86 Proceedings of the British Association, 



of the magnetic and meteorological observatories. Every member 

 of this association is, of course, aware of the great exertions which 

 have been made during the last five years, on the part of the British, 

 Russian, and several other foreign governments, and of our own East 

 India Company, to furnish data on the most extensive and systematic 

 scale, for elucidating the great problems of terrestrial magnetism and 

 meteorology, by the establishment of a system of observatories all 

 over the world, in which the phenomena are registered at instants 

 strictly simultaneous, and at intervals of two hours throughout both 

 day and night. With the particulars of these national institutions, 

 and of the mulititude of local and private ones of a similar nature, both 

 in Europe, Asia and America, working on the same concerted plan, 

 so far as the means at their disposal enable them, I need not detain 

 you : neither need I enter into any detailed explanation of the system 

 of magnetic surveys, both by sea and land, which have been executed 

 or are in progress, in connexion with, and based upon the observations 

 carried on at the fixed stations. These things form the subject of 

 Special Annual Reports, which the Committee appointed for the 

 purpose have laid before us at our several meetings, ever since the 

 commencement of the undertaking ; and the most recent of which will 

 be read in the physical section of the present meeting, in its regular 

 course. It is sufficient for me to observe, that the result has been 

 the accumulation of an enormous mass of most valuable observations, 

 which are now and have been for some time in the course of publication; 

 and when thoroughly digested and discussed, as they are sure to be, 

 by the talent and industry of magnetists and meteorologists, both in 

 this country and abroad, cannot fail to place those sciences very far 

 indeed in advance of their actual state. For such discussion, how- 

 ever, time must be allowed. Even were all the returns from the 

 several observatories before the public, (which they are not, and are 

 very far from being,) such is the mass of matter to be grappled with, 

 and such the multitude of ways in which the observations will ne- 

 cessarily have to be grouped and combined to elicit mean results 

 and quantitative laws, that several years must elapse before the full 

 scientific value of the work done can possibly be realized. 



Meanwhile, a question of the utmost moment arises, and which 

 must be resolved, so far as the British Association is concerned, 



