0. MISCELLANEOUS. 599 



on consideration, it was concluded not to recommend any 

 grant for the purpose. 



Another resolution directed the council to take into con- 

 sideration the desirability of the publication of a periodic 

 record of advances made in the various branches of science 

 represented by the British Association. This, however, the 

 council concluded would be better accomplished by the co-op- 

 eration of the different societies having special subjects in 

 charge, as is now done by the Chemical Society for Chemis- 

 try, the Zoological Record for Zoology, etc. 15 A, August 17, 

 1872,209. 



NEGLECT OF CHEMICAL STUDIES IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



Dr. Frankland, in his anniversary address as president of 

 the Chemical Society of London, delivered in March last, re- 

 news the expression of his regret at the apparent decline of 

 chemical science in Great Britain. He states that while the 

 number of fellows of the society has increased from 208 in 

 1848 to 624 in 1872, the number of researches communicated 

 to this society has undergone a marked diminution. The ag- 

 gregate number laid before the society in five years, ending 

 March, 1852, amounted to 190 ; while in the five years ending 

 March, 1872, with a much larger number of members, there 

 were only 108. This lack of progress Dr. Frankland can not 

 attribute to the increasing difficulty of chemical research, 

 since the progress of original investigation elsewhere exhib- 

 its extraordinary activity. Thus the German Chemical So- 

 ciety, numbering 463 members in 1870, received 235 papers; 

 and in 1871, with 528 members, received the result of 238 orig- 

 inal investigations. 



The main cause of this difference Dr. Frankland considers 

 to be the non-recognition of experimental research by the 

 universities, and the fact that the highest degrees, and even 

 honors, in experimental science are bestowed without any 

 proof being required that the candidate possesses the capaci- 

 ty to conduct an original experimental investigation, or that 

 he is competent to extend the bounds of his science. On the 

 other hand, in the best German universities no candidate for 

 a scientific degree is even admitted to an examination un- 

 less he has first submitted a memoir or dissertation on some 

 original experimental investigation conducted by himself, the 



