('Resultate der Beob. des
Magnetischen Verceins in Jahr' 1338, s. 135, and Poggend., 'Annalen.' bd.
xxxiii., s. 426.) In the magnetic association that was now formed with
Gottingen for its center, simultaneous observations have been undertaken
four times a year since 1836, and continued uninterruptedly for twenty-four
hours. The periods, however, do not coincide with those of the equinoxes
and solstices, which I had proposed and followed out in 1830. Up to this
period, Great Britain, in possession of the most extensive commerce and the
largest navy in the world, had taken no part in the movement which since
1828 had begun to yield important results for the more fixed ground-work of
terrestrial magnetism. I had the good fortune, by a public appeal from
Berlin which I sent in April 1836, to the Duke of Sussex, at that time
President of the Royal Society (Lettre de M. de Humboldt a S. A. R. le Duc
de Sussex, sur les moyens propres a perfectionner la connaissance du
magnetisme terrestre par l'establissement des stations magnetiques et
d'observations correspondantes), to excite a friendly interest in the
undertaking which it had so long been the chief object of my wish to carry
out. In my letter to the Duke of Sussex I urged the establishment of
permanent stations in Canada, St.
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