228 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



Leonard Darwin was subsequently set up to test 

 photographic lenses, and to enable appropriate certi- 

 ficates to be given them. 



So the institution throve, and was a "oroino- 

 concern," but it was wholly unequal in its scale to 

 the rapidly growing requirements of the day. This 

 feeling found expression in the Anniversary Address 

 to the British Association in 1895, by my cousin Sir 

 Douglas Galton ; powerful support was given to his 

 suggestions and efforts, and finally the Kew Committee 

 was merged into the much larger and more important 

 National Physical Observatory, under the directorship 

 of Mr. Glazebrook, which swallowed at a single gulp 

 the whole of our thrifty savings. 



I look back with pleasure to my long connection 

 with the Kew Observatory, for its Committee always 

 consisted of very capable men, who gave time with- 

 out stint to the discussion of the new questions which 

 continually arose, and which could be answered by 

 experts only. 



Mr. Gassiott( 1 797-1 877), of whom I have spoken, 

 succeeded Sir Edward Sabine as its Chairman. He 

 was remarkable for solid sense and business acumen, 

 and played a considerable part in the work of the 

 Royal Society. His experiments on electric dis- 

 charges in quasi-vacuo were very beautiful, and 

 thought highly of at the time. He was a striking 

 instance of the combination of scientific research with 

 the direction of an important business, for he was 

 one of the principal wine merchants, and said to be 

 the largest importer of port wine in London. 



Another instance of the same combination was 

 his successor in the same office, Mr. Warren De la 



