XIII. Contributions to terrestrial magnetism.—No. XI

Abstract

The object of the present ( i. e. the Eleventh) Number of the Contributions to Terrestrial Magnetism is the completion of the great national undertaking, the Magnetic Survey of the South Polar Regions of the Globe, corresponding to the Epoch 1840—1845. The Survey originated in a Report presented to the British Association for the Advancement of Science at the Liverpool Meeting in 1837, entitled “ On the Variations of the Intensity of the Earth’s Magnetic Force observed at different points of the Earth’s Surface:” copies of this Report were widely circulated amongst the Members of the Association previously to the Meeting at Newcastle in the following year, 1838; and having received a favourable notice in the opening address of the then Secretaries of the Association, Dr. George Peacock and Sir Roderick Murchison, resolutions were passed by the General Committee, which are printed in pages xxi and xxii of the “Annual Report of the Proceedings at Newcastle in August 1838.” These resolutions having been formally communicated to the Royal Society, a joint committee of the two scientific institutions was appointed to bring the subject of the equipment of a naval expedition for magnetic observations in the Arctic Seas under the consideration of Her Majesty’s Government. A single sentence from the address of this Committee may be cited as evidencing the spirit in which the joint application of the Royal Society and of the British Association was made to Her Majesty’s Government.