of the Asso- 

 ciation. From a careful discussion of several thousands of these 

 phenomena, which have been recorded between the years 1801 and 

 1850, and a comparison of the periods at which they occurred with 

 the position of the moon in relation to the earth, the learned Professor 

 M. Perrey, of Dijon, would infer that earthquakes may possibly be 

 the result of an action of attraction exercised by that body on the 

 supposed fluid centre of our globe, somewhat similar to that which 

 she exercises on the waters of the ocean ; and the Report of the Com- 

 mittee of the Institute is so far favourable that at their instance the 

 Institute have granted funds to enable the learned Professor to con- 

 tinue his researches. You will recollect how often the attention of the 

 Association has been drawn to this subject by the observations of Mr. 

 Milne and of Mr. Mallet, which latter are still going on ; and that the 

 accumulating facts are still waiting for a theory to explain them. 



On Oeology. — I am sorry for the slightness of my acquaintance 

 with so captivating as well as so practical a study. I have nothing to 

 report, save that the increasing scarcity of ironstone and coal is driving 

 the practical men to have greater respect for a science which enables 

 them to form a very sound conjecture where such minerals are likely 

 to be found, and to come to something like an absolute certainty as to 

 where they are not. When the questions begin to be asked, " Is there 

 a square mile in all the coal-fields of Britain unoccupied by the 

 mines ? " — " Of its 5,000 square miles of visible coal tract how much 

 remains untouched ? " — it is time, indeed, to listen to that science 

 which has taught us so successfully, in the hands of a Murchison, 

 a Phillips, and others, where further resources for the supply of this, 

 the life of Britain, is to be found. 



I need hardly tell you of the services which Meteorology may be 

 expected to render to practical life, and perhaps there is no better 

 instance of the value of the accumulation of facts, though in them- 

 selves apparently of small importance, and having apparently little 

 connexion with each other. 



What apparently can be less subject to rule and law, even to a pro- 

 verb, than the changeful wind and the treacherous wave ? Yet even 

 here, observation and comparison have done some good work for 

 science and for man, and are about to do more. You are all aware 

 that the American Government have now for some years, at the 

 instance and under the direction of Lieut. Maury, been collecting 

 from the mercantile vessels of that nation observations of certain 

 phenomena at sea, such as winds, tides, currents and temperature 

 of the ocean ; and that the results, digested into charts and books, 

 have already been the means of adding speed and safety to their 

 voyages in an extraordinary degree. 



You are aware that application was made to our Government to co- 

 operate in this great work of common benefit to every mercantile 

 nation, and that the subject was brought before parliament by one of 

 our Vice-Presidents, Lord Wrottesly, in a speech which he has since 

 published, and which I would commend to every one's perusal who 

 doubts of the importance of this branch of science to the interests of 

 commerce and navigation. You are perhaps not aware that the 

 Government has agreed to the proposal, and has created a special 

 department for the purpose, in connexion with the Board of Trade, 

 placing it under the management of perhaps the one man best fitted 

 to carry it out with energy and success, my friend Capt. Fitzroy, one 

 not less known on the banks of the Mersey by old associations, than 

 on the general fields of maritime science. Conceiving that this was a 

 subject of special interest to the place of our present Meeting, and 

 that for such an object it was desirable as publicly and as widely as 



