96 Proceedings of the British Association, 



where excessive cold prevails. This, with the magnetic survey of the 

 Arctic seas, and the not improbable solution of the great geographical 

 problem which forms the chief object of the expedition, will furnish a 

 sufficient answer to those, if any there be, who regard such voyages 

 as useless. Let us hope and pray, that it may please Providence to 

 shield him and his brave companions from the many dangers of their 

 enterprise, and restore them in health and honour to their country. 



I cannot quit this subject without reverting to, and deploring the 

 great loss which science has recently sustained in the death of the 

 late Prof. Daniell, one of its most eminent and successful cultivators 

 in this country. His work on Meteorology is, if I mistake not, the first 

 in which the distinction between the aqueous and gaseous atmospheres, 

 and their mutual independence, was clearly and strongly insisted on as a 

 highly influential element in meteorological theory. Every succeeding 

 investigation has placed this in a clearer light. In the hands of M. 

 Dove, and more recently of Colonel Sabine, it has proved the means 

 of accounting for some of the most striking features in the diurnal 

 variations of the barometer. The continual generation of the aqueous 

 atmosphere at the Equator, and its destruction in high latitudes, 

 furnishes a motive power in meteorology, whose mode of action, and 

 the mechanism through wliich it aets, have yet to be inquired into. 

 Mr. Daniell's claims to scientific distinction were, however, not 

 confined to this branch. In his hands, the voltaic pile became an 

 infinitely more powerful and manageable instrument, than had ever 

 before been thought possible ; and his improvements in its construc- 

 tion (the effect not of accident, but of patient and persevering expe- 

 rimental inquiry), have in effect, changed the face of electro-chemistry. 

 Nor did he confine himself to these improvements. He applied 

 them : and among the last and most interesting inquiries of his life, 

 are a series of electro-chemical researches, which may rank with the 

 best things yet produced in that line. 



The immediate importance of these subjects to one material part 

 of our business at this meeting, has caused me to dwell more at 

 length than perhaps I otherwise should on them. I would gladly 

 use what time may remain without exciting your impatience, in taking 

 a view of some features in the present state and future prospects of 

 that branch of science to which my own attention has been chiefly 





