ical
construction to explain this.--Reference is made to the spontaneous
currents through the wires of telegraph companies, which are
frequently violent and always occur at the times of magnetic storms,
and the Report continues 'It may be worth considering whether it would
ever be desirable to establish in two directions at right angles to
each other (for instance, along the Brighton Railway and along the
North Kent Railway) wires which would photographically register in the
Royal Observatory the currents that pass in these directions,
exhibiting their indications by photographic curves in close
juxtaposition with the registers of the magnetic elements.'--In
connection with the Reduction of the Greenwich Lunar Observations from
1831 to 1851, the Report states that 'The comparison of Hansen's Lunar
Tables with the Greenwich Observations, which at the last Visitation
had been completed for one year only, has now been finished for the
twelve years 1847 to 1858. The results for the whole period agree
entirely, in their general spirit, with those for the year 1852 cited
in the last Report. The greatest difference between the merits of
Burckhardt's and Hansen's Tables appears in the Meridional Longitudes
1855, when the proportion of the sum of squares of errors is as 31
(Burckhardt) to 2 (Hansen). The nearest approach is in the Altazimuth
Latitudes 1854, when the proportion of the sum of squares of errors is
as 12 (Burckhardt) to 5 (Hansen).'--A special Address to the Members
of the Board of Visitors has reference to the proposals of M. Struve
for (amongst other matters) the improved determination of the
longitude of Valencia, and the galvanic determination of the extreme
Eastern Station of the British triangles.--On Sept. 13th I circulated
amongst the Visitors my Remarks on a Paper entitled 'On the Polar
Distances of the Greenwich Transit-Circle, by A. Marth,' printed in
the Astronomische Nachrichten; the Paper by Mr Marth was an elaborate
attack on the Greenwich methods of observation, and my Remarks were a
detailed refutation of his statements.--On Oct. 20th I made enquiry of
Sabine as to the advantage of keeping up magnetic observations. On
Oct. 22nd he wrote, avoiding my question in some measure, but saying
that our instruments must be changed for such as those at Kew (his
observatory): I replied, generally declining to act on that
advice.--In March and April I was in correspondence with Mr Cowper
(First Commissioner of