Direct Observations and Reflection Observations (after the application of corrections for flexure, founded upon observations of the horizontal collimator wires) to an extent far greater than can be explained by any disturbance of the direction of gravity on the quicksilver by its distance from the vertical, or by the attraction of neighbouring masses, perplexes me much.’—­With respect to the discordance of dips of the dipping-needles, which for years past had been a source of great trouble and puzzle, the Report states that ’The dipping-needles are still a source of anxiety.  The form which their anomalies appear to take is that of a special or peculiar value of the dip given by each separate needle.  With one of the 9-inch needles, the result always differs about a quarter of a degree from that of the others.  I can see nothing in its mechanical 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