Opening Address. 5 



Yet these proceedings, eccentric as they appear to us now, 

 formed the germ of a great progressive movement, which has re- 

 sulted in the present high state of art and science. 



About the year 1687, the Eoyal Society induced the Govern- 

 ment to establish the Eoyal Observatory of Greenwich, and 

 Elamstead was appointed first astronomer royal. About the same 

 time also, Sir Isaac Newton communicated to the society a de- 

 scription of his reflecting telescope, which was the first ever made, 

 and still remains the property of that body. Then comes the 

 discovery of Papin's Digester for the economical preparation of 

 food from meat, and the bones and other parts of it, otherwise 

 unserviceable. 



In 1683, the plan of colouring maps, so as to represent different 

 geological strata, was brought out under the same auspices ; and 

 in 1699, Savery exhibited at a meeting of the society a model of 

 his steam engine, which, with all its roughness, was the foundation 

 of the greatest of all modern mechanical achievements. 



To the influence exerted by the Eoyal Society is due the fittmg- 

 out of an expedition under Captain Cook to the South Seas, for 

 the purpose of observing the transit of Venus across the sun's 

 disk, in 1769 — the only really accurate method by which the dis- 

 tance of the Earth from the Sun can be determined. In 1774, 

 the Eoyal Society established a series of meteorological observa- 

 tions, and continued the same till 1843, when it became part of 

 the work of the Observatory of Greenwich. 



Subsequently to this, the world was enlightened through the 

 same medium, by Herschel's discovery of Uranus ; the discovery 

 of the composition of water by Priestly ; the first attempt at a 

 Trigonometrical Survey of England, by Eoy ; the Undulatory 

 Theory of Light, by Dr, Young ; the Eise of Geology as a Science ; 

 and the celebrated machine of Babbage, for calculating and print- 

 ing mathematical tables, and solution of mathematical formulae 

 generally. 



Later still such subjects as these have been investigated : the 

 best form for ships ; the attraction of iron on the ship's compass ; 

 the tides ; and that wonderful discovery, the Spectrum Analysis, 

 by which we can determine the material of which a star is com- 

 posed. 



Till the year 1842, little was known of the laws of meteorology 



