1879.] 



Presidents A cldress. 



425 



The publication of Lohrmann and Schmidt's Maps of the Moon 

 forms an important contribution to Selenography. 



M. Flammarion has published a valuable Catalogue of Binary Stars, 

 giving all available observations (to the number of 14,000) of these 

 objects, with the elements of their orbits, so as to present a complete 

 summary of their history. 



Among the more recent Institutions for the promotion of Science, 

 mention should be made of the Observatories for the study of 

 Astronomical Physics in France and Germany. 



The elder of these in point of date, namely that in France, although 

 founded in 1876, has only quite recently been permanently established 

 in the Chateau at Meudon. The Director has ever since the foundation 

 been principally occupied with solar photography, and he has esta- 

 blished the fact that photography is capable of revealing phenomena 

 which must necessarily escape ordinary telescopic observation. In 

 particular, he has succeeded in photographing the granulations pre- 

 viously seen on the solar disk by other astronomers ; and by means of 

 his magnificent pictures, one of which he has recently presented to 

 the Society, he has established the existence of what he terms the 

 Reseau photosjpherique ; in other words, that the surface of the sun is 

 divided into regions of calm and of activity. His present researches 

 will doubtless enrich our knowledge with many new facts. 



The German Observatory has been placed at Potsdam, In the 

 selection of the locality, 320 feet above the sea, with a good horizon, 

 and free from the smoke and vibration of the city, and in the 

 furnishing of the Observatory, the German Government has done 

 everything that could be wished. And it may confidently be hoped 

 that in the hands of Professor Vogel and his colleagues much good 

 work will be there done. 



The ramifications of Science are now so various in direction, so 

 comprehensive in grasp, and so immediate in their .applications, that 

 they have of late years given rise to the establishment of special 

 Institutes and Societies for the study and encouragement of their 

 respective subjects. Among these there may be mentioned the Insti- 

 tution of Telegraph Engineers, the Iron and Steel Institute, and 

 others. 



At the meetings of these bodies it frequently happens that subjects 

 which may have, in their primary form of a scientific discovery, been 

 laid before the Royal Society, are brought up again and discussed 

 from a different point of view, e.g., in their relation to other subjects, 

 or in their application to the special purposes of life. For instance, 

 in the " Proceedings of the Institution of Telegraph Engineers " we 

 find the following : — 



1 . Wires which run parallel to each other for a long distance are 

 very much troubled by induction between wire and wire. The effect 



vol. xxix. 2 G 



