IX 
PREFACE. 
of the Meetings which it is not possible to embody in a Re¬ 
port. The speeches also, which were delivered on various 
occasions, have only been given so far as they were mate¬ 
rially connected with the order of the proceedings, or might 
serve to exemplify the principles on which the Meeting was 
conducted. It was a gratification indeed, of no common 
kind, to listen to the sentiments of so many men of varied 
talents and high reputation collected together from every 
part of the United Kingdom ; but the record of those sen¬ 
timents which could have been here presented would have 
been cold and imperfect, and in such a publication as this 
would have appeared also redundant and misplaced. 
A supply of information not less copious and valuable 
than that which is now laid before the public is in prepa¬ 
ration to enrich the next volume of these Reports. The 
printing of an Account of the Recent Additions to our Know¬ 
ledge of the Phenomena of Sound , which was delivered at 
Oxford by the Rev. Mr. Willis, has been deferred, to 
allow the author leisure to prepare it for publication. The 
postponed Report on the Advances which have been recently 
made in the Integral and Differential Calculus , by tbe Rev. 
Mr. Peacock; that on the principal Questions debated in 
the Philosophy of Botany , by Professor Lindley ; and 
that on the Question of the Permanence of the relative Level 
of the Sea and Land , by Mr. Stevenson, are promised for 
the next Meeting; and in addition, Reports have been un¬ 
dertaken on the following subjects 
On the State of our Knowledge respecting the Magnetism 
of the Earth , by Mr. Christie ; 
On the present State of the Analytical Theory of Hydro¬ 
statics and Hydrodynamics , by the Rev. Mr. C hall is ; 
On the State of our Knowledge of Hydraulics considered 
as a Branch of Engineering , by Mr. George Rennie ; 
On the State of our Knoivledge of the Strength of Mate¬ 
rials , by Mr. Barlow ; 
On the State of our Knowledge respecting Mineral Veins, 
by Mr. John Taylor ; 
