1876. J 
( 4 l6 ) 
PROGRESS IN SCIENCE. 
PHYSICS. 
An Address on the “ Fundamental Principles of Scientific Ardtic Investi- 
gation,” was delivered, in September last, before the 48th Meeting of German 
Naturalists and Physicians at Graz, by Lieut. Charles Weyprecht. The 
author argues that the scientific results obtained by former expeditions bear 
no comparison to the enormous sums expended upon them. Within the last 
fifty years England and America alone have sent out more than twenty-five 
large or small expeditions, at a cost of far beyond £ 1 , 000,000 sterling. The 
most important scientific results of this long series of costly expeditions are 
— the discovery of the magnetic pole, the determination of the physical con- 
stants for a number of points, a more extended knowledge of the Natural 
History of high northern regions, and, finally, the topography in detail of a 
cluster of islands of little importance. But the gains to Natural History are 
locally far too limited considering the number of voyages, nor have the re- 
searches been systematically conducted, while the physical observations — 
owing to the manner in which they have been made — offer us little more than 
unconnected average values, which, through local influences and annual fluc- 
tuations, neither to be avoided nor overcome, possess less value than generally 
has been accorded to them. We are still wanting from the Ardtic regions even one 
series of observations upon the disturbances of the three magnetic elements. The 
data furnished by the Expeditions are confined to absolute determinations — 
sadly wanting in accuracy, because exposed to every casual disturbance — and to 
observations upon variations of declination. The disturbances of the horizontal 
intensity and of inclination have been utterly negledted. Of the relation in which 
the horizontal and vertical components of the earth’s magnetism stand to each 
other during the disturbances we know nothing, and are therefore unable to 
decide whether the total force may not rather simply change in diredtion, and 
not in degree of strength. As to intensity and inclination, there is not a 
point from which we possess sufficiently accurate data to serve, after a lapse 
of years, as a basis for determination of secular changes. We might almost 
say that we know not much more of Nature’s doings, in high northern and 
southern latitudes, than just enough to show us how important a thorough 
scientific investigation of these regions is to natural philosophy in all its 
branches. If we enquire why the scientific results obtained are so scanty, we 
discover that the fault lies less in the observations made than in the generally 
false principles on which hitherto Ardtic Expeditions have been sent out — 
principles which, in most cases, have adtually been diredt hindrances in the 
way of true scientific research. The grand fault has been that the first objedt 
of almost all the Expeditions has been geographical discovery. The investi- 
gation of those vast unknown regions about the Poles will and must be pur- 
sued, regardless of cost of money and human life, so long as man makes any 
pretension to progress. But its great objedt must be a nobler one than map- 
ping and naming icebound islands, bays, and promontories, in this or that 
language, or reaching a higher latitude than any predecessor. Descriptive 
geography neither can nor should be excluded, but must not stand as the 
objedt first in rank : in uninhabited and uninhabitable latitudes, which by force 
of their physical conditions are important for science alone, it has value only 
in so far as the meteorological, physical, and hydrographical phenomena of 
the earth are influenced by the charadter of the land ; broad and general 
sketches therefore suffice. The geographical objedt of former Expeditions 
must bear the blame that the stations of observation are crowded so one- 
sidedly within a single region. In the search for a North-West passage, and 
