PREFACE TO THE FIRST REPORT. 
In giving to the public a Report of the Proceedings of the 
British Association for the Advancement of Science, it 
has been considered an important object to add to the account 
of the past Meeting a distinct view of what is to be expected 
from the next, and to announce the result of the applications 
which have been made to individuals, requesting them, in the 
name of the Association, to undertake the reports and researches 
recommended by its Committees in different branches of science. 
[ This announcement is not reprinted, as the effect of the 
applications now appears in the Second Report .] 
It will be observed that the object to which the Committees 
have in general paid the first attention has been, to procure 
Reports on the state and desiderata of the several branches of 
science, preliminary to measures which may be hereafter adopt¬ 
ed to advance them. To the investigation, however, of a few 
points of prominent interest and importance they have at once 
proceeded to invite attention; and of these there are some 
which it is highly desirable should receive the consideration of 
experimenters and observers who cannot be individually soli¬ 
cited to take a share in them. Such is the examination of those 
first data of chemistry, {Recommendations, p. 53,) which, lying 
at the very foundation of the science, are proposed to be set¬ 
tled by the common consent of experienced chemists, and to 
which it is hoped that every one possessing the necessary means 
and habits of accurate experiment will lend his assistance; such, 
also, are those meteorological and botanical researches, (. Re¬ 
commendations, p, 50, 55,) which, belonging to a lower order of 
