P R E F A CЕ. THE plan of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and the principles on which it was founded, are given in the first pages of this volume, which contain a reprint of the Report of the Meeting at York in September 1831: the second part of the volume presents a specimen of the results furnished by the Meeting at Oxford in June 1832. The contents of the present publication will show distinctly the path which the Association is pursuing, and the difference between its objects and those proposed by any other scientific Societies or Meetings at home or abroad. It will be observed that the Papers here printed in detail consist chiefly of reviews of the progress of various branches of science, drawn up expressly at the request of the Association and by the recommendation of its Committees. The want of better information respecting the recent advances and actual state of our knowledge has long been felt in every department of inquiry, and the influence which the Association has been able to exercise, in procuring the supply of this desideratum, may be judged of from the declaration of the Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge, who stated at the late Meeting that no inducement but that of such a solicitation as he had received, could have impelled him to undertake the task which, in the following pages, he has fulfilled. The ability and industry which have thus been enlisted in rendering a laborious and responsible service to science, prove the efficacy of a system of public invitation in giving incitement and direction to the energies of individuals, and show the existence of a public spirit entirely in accordance with the designs of the institution. In publishing these reviews or reports, the responsibility which the Association takes upon itself must be understood A 2 |