PREFACE. 
The plan of the British Association for the Advancement 
of Science, and the principles on which it was founded, are 
given in the first pages of this volume, which contain a 
reprint of the Report of the Meeting at York in September 
1831 : the second part of the volume presents a specimen of 
the results furnished by the Meeting at Oxford in June 1832, 
The contents of the present publication will show di¬ 
stinctly the path which the Association is pursuing, and the 
difference between its objects and those proposed by any 
other Scientific Societies or Meetings at home or abroad. 
It will be observed that the Papers here printed in detail 
consist chiefly of reviews of the progress of various branches 
of science, drawn up expressly at the request of the Asso¬ 
ciation and by the recommendation of its Committees. 
The want of better information respecting the recent ad¬ 
vances and actual state of our knowledge has long been 
felt in every department of inquiry, and the influence which 
the Association has been able to exercise, in procuring the 
supply of this desideratum , may be judged of from the de¬ 
claration of the Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge, who 
stated at the late Meeting that no inducement but that of 
such a solicitation as he had received, could have impelled 
him to undertake the task which, in the following pages, 
he has fulfilled. The ability and industry which have thus 
been enlisted in rendering a laborious and responsible service 
to science, prove the efficacy of a system of public invitation 
in giving incitement and direction to the energies of indi¬ 
viduals, and show the existence of a public spirit entirely in 
accordance with the designs of the institution. 
In publishing these reviews or reports, the responsibility 
which the Association takes upon itself must be understood 
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