Report of the Annual Meeting

RECOMMENDATIONS ADOPTED BY THE GENERAL COMMITTEE AT THE
OXFORD MEETING IN JUNE 1847.

Involving Applications to Government and Public Institutions.

That an application be made to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, to appropriate a suitable vessel for the purpose of an investigation of the Phænomena of the Tides.

That application be made to the Court of Directors of the Honourable East India Company, to carry into regular and continued operation the Tide Observations, which it is understood they have already ordered to be made; and to direct the nature and extent of these observations to be reported to the British Association, with a view to their being discussed and reduced, and connected with any others which have been made or may be made in other seas.

The British Association feels deeply the great importance of instituting a direct comparison, or a comparison with as few intermediate steps as possible, between the standards of length used in the survey of the great Russian and Swedish Arc of Meridian now in progress under the direction of Professor Struvé and the scientific men of Sweden and Norway, and that used in the survey of the great Indian Arc, under the authority of the Honourable East India Company, by Lt. Col. Everest, of which an account has lately been published: and the Association, in the full confidence that every facility will be given by the Court of Directors for effecting this comparison, and that they will, if possible, consent to an arrangement by which the two Standards may be brought together, and thus directly compared, instructs the Council, that an application he made to the Honourable Court of Directors of the East India Company, to grant the needful facility for effecting this comparison.

The General Committee, having had the satisfaction to receive amongst the eminent Foreign Guests of the British Association at Oxford, Professors Langberg and Esmark of Christiania, and Professor Nilsson of Stockholm, take this opportunity to request those gentlemen, to convey to the distinguished Scientific Societies with which in their own countries they are respectively connected, the importance which the British Association attaches to the establishment, if it be possible, of a Magnetical and Meteorological Observatory in Finmarken, as a station where the phænomena of those sciences could be most advantageously studied; and also their hope, that the observations which have been carried on for some years past with such indefatigable zeal at Christiania may be continued, and that the observations may be published at as early a date as from circumstances may be found convenient.

Recommendations not involving Grants of Money.

That Mr. Ronalds and Mr. Robert Hunt be requested to continue the Experiments with the Actinograph at Kew.

That Dr. Andrews of Belfast be requested to prepare a Report on the Heat developed in Chemical action.

That Mr. Mallet be requested to continue his investigations on the corrosion of Iron Rails in and out of use.

That Dr. Smith of Manchester be requested to report upon the chemical analysis of Air and Water of Populous Towns.

That Mr. W. Thompson be requested to prepare a Supplementary Report on the Fauna of Ireland.

That Mr. Robert Hunt be requested to prepare a Report on the state of knowledge of the Chemical Influence of the Solar Radiations.

That the Committee for conducting Experiments with Captive Balloons be re-appointed, and to consist of the Rev. Dr. Robinson, Professor Wheatstone and Colonel Sabine.

That the following Communications presented to this Meeting be printed at full length among the Reports to the Association: viz.

On the relation which exists between contraction in volume and development of heat, in mixtures of Sulphuric Acid and Water, by Professor Langberg.

On Ethnology, by Chevalier Bunsen.

On the Original Inhabitants of Scandinavia, by Professor Nilsson.

On the Mean Temperature of various places on the Globe, by Professor Dove.

On the Turbine, by Mr. Glynn.

That Sections D. and E. be incorporated under the name of the Section of Zoology and Botany, including Physiology.

That the Council be authorized, if they shall think fit, to divide the publication of the Transactions into two parts, to be published essively, at their discretion, in order to ensure an earlier delivery of such Papers as may be at once ready for publication.

That copies of the Catalogues of Lalande and Lacaille be presented to M. Struvé, M. Leverrier, Mr. J. C. Adams, and the Rev. R. Sheepshanks.

Recommendations of Special Researches in Science, involving Grants of Money.

KEW OBSERVATORY.

That the sum of £150 be placed at the disposal of the Council for the purpose of maintaining the establishment in Kew Observatory.

MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE.

That a Paper, containing Suggestions on Observations of the Annular Eclipse, be printed and circulated, under the direction of Professor Powell; and that a sum not exceeding £2 be granted for that purpose.

That a sum of £3 10s. 9d. be placed at the disposal of Mr. Birt, to complete his Report on Atmospherical Waves.

CHEMICAL SCIENCE.

That Dr. Percy and Dr. Miller be requested to continue their researches on Crystalline Slags, with a renewal of the original grant of £20, not yet expended.

That Dr. Schunck be requested to continue his researches on Colouring Matters used in the Arts, with the balance (£5) of the original grant of £10.

GEOLOGY.

That a Committee, consisting of Sir H. T. De la Beche, Sir Wm. J. Hooker, Dr. Daubeny, Dr. J. D. Hooker, Mr. A. Henfrey, and Mr. R. Hunt, be requested to investigate the influence of Carbonic Acid on the growth of Plants allied to those found in the Coal-formation, with a grant of £20.

That a Committee, consisting of Mr. R. Mallet, Mr. Wm. Hopkins, Pro

fessor Oldham, and Professor Lloyd, be appointed for the purpose of constructing a self-registering instrument for observing the Transit and Dimensions of Earthquake-waves, and for setting the same systematically at work at Dublin, or at such other station as may be desirable, with a grant of £50.

ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY.

That the Committee, consisting of Mr. Hugh E. Strickland, Dr. Daubeny, Professor Lindley and Professor Henslow, be requested to continue their experiments on the Vitality of Seeds, with a grant of £10.

That Dr. Lankester, Professor Owen and Mr. Richard Taylor, be requested to continue the superintendence of the publication of tabular forms in reference to the Periodical Phænomena of Animals and Vegetables, with a renewed grant of £10.

That a Committee, consisting of Mr. Spence and Mr. T. V. Wollaston, be requested to aid Mr. G. Newport in preparing his Report (requested for last year) on the Scorpionidæ and Tracheary Arachnidæ, with a grant of £10.

That Professor E. Forbes, Mr. Goodsir, Mr. Patterson, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Ball, Mr. J. Smith, Mr. Couch, Professor Allman, Mr. M'Andrew, Mr. Alder, Mr. Hope and Captain Portlock, be requested to continue their investigations into the Marine Zoology of Britain by means of the dredge, with a grant of £10.

That Dr. Carpenter's Report on Microscopic Textures be illustrated by Plates, not exceeding twenty in number.

Synopsis of Grants of Money appropriated to Scientific Objects by the General Committee at the Oxford Meeting, June 1847, with the Name of the Member, who, alone or as the First of a Committee, is entitled to draw for the Money.

Ken Observatory.

At the disposal of the Council for maintaining the establishment at the Kew Observatory

....

Mathematical and Physical Science. POWELL, Prof.-Observation Papers for the Annular Eclipse.. BIRT, W. R.- On Atmospheric Waves.....

Chemical Science.

PERCY, Dr.-On Crystalline Slags, &c.....

SCHUNCK, Dr.-On Colouring Matters

Geology.

DE LA BECHE, Sir H. T.-Influence of Carbonic Acid on Vege

tation of Plants, &c.

....