rilE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



567 



the papers included a ^^uivey of the 

 relation of solar and terrestrial 

 changes by Sir Norman I^oek^^er. The 

 new discoveries reoardiny tlio cdnsti- 

 tution of matter and radiation, a sci- 

 entific advance the far-reaching charac- 

 ter of wliich we can scarcely appreci- 

 ate, was naln rally prominent in the 

 physical section. The papers included 

 one by Professor Rvitherford, of Mon- 

 treal, whose important investigations 

 on the emanations from radium were 

 described by Sir Oliver Lodge in a re- 

 cent issue of the IMontiily. The sub- 

 ject chosen for special discussion in 

 the chemical section was ' Combustion.' 

 The geological section conflicted with 

 the International Congress of Geol- 

 ogy at Vienna, but the program con- 

 tained many papers. The subject of 

 'fertilization' was especially dis- 

 cussed in the zoological section. Pro- 

 fessor E. B. Wilson, of Columbia Uni- 

 versity, being one of those taking part. 

 The British Antarctic Expedition was 

 naturally the subject of special inter- 

 est to the geographers, while the fis- 

 cal questions brought forward by ^Ir. 

 Chamberlain's proposed abandonment 

 of free trade attracted the economists. 

 The association will meet next year 

 at Cambridge under the presidency of 

 Mr. Arthur Balfour, the prime min- 

 ister ; 

 will be in South Africa 



the following year the meeting 



SIR NORMAN LOCKYER ON THE 

 ENDOWMENT OF EDUCATION 



AND RESEARCH. 

 The presidential address of Sir 

 Norman Lockyer before the British 

 Association was entitled ' The Influence 

 of Brain Power on History.' The 

 speaker laid special stress on the need 

 of greater endowments for higher edu- 

 cation and research from the govern- 

 ment, and advocated duplicating the 

 Navy estimates of 1888-9, £24.000,000. 

 and devoting that amount to the in 

 crease of Great Britain's brain power. 

 He said: Our position as a nation, 

 our success as merchants, are in peril, 

 chiefly— dealing with preventable 



causes — because of our lack of com- 

 pletely efficient universities and our 

 neglect of research. 



What are the facts relating to pri- 

 vate endowment in this country? In 

 spite of the muiiififcnce displayed by 

 a small number of individuals in some 

 localities, the truth must be spoken. 

 In depending in our country upon this 

 form of endowment we are trusting to 

 a broken reed. If we take the twelve 

 English university colleges, the fore- 

 runners of universities unless we are 

 to perish from a lack of knowledge, we 

 find that private effort during sixty 

 years has found less than £1,000,000; 

 that is, £2,000,000 for buildings and 

 £40,000 a year's income. This gives 

 us an average of £1G6 000 for build- 

 ings and £3,300 for yearly income. 



What is the scale of private effort 

 we have to compete with in regard to 

 the American universities? In the 

 United States, during the last few 

 years, universities and colleges have re- 

 ceived more than £40,000,000 from this 

 source alone ; private effort supplied 

 nearly £7,000,000 in the years 1898- 

 1900. 



Next consider the amount of state 

 aid to universities afforded in Ger- 

 many. The builaings of the new Uni- 

 versity of Strasburg have already 

 cost nearly £1,000,000; that is, about 

 as much as has yet been foimd by 

 private effort for buildings in Man- 

 chester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bris- 

 tol, Newcastle and Sheffield. The gov- 

 ernn.ent's annual endowment of the 

 san e German imiversity is more than 

 £49.000. 



When we consider the large endow- 

 ments of university education both in 

 the United States and Germany, it is 

 obvious that state aid only can make 

 any valid competition possible with 

 either. The more we study the facts, 

 the more statistics are gone into, the 

 more do we find that we, to a large 

 extent, lack both of the sources of en- 

 dowment upon one or other or both of 

 which other nations depend. We are 



