PREFACE. 



The Makerstoun Observations down to the commencement of 1847 were published 

 at length in Vols. XVII. XVIII. and XIX. of the " Edinburgh Transactions." 



Some time before the lamented decease of Sir T. Makdougall Brisbane, the 

 munificent founder of the Makerstoun Observatory (which took place on the 27th 

 January 1860), it had been determined to continue the publication of the " Ob- 

 servations" down to the year 1855. This was carried into effect at the joint ex- 

 pense of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of Sir T. M. Brisbane, who had the 

 satisfaction of seeing these sheets in proof before his death. 



The Editor thinks it right to state somewhat more explicitly than has been 

 done in the " Introduction" which follows, the names of those who have been 

 from the first connected with the Makerstoun Observatory, and more especially 

 during the period to which the following pages refer ; and this not only in token 

 of acknowledgment to those whose skill and labour produced valuable results, but 

 as a guarantee to men of science that the observations treated of in this volume 

 were carefully made and faithfully recorded. 



The following statement is partly taken from a Report on the Makerstoun 

 Observatory, made to General Sir T. M. Brisbane by Mr John Allan Broun, 

 and dated 1850. 



The building was commenced early in 1841, but no observations were made 

 till July of that year. The system adopted was limited, in the first instance, to a 

 few daily observations, together with a participation in the complete series on 

 term days. 



In April 1842, the original observer, Mr Russell, having resigned, the Obser- 

 vatory was placed under the direction of Mr John Allan Broun. In the be- 

 ginning of 1843 Mr John Welsh was, at Mr Broun's recommendation, appointed 

 as assistant, and the scheme of the observations was very largely expanded. It 

 was next thought desirable to obtain the diurnal laws of magnetism and meteor- 

 ology, in consequence of which Mr Broun suggested the addition of another 



