Report of the ... Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science

That the Committee for providing a large outline Map of the World, be re-appointed, with the addition of Sir James Ross and Dr. R. G. Latham; with £15 at their disposal for the purpose.

Not involving Grants of Money or Application to Government or Public

Authorities.

That Lieut.-Colonel Portlock, Professor James Forbes, Mr. Mallet, Mr. Phillips, Dr. Robinson, Colonel Sabine, and Professor Stokes, be requested to consider and report upon the best form of apparatus for registering the direction and amount of earthquake vibrations.

That Colonel Sabine be requested to prepare a Report on the principal magnetical results obtained at the magnetical observatories.

That Dr. Gladstone be requested to continue his inquiries on the influence of light on the vitality of plants.

That Mr. Robert Hunt be requested to continue his investigations of the chemical action of the solar rays.

That the following Gentlemen be a Committee to report on the best means of preserving pyritous and other specimens of organic remains which are liable to decomposition, viz. J. S. Bowerbank, Esq., Professor Johnston, J. E. Lee, Esq.

That Mr. Spence Bate be requested to give a Report on the present state of our knowledge of the lower forms of British Crustacea.

That the Kew Committee be requested to furnish a Report to the Council, on the definition of the boiling-point of water at present adopted in this country for the thermometric scale; and that the Council be requested to communicate with the President and Council of the Royal Society, should any change in that respect be deemed desirable.

That Professor Johnston be requested to furnish a Report on the relations of Chemistry to Geology.

That the following papers, with the consent of the authors, be printed in full in the Transactions of the British Association for the year 1853 :W. Fairbairn Esq.-Account of experimental researches to determine the Strength of Locomotive Boilers, and the causes which lead to Explosions.

James Oldham, Esq.-On some of the Physical Features of the Humber.
On the Rise, Progress, and Present Position of

Steam Navigation in Hull.
J. P. Bell, Esq., M.D.-Observations on the Character and Measure-
ments of Degradation of the Yorkshire Coast.

That Mr. John Frederick Bateman, C.E., F.G.S., be requested to Report on the state of our knowledge on the supply of water to towns.

That the thanks of the British Association be given to the Parliamentary Committee, for the unceasing attention they have paid to the interests of science, both in communications to Government, and in proceedings in the Houses of Parliament.

The Members of the British Association have learned with satisfaction that it is the intention of Government to direct, that in future, daily meteorological observations shall be made at sea, in correspondence with the plan adopted by the Government of the United States, on the suggestion of Lieut. Maury, and to take such further steps, in reference to the Mercantile Marine of Great Britain, as may be best suited to stimulate and encourage the Masters of British merchant ships to take interest in investigations by which the times of passage between different ports have already, in many instances, been materially shortened, and which may lead to other results of the greatest importance to practical navigation.

The British Association entirely concurs in the opinion, that to make the observations thus contemplated serviceable for the purposes for which they are designed, it will be necessary to make provision for their co-ordination, and for deriving from them the instruction which they may be capable of yielding, primarily for the advantage of navigation, and secondarily for the benefit of science.

In this view the General Committee requests that the Council will communicate on the subject with the Parliamentary Committee, and will take such steps, either by deputation to Government or otherwise, as may appear

to them desirable.

That as very great inconvenience is frequently occasioned by the injury or destruction of instruments and specimens arriving from Foreign parts, arising from careless re-packing at the Custom-House, it be referred to the Council to consider of the best mode of obtaining a remedy for the evil.

Synopsis of Grants of Money appropriated to Scientific Objects by the General Committee at the Hull Meeting in September 1853, with the Name of the Member, who alone, or as the First of a Committee, is entitled to draw for the Money.

Kew Observatory.

At the disposal of the Council for defraying Expenses

Physical Science.

EARL OF ROSSE-Committee to investigate the Physical aspect

of the Moon

FORBES, Prof.-Expense of certain Thermometers constructed for the inquiry on Conduction of Heat

Chemical Science.

HODGES, Prof.-Investigations on Flax

RANKINE, Mr.On the Cooling of Air in Hot Climates
FAIRBAIRN, Mr.-On the Effects of Temperature on Wrought
Iron Plates

Geology.

MALLET, Mr.-Experiments on Earthquake Waves