PROCEEDINGS OF THE MEETING. 
99 
physical Astronomy, undertaken at the request of the former 
Meeting of the Association at York. 
Professor Airy gave an account of the contents of his Re¬ 
port, and read those parts of it which he considered as pos¬ 
sessing the most general interest. 
Mr. Lubbock’s Report on the present state of our knowledge 
respecting the Tides being next in order, the substance of it 
was delivered to the Meeting, in the absence of the author, by 
the Rev. William Whewell, and illustrated by the exhibition 
of a Map of the World on which Mr. Whewell had drawn the 
co-tidal lines passing through the points where it is high water 
at the same time. 
On Wednesday, at one o’clock, the Meeting having re-assem- 
bled in the Theatre, the Chairman of the four Sub-committees 
read the minutes of the transactions of the Sectional Meetings. 
At the conclusion of the minutes of the Geological Section, 
the President requested the Meeting to allow the Wollaston 
Medal, which had been awarded by the Geological Society to 
Mr. William Smith, to be delivered to him in the presence of 
the Members of the Association. The President of the Geolo¬ 
gical Society, Mr. Murchison, having in consequence presented 
the medal to him, in the name of that Institution, as a testimony 
of respect to the acknowledged “ Father of English Geology,” 
Mr. Smith expressed his gratitude for the high honour which 
had been conferred upon him in the Assembly of the British 
Association, and in the public Theatre of so distinguished a 
University,—an honour, he said, which was the more grateful 
to his feelings, from the circumstance of Oxfordshire being his 
native county. He little thought in his youth that so proud 
a moment as the present would ever arrive ; and he trusted 
that his example and success would stimulate others to follow 
in the same course. In devoting himself to his geological pur¬ 
suits, and opening a new page of knowledge, he had had the 
satisfaction of procuring the good will of many kind and indul¬ 
gent friends; he hoped that he had served his country, and in 
so doing he had endeavoured to serve his God. 
Professor Gumming being then called upon by the President, 
read a Report on Thermo-electricity. 
Mr. Forbes gave an account of his Report on the present 
state of Meteorology, and read extracts from it. 
Mr. Willis delivered a verbal Report on the present state of 
the Philosophy of Sound, illustrated by diagrams and musical 
experiments. 
In the Evening, at nine o’clock, a Meeting was held in the 
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