AN IMPERIAL INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE 689 



of the Senate, is not under the exclusive control of any one 

 party or college or school, but is guided in the most absolutely 

 smooth and harmonious manner by a mixed Committee of 

 members of the Senate and other distinguished persons, with 

 whom the sole object is the efficiency of the department in the 

 interests of the University ; and from what I have said it is 

 clear that the interests of the University are not viewed solely 

 in an exclusively local sense, but with distinct bearing upon 

 " the facilities for education and research which the Metropolis 

 should afford for specialist and advanced students in connection 

 with the provision existing in other parts of the United King- 

 dom and in His Majesty's Dominions beyond the Seas." I have 

 quoted the words of the reference to the Royal Commission 

 appointed this year on the organisation of the University of 

 London. The rough sketch that I have just given of the 

 constitution and working of a University organisation is the 

 description of what has been actually going on for the last 

 eight years in the Imperial Institute and as a department of 

 the University of London. 



In other subjects — notably in Botany, Geology and Zoology — 

 an organisation of advanced lectures on similar lines has taken 

 place, and only requires for its proper development facilities 

 similar to those that have been enjoyed by Physiology. 



An Imperial Institute of Science. — It is essential to the success 

 of such an organisation that it should be from the outset con- 

 centrated and centralised by the University itself, in lecture- 

 rooms and laboratories and libraries under its direct control. If 

 the organisation of panels of Research Fellows of the University 

 is to be common to all the teachers of all its Colleges, Schools, 

 and Institutions, its local habitation must be at the University 

 itself, not at any one or more of its colleges. In this con- 

 nection, as well as in connection with the provision required 

 for teaching and research "in the Metropolis, in the United 

 Kingdom, and in the Dominions beyond the Seas," the Imperial 

 Institute at South Kensington is clearly indicated as the proper 

 habitation of a college of men drawn from among the active 

 teachers in the Metropolis, in the United Kingdom and in 

 the Dominions. 



All the materials are ready to our hand for the foundation 

 of an Imperial College of Learning and Science that should one 



44 



