50 



Anniversary Meeting. 



[Nov. 30. 



and so far from having brought his period of activity to a close, he 

 hopes to employ his well -earned leisure in completing a favourite 

 work, the Numerical Lunar Theory. 



His successor. Mr. Christie, from his long experience in the Royal 

 Observatory, will combine a thorough training in the remarkable 

 organisation and methodical administration for which his predecessor 

 was so conspicuous, with the full vigour of life, and an active interest 

 in the more modern developments of astronomy, in which he is alreaclv 

 distinguished. 



The future of the Royal Observatory is a subject on which the 

 mind of Sir George Airy often exercised itself, and to which he 

 alluded more than once in his Reports to the Board of Visitors. With 

 his fundamental proposition that, observational astronomy, in its 

 bearing on the improvement of navigation, must always be its main 

 line of work, every one must agree. Over and above this, the 

 expressed wish of the Board of Visitors, and the practice of the last 

 few years, have already sanctioned the addition to the ancient duties 

 of the Observatory of some of those long and systematic series of 

 observations, such as that of the solar protuberances, and the motion 

 of the fixed stars in the line of sight as shown by the spectroscope, 

 which are beyond the scope of an amateur, and above the power 

 of any individual astronomer, however devoted to his work, to 

 permanently maintain. How far it may be desirable to continue 

 magnetic and meteorological observations beyond the necessities of an 

 astronomical observatory, are questions which will doubtless engage 

 the attention of the present director. The main question must be, 

 what distribution of these branches of study among Greenwich, 

 Kew, and other establishments, will in the end best conduce to the 

 progress of science. And with a view of giving full scope to the 

 judgment and skill of the present and future holders of the office 

 the Board of Admiralty have, as I understand, decided to consider a 

 revision of the terms of the Royal Warrant under which the appoint- 

 ment is made. 



This year has been signalised by the meeting of a most important 

 scientific congress — the International Congress of Electricians, held 

 at Paris. The recent developments of the practical applications of 

 electricitv rendered the occasion favourable both for organising a 

 special exhibition devoted solely to this branch of science, and also 

 for assembling the electricians of all countries. 



The general purpose of this Congress was to discuss, and, if pos- 

 sible, to settle, some of the numerous difficulties which perplex both 

 the physicist in his studies and the constructor in his work. 



But chief among the subjects proposed to, and undertaken by, the 

 Congress was that of fixing a system of electrical measures for inter- 

 national adoption. 



