ADDRESS. 
liK 
to promote the interests of science in many branches, at least as much as 
those of art, is employed, under the able direction of the Committee, and of 
Mr. Welsh, the Curator, to record, by a self-acting process, something similar 
to that of the anemometer, the variations in the earths magnetism. Hut 1 
will not pretend to anticipate the results of the careful and extended study 
of this subject by our able associate, Col. Sabine, who has been kind enough 
to promise that we shall hear them from his own mouth in one of our 
evening meetings. Neither will 1 anticipate the report of my learned and 
distinguished predecessor in this chair, Mr. Hopkins, on a subject to which 
he called the attention of the Association at its last meeting, and on which, 
in conjunction with Mr. Fairbnirn and Mr. Joule, he has been engaged in 
a series of experiments :—I allude to the effects of pressure on the tempera* 
hire of fusion,—a problem of great importance, as bearing on the internal 
condition of our planet. 
Atvr ?. e P or .* a Committee of the Institute of France, consisting of 
MM. Lionville, Lame and Elic de Beaumont, on the subject of a Theory of 
Earthquakes,.has been transmitted to me for the use of the Association, 
from a careful discussion of several thousand of these phenomena, which 
have been recorded between the years 1801 and 1850, and a comparison „f 
the periods at which they occurred with the position of the moon in relation 
to the earth, the learned Professor, M. Perrey of Dijon, would infer that eurtl.- 
qnakes may possibly be the result of an action of attraction exercised by that 
body on the supposed fluid centre of our globe, somewhat similar to thatwhicli 
she exercises on the waters of the ocean; and the Report of the Committee 
of the Institute is so far favourable, that at their instance the Institute have 
granted funds to enable the learned Professor to continue his rosea relic* 
You will recollect how often the attention of the Association I. us heeri drawn’ 
to this subject by the observations of Mr. Milne and of Mr. Mallet, which 
atter are still going on; and that the accumulating facts arc still waiting f.»r 
a theory to explain them. 
—J ain Borr y lor thc tightness of my acquaintance with so 
captivating as well uh so practical a study. I have nothing to report, save 
ha the increasing scarcity of ironstone and coal is driving the practical men 
to have greater respect for a science which enables them to form a very 
tL .SSrSf® f ch niI,H ' rals arc like| y to be found, and to conic 
6 ,5 bkc an absolute certainty as to where they are not. When the 
Jriiij n | ! n ,effiri ?°. b ? ask , ei1, V s ^ere a square mile in all the coal-field' of 
co^L U r CUp,ed , by the mtm? 01 il * 5000 square miles of vi'iblo 
tha LtL ho " 1 m J ,c , 1 ' rcn,ai ! JS u,, tuuched ? ”— it is time, indeed, to listen to 
a * * l,C ^ luu tai,ght , Ud *°^cccasMIy, in the hands of u Murchi.,..., 
Of Britai,,; fato to fUrt U!r rCS0UrCe5 f ° r th0 ““PP'y of tliis, the life 
tn U Iarci 'yt^l y° u of the services which Meteorology may be expected 
of fcrrr 1 Uf r’ J nd l H ' rka P s there Is no better iuLncVof t.roTlc 
hnnorL^i ,0 - °‘ faCt8 ' W t‘»en, selves apparently of small 
I; u, and having apparently little connexion with each other. 
than the cEl^nf ^ be 'f 8 ? sub j cct lo rullt aml ,uw > even to a proverb, 
valioi M?! 8 U " ,d r lrcIldll!roua wave ? Yet, even here, obscr- 
M ar c lTn ,0n " i MC ,0 “° 8 01 ” 1 " rk *wl for man. 
t r n,0re - Y " 0 are <l>»‘ ‘l“- American Govern! 
Lilt , 50n, n V™ 1 ? “ ,e *'““««« a,lli u " d "- tlm direction of 
observatinn a Y r* C ° fro "' 11,0 Mercantile vessels or that nation 
lemeSr ° f r c .? rtaiu Pl™»on»n, at sea, such as winds, tides, currents and 
P o the ocean; and that the results, digested into charts and 
