Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/251

1837.] M. de Humboldt finally refers to the labours and accurate observations of M. Gauss at the Observatory of Göttingen. The methods, however, adopted by M. Gauss being already before the Royal Society, in a memoir which has been communicated by him, renders it unnecessary here to enter into the explanation given of them by M. de Humboldt. He has referred to them in order that those members of the Royal Society who have most advanced the study of terrestrial magnetism, and who are acquainted with the localities of colonial establishments, may take into consideration, whether, in the new stations to be established, a bar of great weight furnished with a mirror should be employed, or whether Gambey's needle should be used: his wish is only to see the lines of magnetic stations extended, by whatever means the precision of the observations may be attained.

M. de Humboldt concludes by begging His Royal Highness to excuse the extent of his communication. He considered it would be advantageous to unite under a single point of view what has been done or prepared in different countries towards attaining the object of great simultaneous operations for the discovery of the laws of terrestrial magnetism.

Having very fully laid before the Council the contents of M. de Humboldt's letter, we have now to offer our opinion upon the subject it embraces. There can, we consider, be no question of the importance of the plan of observation which is here proposed for the investigation of the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism, or of the prospect which such a plan holds out of the ultimate discovery of the laws by which those phenomena are governed. Although the most striking of these phenomena have now been known for two centuries, although careful observations of them have within that period been made, and that still more care and attention have been bestowed upon those more recently discovered, yet the accessions to our knowledge, not only regarding the cause of the phenomena, but even with respect to the laws which connect them, bears a very small proportion to the mass of observations which have been made. This has arisen in a great measure, if not wholly, from the imperfection of the data from which attempts have been made to draw conclusions. Whatever theories may have been advanced in explanation of these phenomena, or attempts made to connect them by empirical laws; still, whenever comparisons have been instituted between the results of observation and such theories or laws, it has, in general, been doubtful whether the discrepancies which have been found might not as justly be attributed to errors in the observations, as to fallacies in the theory or incorrectness in the laws. Under these circumstances, the Royal Society, as a society for the promotion of natural knowledge, cannot but hail with satisfaction a proposition for carrying on observations of phenomena most interest-