116 



Anniversary Meeting. 



[Nov. 30, 



their rates should be ascertained at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, 

 in addition to the necessary repetition of the original experiments at the 

 Kew Observatory. 



The documents thus referred to having been read at a recent evening 

 meeting, and suitable communications having been made to those Fellows 

 of the Society who participated in the original recommendation of the 

 experiments, a Committee has been named, with Colonel Walker as one of 

 its members, to meet as soon as may be convenient after his arrival in 

 England, to prepare a reply to the Indian Government. 



It may perhaps be permissible to notice, on this occasion, that the experi- 

 ments on the retardation which pendulums experience when vibrated in 

 different gases, for which a sum was allotted some years since by the 

 Government-Grant Committee, yet await the supervision of an experimen- 

 talist having sufficient leisure and interest in the subject. The apparatus 

 at Kew may be made quite suitable for the purpose ; and the occasion is 

 favourable. 



The successful voyage and safe return of the North-German Polar Ex- 

 pedition is an event on which the Royal Society may add its sincere con- 

 gratulations to those of the public at large. The progress of geographical 

 discovery, connecting with itself, as it does, the advancement of many physical 

 sciences which require, either for extension or for confirmation, the assu- 

 rance derived from experimental research, has for nearly three centuries 

 been carried on in the Arctic Regions, where it has afforded a common 

 field for the enterprises of the British and of the northern continental 

 nations — enterprises conducive to hardihood, and to qualities which are the 

 result of a generous emulation, unmixed with the deteriorating influences 

 which are but too apt to be generated by the rivalries of war. The earliest of 

 these undertakings were indeed antecedent to the existence of the Royal 

 Society ; but on their revival — which took place in 1818, at the termination 

 of the great War by which Europe had been desolated for so many years — 

 the British Government, at the instigation of the Royal Society, was the 

 first to recommence, and for several years to continue, a succession of under- 

 takings, in which we have now to recognize the successful participation of 

 more than one kindred and allied people. 



The German expedition consisted of the i Germania,' a steamer of about 

 80 tons, duly strengthened for encounters with ice, commanded by Captain 

 Koldeway, who seems to have possessed in an eminent degree the special 

 qualifications required in such an enterprise. Besides her naval comple- 

 ment of twelve officers and seamen, four gentlemen were embarked for 

 special scientific services, to whom were confided, among other objects, 

 the researches preliminary to the measurement of an arc of the meridian 

 on the coast-line of East Greenland. The * Germania' was accompanied 

 by a smaller vessel, not furnished with steam apparatus, named " The 



