Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy Part 25

The following letter was written in reply to a gentleman who had asked whether it could be ascertained by calculation how long it is since the Glacial Period existed:

_1882, July 4_.

SIR,

I should have much pleasure in fully answering your questions of July 3 if I were able to do so: but the subject really is very obscure.

(1) Though it is recognized that the glacial period (or periods) is late, I do not think that any one has ventured to fix upon a rude number of years since elapsed.

(2) We have no reason to think that the mean distance of the earth from the sun has sensibly altered. There have been changes in the eccentricity of the orbit (making the earth's distance from the sun less in one month and greater in the opposite month), but I do not perceive that this would explain glaciers.

(3) I consider it to be certain that the whole surface of the earth, at a very distant period, was very hot, that it has cooled gradually, and (theoretically and imperceptibly) is cooling still. The glaciers must be later than these hot times, and later than our last consolidated strata: but this is nearly all that I can say.

I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, G.B. AIRY.

_James Alston, Esq._

1883

From May 2nd to 29th he was at Playford. From July 10th to 20th he was travelling in South Wales with his daughters.--From Oct. 10th to Nov. 10th he was at Playford.--Between Nov. 20th of this year and Jan. 4th of the year 1884, he sat several times to Mr John Collier for his portrait: the picture was exhibited in the Academy of 1884; it is a most successful and excellent likeness.

Throughout the year he was very busy with the Numerical Lunar Theory.--In March he was officially asked to accept the office of Visitor of the Royal Observatory, which he accepted, and in this capacity attended at the Annual Visitation on June 2nd, and addressed a Memorandum to the Visitors on the progress of his Lunar Theory.--On March 12th he published in several newspapers a statement in opposition to the proposed Braithwaite and b.u.t.termere Railway, which he considered would be injurious to the Lake District, in which he took so deep an interest.--In May he communicated to "The Observatory"

a statement of his objections to a Theory advanced by Mr Stone (then President of the Royal Astronomical Society) to account for the recognized inequality in the Mean Motion of the Moon. This Theory, on a subject to which Airy had given his incessant attention for so many years, would naturally receive his careful attention and criticism, and it attracted much general notice at the time.--In December he wrote to the Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society his opinion as to the award of the Medal of the Society. In this letter he stated the principles which guided him as follows: "I have always maintained that the award of the Medal ought to be guided mainly by the originality of communications: that one advance in a new direction ought in our decision to outweigh any ma.s.s of work in a routine already established: and that, in any case, scientific utility as distinguished from mere elegance is indispensable."--In July Lieut. Pinheiro of the Brazilian Navy called with an autograph letter of introduction from the Emperor of Brazil. The Lieutenant desired to make himself acquainted with the English system of Lighthouses and Meteorology, and Airy took much trouble in providing him with introductions through which he received every facility for the thorough accomplishment of his object.--On Oct. 8th he forwarded to Prof. Cayley proofs of Euclid's Propositions I. 47 and III. 35 with the following remarks: "I place on the other side the propositions which may be subst.i.tuted (with knowledge of Euclid's VI. book) for the two celebrated propositions of the geometrical books. They leave on my mind no doubt whatever that they were invented as proofs by ratios, and that they were then violently expanded into c.u.mbrous geometrical proofs."--On June 28th he declined to sign a memorial asking for the interment of Mr Spottiswoode in Westminster Abbey, stating as his reason, "I take it, that interment possessing such a public character is a public recognition of benefits, political, literary, or philosophical, whose effects will be great and durable. Now I doubt whether it can be stated that Mr Spottiswoode had conferred such benefits on Society. "But he adds at length his cordial recognition of Mr Spottiswoode's scientific services.--Throughout his life Airy was a regular attendant at church, and took much interest in the conduct of the Church services. In October of this year he wrote a long letter to the Vicar of Greenwich on various points, in which occurs the following paragraph: "But there is one matter in the present form of the Church Service, on which my feeling is very strong, namely the (so-called, I believe) Choral Service, in the Confession, the Prayer, and the Creed. I have long listened with veneration to our n.o.ble Liturgy, and I have always been struck with the deep personally religious feeling which pervades it, especially those parts of it which are for 'The People.' And an earnest Priest, earnestly pressing these parts by his vocal example on the notice of the People, can scarcely fail to excite a corresponding earnestness in them. All this is totally lost in the choral system. For a venerable persuasion there is subst.i.tuted a rude irreverential confusion of voices; for an earnest acceptance of the form offered by the Priest there is subst.i.tuted--in my feeling at least--a weary waiting for the end of an unmeaning form." He also objected much to singing the responses to the Commandments.

1884

From Apr. 29th to May 30th he was at Playford, concluding his Journal there with the note "So ends a pleasant Vacation."--On June 11th he went to Cambridge and attended the Trinity College Commemoration Service, and dined in Hall.--From Aug. 14th to Sept. 11th he was at Playford.--On Sept. 26th he made an expedition to Guildford and Farnham.--During this year he was closely engaged on the Numerical Lunar Theory, and for relaxation was reading theology and sundry books of the Old Testament.

On June 7th he attended at the Visitation of the Royal Observatory.--In a letter written in April to Lt.-Col. Marindin, R.A., on the subject of wind pressure there occurs the following remark: "When the heavy gusts come on, the wind is blowing in directions changing rapidly, but limited in extent. My conclusion is that in arches of small extent (as in the Tay Bridge) every thing must be calculated for full pressure; but in arches of large extent (as in the Forth Bridge) every thing may be calculated for small pressure. And for a suspension bridge the pressure is far less dangerous than for a stiff arch."--In January he had some correspondence with Professor Tyndall on the Theory of the "White Rainbow," and stated that he thoroughly agreed with Dr Young's explanation of this phaenomenon.

--The following is extracted from a letter on May 1st to his old friend Otto Struve: "I received from you about 3 or 4 weeks past a sign of your friendly remembrance, a copy of your paper on the Annual Parallax of Aldebaran. It pleased me much. Especially I was delighted with your n.o.ble retention of the one equation whose result differed so sensibly from that of the other equations. It is quite possible, even probable, that the mean result is improved by it. I have known such instances. The first, which attracted much attention, was Capt. Kater's attempt to establish a scale of longitude in England by reciprocal observations of azimuth between Beachy Head and Dunnose. The result was evidently erroneous. But Colonel Colby, on examination of the original papers, found that some observations had been omitted, as suspicious; and that when these were included the mean agreed well with the scale of observation inferred from other methods."--In a letter to the Rev. R.C.M. Rouse, acknowledging the receipt of a geometrical book, there occurs the following paragraph: "I do not value Euclid's Elements as a super-excellent book of instruction--though some important points are better presented in it than in any other book of geometrical instruction that I have seen. But I value it as a book of strong and distinct reasoning, and of orderly succession of reasonings. I do not think that there is any book in the world which presents so distinctly the 'because......

therefore.......' And this is invaluable for the mental education of youth."--In May he was in correspondence with Professor Balfour Stewart regarding a projected movement in Terrestrial Magnetism to be submitted to the British a.s.sociation. Airy cordially approved of this movement, and supported it to the best of his ability, stating that in his opinion what was mainly wanted was the collation of existing records.--In January and February he was much pressed by Prof. Pritchard of Oxford to give his opinion as to the incorrectness of statements made by Dr Kinns in his Lectures on the Scientific Accuracy of the Bible. Airy refused absolutely to take part in the controversy, but he could not escape from the correspondence which the matter involved: and this led up to other points connected with the early history of the Israelites, a subject in which he took much interest.

1885

From May 4th to June 3rd he was at Playford.--From July 2nd to 22nd he was in the Lake District. The journey was by Windermere to Kentmere, where he made enquiries concerning the Airy family, as it had been concluded with much probability from investigations made by his nephew, the Rev. Basil R. Airy, that the family was settled there at a very early date. Some persons of the name of Airy were still living there. He then went on by Coniston and Grasmere to Portinscale, and spent the rest of his time in expeditions amongst the hills and visits to friends.--On July 28th he went to Woodbridge in Suffolk and distributed the prizes to the boys of the Grammar School there.--From Oct. 9th to Nov. 12th he was again at Playford.--Throughout the year he was busily engaged on the Numerical Lunar Theory, and found but little time for miscellaneous reading.

Of printed papers by Airy in this year the most important was one on the "Results deduced from the Measures of Terrestrial Magnetic Force in the Horizontal Plane," &c. This was a long Paper, communicated to the Royal Society, and published in the Phil. Trans., and was the last Scientific Paper of any importance (except the Volume of the Numerical Lunar Theory) in the long list of "Papers by G.B. Airy." The preparation of this Paper took much time.--Of miscellaneous matters: In May a Committee of the Royal Society had been appointed to advise the India Office as to the publication of Col. J. Herschel's pendulum observations in India; and Airy was asked to a.s.sist the Committee with his advice. He gave very careful and anxious consideration to the subject, and it occupied much time.--In the early part of the year he was asked by Sir William Thomson to a.s.sist him with an affidavit in a lawsuit concerning an alleged infringement of one of his Patents for the improvement of the Compa.s.s. Airy declined to make an affidavit or to take sides in the dispute, but he wrote a letter from which the following is extracted: "I cannot have the least difficulty in expressing my opinion that you have made a great advance in the application of my method of correcting the compa.s.s in iron ships, by your introduction of the use of short needles for the compa.s.s-cards.

In my original investigations, when the whole subject was in darkness, I could only use existing means for experiment, namely the long-needle compa.s.ses then existing. But when I applied mechanical theory to explanation of the results, I felt grievously the deficiency of a theory and the construction which it suggested (necessarily founded on a.s.sumption that the proportion of the needle-length to the other elements of measure is small) when the length of the needles was really so great. I should possibly have used some construction like yours, but the Government had not then a single iron vessel, and did not seem disposed to urge the enquiry. You, under happier auspices, have successfully carried it out, and, I fully believe, with much advantage to the science."--He wrote a Paper for the Athenaeum and had various correspondence on the subject of the Badbury Rings in Dorsetshire, which he (and others) considered as identical with the "Mons Badonicus" of Gildas, the site of an ancient British battle.--In February he was in correspondence with the Astronomer Royal on Uniform Time Reckoning, and on considerations relating to it.--On June 6th he attended the Annual Visitation of the Observatory, and brought before the Board his investigations of the Diurnal Magnetic Inequalities, and the revises of his Lunar Theory.

1886

From June 8th to July 17th he was at Playford.--And again at Playford from Oct. 5th to Nov. 8th.--On March 27th he had an attack of gout in his right foot, which continued through April and into May, causing him much inconvenience.--He was busy with the Numerical Lunar Theory up to Sept. 25th, when he was reading the last proof-sheet received from the printers: during this period his powers were evidently failing, and there are frequent references to errors discovered and corrected, and to uncertainties connected with points of the Theory. But his great work on the Numerical Lunar Theory was printed in this year: and there can be no doubt that he experienced a great feeling of relief when this was accomplished.--He was in correspondence with Prof. Adams as to the effect of his reduction of the Coefficient of Lunar Acceleration on the calculation of the ancient historical eclipses.--He compiled a Paper "On the establishment of the Roman dominion in England," which was printed in 1887.--He wrote a notice concerning events in the life of Mr John Jackson of Rosthwaite near Keswick, a well-known guide and much-respected authority on matters relating to the Lake District.--He also wrote a short account of the connection of the history of Mdlle de Queroualle with that of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.--On June 4th he attended at the Annual Visitation of the Observatory.

1887

On May 9th to 11th he made a short visit to Eastbourne and the neighbourhood.--From June 8th to July 13th he was at Playford.--From Aug. 29th to Sept. 5th he was travelling in Dorsetshire and Wiltshire: he went first to Weymouth, a very favourite centre for excursions with him, and afterwards visited Bridport and Lyme Regis: then by Dorchester to Blandford, and visited the Hod Hill, Badbury Rings, &c.: at Wimborne he was much interested in the architecture of the church: lastly he visited Salisbury, Old Sarum, Stonehenge, &c., and returned to Greenwich.--From Oct. 11th to Nov. 12th he was at Playford.--During this year he partly occupied himself with arranging his papers and drawings, and with miscellaneous reading. But he could not withdraw his thoughts from his Lunar Theory, and he still continued to struggle with the difficulties of the subject, and was constantly scheming improvements. His private accounts also now gave him much trouble. Throughout his life he had been accustomed to keep his accounts by double entry in very perfect order. But he now began to make mistakes and to grow confused, and this distressed him greatly. It never seemed to occur to him to abandon his elaborate system of accounts, and to content himself with simple entries of receipts and expenses. This would have been utterly opposed to his sense of order, which was now more than ever the ruling principle of his mind. And so he struggled with his accounts as he did with his Lunar Theory till his powers absolutely failed. In his Journal for this year there are various entries of mental attacks of short duration and other ailments ascribable to his advanced age.

The last printed "Papers by G.B. Airy" belong to this year. One was the Paper before referred to "On the establishment of the Roman dominion in England": another was on the solution of a certain Equation: and there were early reminiscences of the Cambridge Tripos, &c.--In February he attended a little to a new edition of his Ipswich Lectures, but soon handed it over to Mr H.H. Turner of the Royal Observatory.--On May 23rd he was drawing up suggestions for the arrangement of the Seckford School, &c., at Woodbridge.--On June 4th he attended the Visitation of the Royal Observatory, when a resolution was pa.s.sed in favour of complete photography of the star-sky.

1888

From the 14th to 16th of May he made a short expedition to Bournemouth, and stopped on the way home to visit Winchester Cathedral.--From June 27th to Aug. 3rd he was at Playford; and again from Oct. 13th to Nov. 10th.--During the first half of the year he continued his examination of his Lunar Theory, but gradually dropped it. There are several references in his Journal to his feelings of pain and weakness, both mental and bodily: at the end of March he had an attack of gout in the fingers of his right hand. During the latter part of the year he was troubled with his private accounts, as before.--He does not appear to have been engaged on any miscellaneous matters calling for special notice in this year. But he kept up his astronomical correspondence--with Lockyer on the meteorite system of planetary formation; with Pritchard on the work of the Oxford University Observatory; with Adams on his Numerical Lunar Theory, &c., and with others.--On June 2nd he attended the Visitation of the Royal Observatory.--He amused himself occasionally with reading his favourite subjects of history and antiquities, and with looking over some of his early investigations of scientific questions.

1889

On June 5th he made a one-day's excursion to Colchester.--From July 2nd to 27th he was in the c.u.mberland Lake District, chiefly at Portinscale near Keswick. While staying at Portinscale he was seized with a sudden giddiness and fell upon the floor: he afterwards wrote a curious account of the visions which oppressed his brain immediately after the accident. He returned by Solihull, where his son Osmund was residing.--From Oct. 4th to Nov. 8th he was at Playford. While there he drew up a short statement of his general state of health, adverting particularly to the loss of strength in his legs and failure of his walking powers.--His health seems to have failed a good deal in this year: on Feb. 4th he had an accidental fall, and there are several entries in his Journal of mental attacks, pains in his limbs, affection of his eye-sight, &c.--In the early part of the year he was much engaged on the history of the Airy family, particularly on that of his father.--In this year the White House was sold by auction by its owners, and Airy purchased it on May 24th.--He was still in difficulties with his private accounts, but was making efforts to abandon his old and elaborate system.--For his amus.e.m.e.nt he was chiefly engaged on Theological Notes which he was compiling: and also on early optical investigations, &c.

On June 1st he attended the Visitation of the Royal Observatory, and moved a resolution that a Committee be appointed to consider whether any reduction can be effected in the amount of matter printed in the Volume of Observations of the Royal Observatory. During his tenure of office he had on various occasions brought this subject before the Board of Visitors, and with his usual tenacity of purpose he now as Visitor pressed it upon their notice.--In May he zealously joined with others in an application to get for Dr Huggins a pension on the Civil List.--In January he prepared a short Paper ill.u.s.trated with diagrams to exhibit the Interference of Solar Light, as used by him in his Lectures at Cambridge in 1836: but it does not appear to have been published.--In April he received a copy of a Paper by Mr Rundell, referring to the complete adoption of his system of compa.s.s correction in iron ships, not only in the merchant service, but also in the Navy. This was a matter of peculiar gratification to Airy, who had always maintained that the method of Tables of Errors, which had been so persistently adhered to by the Admiralty, was a mistake, and that sooner or later they would find it necessary to adopt his method of mechanical correction. The pa.s.sage referred to is as follows: "The name of Sir George Airy, the father of the mechanical compensation of the compa.s.s in iron vessels, having just been mentioned, it may not be inappropriate to remind you that the present year is the fiftieth since Sir George Airy presented to the Royal Society his celebrated paper on this subject with the account of his experiments on the 'Rainbow' and 'Ironsides.' Fifty years is a long period in one man's history, and Sir George Airy may well be proud in looking back over this period to see how complete has been the success of his compa.s.s investigation. His mode of compensation has been adopted by all the civilized world. Sir William Thomson, one of the latest and perhaps the most successful of modern compa.s.s adjusters, when he exhibited his apparatus in 1878 before a distinguished meeting in London, remarked that within the last ten years the application of Sir George Airy's method had become universal, not only in the merchant service, but in the navies of this and other countries, and added--The compa.s.s and the binnacles before you are designed to thoroughly carry out in practical navigation the Astronomer Royal's principles."

1890

From May 17th to 24th he was on an expedition to North Wales, stopping at Chester, Conway, Carnarvon, Barmouth, and Shrewsbury.--From June 18th to July 24th he was at Playford; and again from Oct. 11th to Nov. 15th.--In this year his powers greatly failed, and he complained frequently of mental attacks, weakness of limbs, la.s.situde, and failure of sleep. He occupied himself as usual with his books, papers, and accounts; and read Travels, Biblical History, &c., but nothing very persistently.

On June 7th he attended the Visitation of the Royal Observatory.--From a letter addressed to him by Mr J. Hartnup, of Liverpool Observatory, it appears that there had grown up in the mercantile world an impression that very accurate chronometers were not needed for steam ships, because they were rarely running many days out of sight of land: and Airy's opinion was requested on this matter. He replied as follows on Mar. 3rd: "The question proposed in your letter is purely a practical one. (1) If a ship is _likely_ ever to be two days out of sight of land, I think that she ought to be furnished with two _good_ chronometers, properly tested. (2) For the proper testing of the rates of the chronometers, a rating of the chronometers for three or four days in a meridional observatory is necessary. A longer testing is desirable."--In March he was in correspondence, as one of the Trustees of the Sheepshanks Fund, with the Master of Trinity relative to grants from the Fund for Cambridge Observatory.

1891

From June 16th to July 15th he was at Playford. And again from Oct. 12th to Dec. 2nd (his last visit). Throughout the year his weakness, both of brain power and muscular power, had been gradually increasing, and during this stay at Playford, on Nov. 11th, he fell down in his bed-room (probably from failure of nerve action) and was much prostrated by the shock. For several days he remained in a semi-unconscious condition, and although he rallied, yet he continued very weak, and it was not until Dec. 2nd that he could be removed to the White House. Up to the time of his fall he had been able to take frequent drives and even short walks in the neighbourhood that he was so fond of, but he could take but little exercise afterwards, and on or about Nov. 18th he made the following note: "The saddest expedition that I have ever made. We have not left home for several days."

The rapid failure of his powers during this year is well exemplified by his handwriting in his Journal entries, which, with occasional rallies, becomes broken and in places almost illegible. He makes frequent reference to his decline in strength and brain-power, and to his failing memory, but he continued his ordinary occupations, made frequent drives around Blackheath, and amused himself with his family history researches, arrangement of papers, and miscellaneous reading: and he persisted to the last with his private accounts. His interest in matters around him was still keen. On June 13th he was driving along the Greenwich Marshes in order to track the course of the great sewer; and on August 5th he visited the Crossness Sewage Works and took great interest in the details of the treatment of the sewage.--In March he contributed, with great satisfaction, to the Fund for the Portrait of his old friend Sir G.G. Stokes, with whom he had had so much scientific correspondence.--On July 25th an afternoon party was arranged to celebrate the 90th anniversary of his birthday (the actual anniversary was on July 27th). None of his early friends were there: he had survived them all. But invitations were sent to all his scientific and private friends who could be expected to come, and a large party a.s.sembled. The afternoon was very fine, and he sat in the garden and received his friends (many of whom had come from long distances) in good strength and spirits. It was a most successful gathering and was not without its meaning; for it was felt that, under the circ.u.mstances of his failing powers, it was in all probability a final leave-taking.--On July 27th he went down to the Greenwich Parish Church at 9 p.m., to be present at the illumination of the church clock face for the first time--a matter of local interest which had necessitated a good deal of time and money. On this occasion at the request of the company a.s.sembled in and around the Vestry he spoke for about a quarter of an hour on Time--the value of accurate time, the dissemination of Greenwich time throughout the country by time-signals from the Observatory, and the exhibition of it by time-b.a.l.l.s, &c., &c.,--the subject to which so large a part of his life had been devoted. It was a pleasant and able speech and gave great satisfaction to the parishioners, amongst whom he had lived for so many years.--He received two illuminated addresses--one from the Astronomer Royal and Staff of the Royal Observatory; the other from the Vorstand of the Astronomische Gesellschaft at Berlin--and various private letters of congratulation. The address from the Staff of the Observatory was worded thus: "We, the present members of the Staff of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, beg to offer you our most sincere congratulations on the occasion of your 90th birthday. We cannot but feel how closely a.s.sociated we are with you, in that our whole energies are directed to the maintenance and development of that practical astronomical work, of which you essentially laid the foundation. It affords us great pleasure to think that after the conclusion of your life's work, you have been spared to live so long under the shadow of the n.o.ble Observatory with which your name was identified for half a century, and with which it must ever remain a.s.sociated."

After his return from Playford he seemed to rally a little: but he soon fell ill and was found to be suffering from hernia. This necessitated a surgical operation, which was successfully performed on Dec. 17th. This gave him effectual relief, and after recovering from the immediate effects of the operation, he lay for several days quietly and without active pain reciting the English poetry with which his memory was stored. But the shock was too great for his enfeebled condition, and he died peacefully in the presence of his six surviving children on Jan. 2nd, 1892. He was buried in Playford churchyard on Jan. 7th. The funeral procession was attended at Greenwich by the whole staff of the Royal Observatory, and by other friends, and at his burial there were present two former Fellows of the College to which he had been so deeply attached.

APPENDIX.

LIST OF PRINTED PAPERS BY G.B. AIRY.

LIST OF BOOKS WRITTEN BY G.B. AIRY.

PRINTED PAPERS BY G.B. AIRY.

With the instinct of order which formed one of his chief characteristics Airy carefully preserved a copy of every printed Paper of his own composition. These were regularly bound in large quarto volumes, and they are in themselves a striking proof of his wonderful diligence. The bound volumes are 14 in number, and they occupy a s.p.a.ce of 2 ft. 6 in. on a shelf. They contain 518 Papers, a list of which is appended, and they form such an important part of his life's work, that his biography would be very incomplete without a reference to them.

He was very careful in selecting the channels for the publication of his Papers. Most of the early Papers were published in the Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, but several of the most important, such as his Paper "On an inequality of long period in the motions of the Earth and Venus," were published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, and others, such as the articles on "The Figure of the Earth," "Gravitation," "Tides and Waves," &c., were published in Encyclopaedias. After his removal to Greenwich nearly all his Papers on scientific subjects (except astronomy), such as Tides, Magnetism, Correction of the Compa.s.s, &c., &c., were communicated to the Royal Society, and were published in the Philosophical Transactions. But everything astronomical was reserved for the Royal Astronomical Society. His connection with that Society was very close: he had joined it in its earliest days (the date of his election was May 9th, 1828), and regarded it as the proper medium for the discussion of current astronomical questions, and for recording astronomical progress. He was unremitting in his attendance at the Monthly Meetings of the Society, and was several times President. In the Memoirs of the Society 35 of his Papers are printed, and in addition 129 Papers in the Monthly Notices. In fact a meeting of the Society rarely pa.s.sed without some communication from him, and such was his wealth of matter that sometimes he would communicate as many as 3 Papers on a single evening. For the publication of several short mathematical Papers, and especially for correspondence on disputed points of mathematical investigation, he chose as his vehicle the Philosophical Magazine, to which he contributed 32 Papers.

Investigations of a more popular character he published in the Athenaeum, which he also used as a vehicle for his replies to attacks on his work, or on the Establishment which he conducted: in all he made 55 communications to that Newspaper. To various Societies, such as the Inst.i.tution of Civil Engineers, the British a.s.sociation, the Royal Inst.i.tution, &c., he presented Papers or made communications on subjects specially suited to each; and in like manner to various Newspapers: there were 58 Papers in this category. In so long an official life there would naturally be a great number of Official Reports, Parliamentary Returns, &c., and these, with other miscellaneous Papers printed for particular objects and for a limited circulation, amounted in all to 141. Under this head come his Annual Reports to the Board of Visitors, which in themselves contain an extremely full and accurate history of the Observatory during his tenure of office. There are 46 of these Reports, and they would of themselves form a large volume of about 740 pages.