Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-09-28
BRITISH ENTHUSIASM FOR AME.
RIGA,

INV NAVNb va AOAs "Ms AhVuhRhOus
Professor Sir VIM. Thompson,
President of the British Associa-
ton, spoke as follows in his open
ing address at the recent meeting
of the society in Glasgow:
A conversation which l had with
Professor Newcomb one evening
last June in Professor Henry's
drawing-room, in the Smithsonian
Institute, Washington, has forced
me to give all my spare thoughts
ever since to Hopkins problem Of
procession and mutation, assuming
the earth a rigid spheroidal shell
filed with liquid. Six weeks ago,
when landed in England after a
most interesting trip to America
and back, and | became painfully
conscious that l must have the
honor to address you here to-day, l
wished to write an address of which
science in America should be the
subject. | came home, indeed,
wildly impressed with much that
l had seen both in the great Exhi-
bition of Philadelphia and out Of
it, showing the truest scientific
spirit and devotion, the originality,
the inyentivenesS, the patient, per-
severing thoroughness of work, the
appropriateness, and the generous
open mindedness and sympathy
from which the great things Of
science come.
l wish | could speak to you OF
the veteran Henry, generous rival
of Faraday in electromagnetic dis
covery; of Pierce, the founder Of
high mathematics in America; of
Bache, and of the splendid heritage
he has left to America and to the
world in the United States Coast
Survey; of the great school of as
tronomers which followed-New.
ton, Newcomb, Watson, Young,
Alvan Clarke, Rutherford, Draper
father and son; of Commander
Belknap and his great exploration
Of the Pacific depths by pianofortt
wire with imperfect apparatus sup.
piled from Glasgow, out of which
he forced a success in his own way
and of Captain Sigsbee, who fol
lowed with like fervor and resolu
ton, and made further improve
ments in the apparatus by which
he has done marvels Of easy, quick
and sure deep-sea sounding in hi
little surveying ship Blake; and O
the admirable official spirit whicl
makes such men and such doing
possible in the United States nava
service. l would like to tell you
too, of my reasons for confidently ex
pecting that American hydrograph,
will soon supply the data from tida
observations, long ago asked of ou
own government in vain by Com
mittee of the British Association
by which the amount of the earth
elastic yielding to the distorting in
fluence of sun and moon will b
measured; and of my strong hop
that the compass department Of tn
American navy will repay the deb
to France, England and Germany
so appreciatively acknowledged il
their reprint of the works of Pois
son, Airy, Archibald Smith, Evan
and the Liverpool Compass Com
mittee, by giving in return a fresI
marine survey of terrestrial mag
netism to supply the navigator wit
data for correcting his compass
without sights of sun Or stars.
should tell you, also, of "0l
Prob's' weather warnings, whic
} cost the nation $25O,OO0 a yea
money well spent say the Wester
farmers, and not they alone; in tn
: the whole people Of the Unite
States are agreed, and though Den
ocrats or Republicans playing tn
, Economical ticket may for half
session stop the appropriations
even the United States Coast SUI
vey, no one would for a mome1
think Of starving "0ld Prob" an
now that eighty per cent. of h
probabilities have proved true, an
Gen. Myers has for a month bac
: oaoead N call his daily forenas