28 



Anniversary Meeting. 



[Nov. 30, 



surface have been observed (by Father Secchi in Italy, and by Professor 

 Young in America), and that on each occasion there has been a sudden 

 magnetic disturbance registered on the Greenwich photographic sheets, 

 suspiciously near in time. It may ultimately be necessary to establish 

 the proper means for sun-observations in Australia or New Zealand, in 

 order to ascertain whether similar agreements of time occur during the 

 hours of European night. 



Meteorology, if we could judge only from the number of observatories 

 and the activity with which their observations are carried on, is making 

 prodigious strides. But I doubt greatly whether science really gains 

 any thing from millions of observations which are published with very 

 few steps of reduction. 



The principal works of the Meteorological Office, the examination of 

 ships' logs and the deduction of inferences from them, are incessantly 

 continued ; the results are classified by degree-squares, and a specimen 

 of a ten-degree square has been circulated for public opinion ; also a 

 detailed exhibition of the state of the North Atlantic for eleven days. 

 Much light is thrown on the shift of the trade-wind zones. Daily 

 weather-charts are issued, exchanged, and sold to a considerable number, 

 and the " drum " signals are exhibited at 128 stations. 



Astronomy has made great advances. Adverting, first, to the instru- 

 ments. — It appears to be certain that in the Great Melbourne Telescope 

 the principal difficulties are overcome, and the instrument is actually well 

 and successfully employed on the objects for which it is especially 

 intended. — The 25-inch refractor at Grateshead, the property of Mr. 

 H. S. Newall, has been examined carefully by the most distinguished of 

 northern astronomers, and its definition has been pronounced to be per- 

 fect. — The spectroscope has undergone various changes of form, all in 

 the direction of increasing its prismatic separation without injuring its 

 practical application in other respects. — Adverting, secondly, to the obser- 

 vations and reductions, such as preceded the introduction of the spectro- 

 scope. — The too long-delayed reduction of observations at the Cape of 

 Good Hope has been urged vigorously by the present Astronomer, Mr. 

 Stone ; those for 1858 have lately appeared, and others will probably follow 

 soon, the current work of the present time being still maintained. In the 

 mean time observations have been actively made and reduced by Mr. 

 Ellery at Melbourne. There is now good prospect of the promotion of ac- 

 curate astronomy in the Southern Hemisphere. — But it is principally in the 

 results of spectroscopic observations that the great steps have been made. 

 Much has been done in the examination of Nebulae, Comets, and Auroral 

 and Zodiacal light ; but the greatest share of attention has been directed 

 to the constitution of the Sun, chiefly as revealed by the observations 

 made in total eclipses. (It would be wrong to omit to mention that Mr. 



