1832.1 British Association. 307 



India. From an observation under the head of Hygrometry we are glad 

 to find, that Indian labours receive their full share of consideration. 

 There are many points among the desiderata, such as the gradation of tem- 

 perature with altitude, the diurnal oscillations of the barometer, &c, which 

 are peculiarly easy of elucidation in this climate ; and we trust that they 

 will be taken up by some of our friends at Dehra Dun, Chirra Punji, Sjc. 

 The Association proposes to supply delicate instruments for these obser- 

 vations, and in this respect it might certainly render us eminent service ; for 

 it may safely be stated that there is not a standard thermometer or baro- 

 meter in the country, which can be trusted to reduce our results to terms 

 of a known instrument at home. 



It must be confessed, that at first sight the manner in which this new 

 Society proposes to promote the cultivation of the sciences does not appear 

 commensurate with the eclat and grandeur of its foundation; it exerts its 

 persuasion on men eminent in various sciences, to perfect essays and experi- 

 ments upon which in many cases they state themselves to be already engage 

 ed; it invites reports upon the recent progress of every branch of science, 

 but these surely would have been furnished without any such recommen- 

 dation, and publication would have been ensured free of expence to the 

 authors through the numerous Societies and Periodical Journals already 

 devoted to each division of knowledge. The reports are stated to be only 

 preliminary to measures hereafter to be adopted for advancing and directing 

 future investigations : but the members of such an association composed, 

 as it must be, chiefly of scientific men, are surely aware whither to direct 

 their researches, and unless substantial prizes and rewards are offered, who 

 among them will readily quit the train into which he may have been drawn 

 by taste or circumstances, to pursue a new course of study ? A wide class 

 of observers of what is called " the lower order of facts," in Meteorology, 

 Botany, and Zoology may be created, and if well directed, their efforts may 

 certainly prove of great utility ; but for the refined examination of the first 

 data of chemistry, of the abstruse questions of mathematical analysis, of 

 astronomical problems, &c. the spontaneous labours of the habitual and se- 

 cluded devotee will ever command more reliance than the hurried and osten-. 

 tatious productions of commissioned students and experimenters. We ob- 

 serve that most of the general recommendations of the Society have been 

 zealously taken up by the parties invited to prepare reports for the next 

 meeting ; we shall thus have a series of elegant essays, without perhaps 

 much of real novelty, that would not have seen the light as soon in the ordi- 

 nary way. But although we are not sanguine in our hopes of any brilliant 

 achievement of invention by an association of such a nature, it would be 

 unfair to suppose that it will produce no good results : — " it will cement 

 a general co-operative union of the Philosophical Societies of the country ; 

 its publications will form a national catalogue of the scattered particulars of 



