434 Proceedings of the Brituh Association. 



" How do you happen to have made important discoveries, and 

 then stop short instead of completing those inventions, as Priest- 

 ley and Watt have done/ 1 " They have not escaped me, 1 ' was 

 the reply, " but I am afraid of the reviewers." The reviewers 

 might formerly have had the power to depress merit, but they 

 cjuld not do so any longer. If any man was too modest to 

 give an account of his scientific proceedings to the Section, ano- 

 ther member would be prepared to act as a deputy, in order to 

 get that praise awarded to him which he might happen to de- 

 serve. There were numerous other points in which the merits 

 of the Association could be considered, but time did not allow 

 him to dilate upon them. Mr Harcourt read the names of the 

 individuals appointed as officers for the year. Treasurer, Mr 

 John Taylor — General Secretaries, Mr V. Harcourt and Mr 

 Baillie — Assistant General Secretary, Professor Phillips — Se- 

 cretaries, Dr Turner and Mr Yates. Mr Taylor, the treasurer, 

 gave a statement of the funds of the Society. On the 30th of 

 July last there was cash in the treasurer's hands to the amount 

 of L. 509, — in the stocks L. £361, and unsold copies of works 

 about L. 650. In Dublin the treasurer had received 1228 sub- 

 scribers, and L. 1750, together with an additional sum of L. 94, 

 for books sold, making the total income L. 5214. The ex- 

 penses and sums due by the Association were probably L.1000, 

 leaving a clear property of L. 4214. It was gratifying to state 

 that the receipts of the preceding year in Edinburgh were 

 L. 1626, while in Dublin they amounted to L. 1750. It was 

 also very pleasing to be able to state that grants for the advance- 

 ment of science, of L. 1700, had been placed this year at the 

 disposal of the committee. This sura was distributed as follows : 

 L. 500 for a duplicate reduction of the astronomical observa- 

 tions made at L'Ecole Militaire of Paris ; L. 100 for determin- 

 ing the constant of lunar notation ; L. 100 for observations on 

 the temperature of the tide; L. 250 for continuing tidal obser- 

 vations at Liverpool and the port of London ; L. 100 for the 

 advancement of Meteorology ; L. 30 for the continuation of 

 Professor Wheatstone's experiments ; L. 30 for reducing to 

 practice Dr Jerrard's plan for solving equations of the 5th or 

 higher degrees ; L. 20 to Mr Johnston for completing the tables 

 of chemical constants ; L. 30 to Fairburn for experiments on 



