PREFACE TO THE FTRST REPORT. 
1 o 
1 •> 
then become a centre of instruction to its own neighbourhood, 
from which correct means and methods of investigation might 
be derived. Thus, for instance, a large proportion of the phi¬ 
losophical instruments at present in use are so imperfectly 
constructed, and so discordant in their indications, as to be of 
little service to science; but if Societies will send to the next 
Meeting of the Association the Thermometer or 'portable Baro¬ 
meter which they employ , in order that they may be examined, 
and that any error which may be found in them may be rectified 
or estimated, the instruments will thenceforward not only speak 
the same language among themselves, but will become standards 
with which in every part of the kingdom those of insulated ob¬ 
servers may be compared. 
The principles which have been already noticed as having 
regulated the choice of some of the subjects of investigation 
recommended in the present Report, are important to be borne 
in mind, at the ensuing Meeting , by those who may take a share 
in proposing a matter of inquiry or discussion. To come to a 
common understanding on unsettled questions of general in¬ 
terest, to fix the data on which important points of theory 
hinge, to collect and connect extensive series of observations ; 
these appear to be the objects which peculiarly belong to the 
Association, and which should therefore be chiefly, if not ex¬ 
clusively, contemplated. It is also very material that those who 
propose any subject of inquiry should have considered it well 
in a practical point of view. It is not enough to put forth 
general recommendations of inquiries without making specific 
arrangements for their being actually undertaken. The Com¬ 
mittee which met for the first time at York laboured under a 
disadvantage in this respect, from not knowing on what auxili¬ 
aries to reckon. Much was in consequence left to subsequent 
correspondence with the members of the different Sub-com¬ 
mittees, which, had it been possible, ought to have been settled 
at the Meeting itself. 
These deficiencies, however, have been so far surmounted, 
that a highly valuable store of appropriate scientific communi¬ 
cations, as has been seen, is already provided for the ap¬ 
proaching Meeting ; and in this respect also it will possess a 
