10 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST REPORT. 
facts, are open to a much wider class of observers, and are ca¬ 
pable of being extended through all parts of the country by 
the exertions of individuals, and still more effectually by those 
of Societies. 
The nature and value of the aid which Provincial Societies 
might render to science through the system of the British As¬ 
sociation, and the advantages which they may themselves de¬ 
rive from it, have been lately adverted to by the Council of the 
Yorkshire Philosophical Society in the following manner*. 
“ The object of this system is not only to give connexion to 
the efforts of insulated inquirers, but to link Societies them¬ 
selves together in unity of purpose, and in a common participa¬ 
tion and division of labour. There are many important ques¬ 
tions in philosophy, and some whole departments of science, the 
data of which are geographically distributed, and require to be 
collected by local observations extended over a whole country; 
and this is true not only of those facts on which single sciences 
are founded, but of many which are of more enlarged applica¬ 
tion. Thus, for instance, were the elevation above the sea of 
all the low levels, and chief heights and eminences, of a country 
ascertained so generally, that every observer of nature might 
have a station within his reach from which he could fix the 
relative position in this respect of whatever might be the object 
of his research,—of how many questions, in how many sciences, 
would these facts contribute to the solution ? Again, supposing 
it to be ascertained also, at these stations, what is the tempe¬ 
rature of the air, and of the water,—as it falls from the sky, 
and as it is held in the reservoirs of the earth,—these are data 
of the same kind, interesting not only to meteorological science, 
but to the philosophy of organized and animated existence. 
Yet, extensive as might be the importance of such facts, and 
simple as are the processes for ascertaining them, and numer¬ 
ous as are the individuals capable of contributing to their in¬ 
vestigation, how little, nevertheless, even of this elementary 
work has yet been accomplished, either by insulated observers, 
or by those who are associated together for the express pur- 
* Report of the Council of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society for ISol—32, 
