1876.] 



President's Address. 



U7 



sliould be kno^Ti ; tliat tlie rules followed in forecasting storms should be 

 published for the information of future meteorologists ; that it would be 

 advantageous to publish weekly aA^erages of the climate of the British 

 Isles for the use of agriculturists and collectors of statistics of health, 

 mortality, and the distribution of disease, these averages to be printed in a 

 tabular form, giving the results not only of the week but of the previous 

 week, of the corresponding week of the foregoing year, and of the aver- 

 age of the corresponding weeks in the foregoing 10 years. That the 

 operations of the self-recording observatories should be continued as at 

 present, until the expiration of the 12-year sun-period, after which 

 the subject of their number and position might be advantageously 

 reconsidered ; and that special observations should at once be taken for 

 the purpose of comparing their records, ascertaining their local peculia- 

 rities, and determining such constants as would ultimately permit of a 

 large reduction of their number ; and with regard to the eye-observing 

 stations, [it was recommended that their position and number should 

 be reconsidered, with the view of obtaining a closer approximation to 

 the meteorological conditions of the British Isles. 



More important, however, by far, than these recommendations relating 

 to the collection and reduction of observations, is the expressed opinion 

 of your Council that the most practical method of advancing meteorology 

 is by endeavouring to place the science on a firm basis, not by the accu- 

 mulation and digestion of observations, but by research and experiDient — 

 and that this can only be done by the Grovernment securing the services 

 of scientific men who can devote their time to this object. To this end 

 your Council recommended that the Office should be presided over by a 

 man of the highest scientific attainments, preferably as sole head of the 

 office, and if not, as chairman of a committee composed, like the pre- 

 sent, of men eminent in science, but fewer in number — and that an 

 adequate salary should be given to the presiding head, if an individual, 

 or to the members of the committee, if it be retained. 



Such is the substance of the recommendations of your Council ; and I 

 have every reason to hope that they will be carried out by the Govern- 

 ment in as liberal a spirit as were our previous recommendations for the 

 guidance of the Office in 1855 and 1865. Should this be the case, we 

 may expect to be applied to for suggestions as to the general or precise 

 nature of the researches and experiments which your Council have indi- 

 cated as being essential for placing the science on a firm basis. We 

 have excellent examples of what may be expected from such researches 

 in the essays of our late Fellow, Professor Daniell, and in the more recent 

 contributions to meteorological science of Sir J. Herschel, Balfour Stewart, 

 T^^ndall, Strachey, and others ; and we look to further improvements 

 from the application of the study of hydrodynamics and the phenomena 

 of light, electricity, and acoustics, and other branches of physical science, 



