THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AS EXEMPLIFIED 
IN 
TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM. 
ANNUAL PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 
BY 
G. W. LITTLEHALES. 
America will endeavor to pay back to the world her share 
of the debt which human welfare owes for the magnetic 
compass and especially to France, England, and Germany 
for the often acknowledged benefits in the measurement and 
application of terrestrial magnetic forces that have been de¬ 
rived from the labors of their great mathematicians, by 
giving in return comprehensive surveys of terrestrial mag¬ 
netism to supply scientists with facts for the future molding 
of philosophic thought and captains of industry with more 
perfect means for the application of the physical agencies 
to the working-power of commerce. 
Although, compared with the older earth-sciences, terres¬ 
trial magnetism is a recent branch of geophysics, its potent 
influences reach at least as far back as the beginnings 
of oceanic navigation, and the empire of our civilization is 
built around it in so far as that has been shaped by oceanic 
transit and oceanic commerce. 
A retrospective glance at the beginnings and growth of 
knowledge in terrestrial magnetism will serve to heighten 
our appreciation of the important advancements that are 
now being made in this branch of science. 
Even if it be admitted that a knowledge of the declination 
of the compass needle from the true north and south direc- 
46—Bull. Phil. Soc., Wash., Vol. 14. (327) 
