1877.] 



President's Address. 



431 



for the public service. The main difference between the recommen- 

 dations of the Treasury Committee and our own is that we favoured 

 the retention of the Office under a department of the Crown, with 

 a Government officer as Director, in preference to leaving it subject 

 to a Committee or Council of Control. The Treasury Committee, 

 influenced by the evidence of very eminent scientific men to this effect, 

 that meteorology was not as yet in a scientific condition, and that to 

 render it so required the combined labours of men with various attain- 

 ments, as also by the fact that there was no department of Government 

 capable of controlling purely scientific investigations, recommended that, 

 as a tentative measure, a modified Committee of Control (to be called a 

 Council) should replace the old Committee, and that the Eoyal Society 

 should be asked to nominate the members, and, after a period of five years, 

 to review their labours. 



Other recommendations, in which both Committees concurred, were, 

 that ocean meteorology should be transferred to the Admiralty, that the 

 maxims which determine the issue of storm- warnings should be put in a 

 clear shape and issued to the public, that the number and position of 

 both the continuously-recording and the eye-observing stations should be 

 revised, that the latter should be increased so as to satisfy the claims of 

 the Eegistrars-General, Medical Council, Agricultural Societies, and other 

 bodies, and that a fair approximation to the meteorological condition of 

 the whole British Isles should be daily obtained and published. 



Ear more important to us, however, than these practical measures, is 

 the strong expression of opinion on the part of both Committees that 

 scientific hypothesis and discussion should be pursued as a duty incumbent 

 on the Office, and that, to this end, an annual grant should be made for 

 the purpose of remunerating investigators, selected by the Council, on a 

 scale proportionate to the work performed. 



At the request of K.M. Treasury, and in communication with them, 

 your Council drew up the following suggestions for the administration of 

 the Meteorological Office, which, having been approved, are now put in 

 practice : — That the Office be in future administered by a paid Council, 

 consisting of a Chairman and four effective members, together with, as 

 an ex officio member, the Hydrographer of the Navy, whose services were 

 rendered necessary by the Admiralty having declined to undertake the 

 ocean meteorology ; that £1000 should be granted for the remuneration 

 of the Members of Council, who should be persons in a position to 

 devote adequate time and attention .to the duties of the Office, and 

 to the inauguration of investigations and experiments designed to place 

 meteorology on a scientific basis, to advance it, and to promote its useful- 

 ness to the community; that paid inspectors of stations should be 

 appointed for Scotland and Ireland, and =£500 be granted for this pur- 

 pose ; that a sum of =£1000 per annum be granted for the payment of 

 individuals, to be selected by the Council, to be engaged in special scien_ 



