Item 78 - Letter from John William Lubbock

JWL has received WW's letter plus Quetelet's [Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet] papers. He is sorry that WW cannot attend the Committee and thinks his suggestions excellent - reports on papers and a yearly report. If we had an exact copy of the constitutions of all Foreign Societies, we could graft the best aspect of each onto ours. The Council of the Royal Society have given him permission to employ Mr Walker to draw a map of the world under his direction to chart the progress of the tide, unfortunately 'Capt. Beaufort [Francis Beaufort] will not allow him to consult the Charts at the admiralty for fear he shall trouble them', so he has had to use books of sailing directions. Regarding WW's problem in biometry, JWL does not think 'we possess sufficient information with respect to the ages at which marriages take place and the intervals which lapse after marriage before children are born to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion with respect to the influence a general retardation of marriages would have upon the increase of the population'. Mr Dessiou [Joseph Foss Dessiou] has nearly completed his work on the tides and JWL has seen some of his results. He has begun work on a Physical Astronomy paper.