at the Roi/al Insfitation, 1 900-1 907. . 400 



meaning." We teach words in our schools but not thought. School 

 education is a bane rather than a blessing. In consequence of lack 

 of training in method, even scientific workers, for the most part, are 

 content to be advocates, and too many make no attempt to exercise 

 judicial functions or to follow in the wake of Faraday and Darwin ])y 

 striving to be philosophical. 



The origin of our difficulty, perhaps, is not far to seek — indeed, 

 it is practically certain that it lies in the circumstance that our 

 country is dominated by the literary and not by the practical type of 

 mind, hj men of narrow purview. This is especially true of our 

 ancient tjniversities, by whom al] affairs educational are controlled. 



There can be little doubt that until the literati are deposed from 

 their position of almost exclusive control general progress will be impos- 

 sible : they will never see eye to eye with those trained on the scientific 

 side, not from any unwillingness or ill-feeling but from actual inability 

 to- understand and appreciate their work and aspirations ; the methods 

 of the scientific worker make no appeal to the literary student : he has 

 no conception of an experiment, and even results rarely have any 

 significance in his eyes. Unless, therefore, it can be recognised by a 

 preponderant party that a change must be made in the attitude of our 

 schools and that change l)e enforced, nothing effective will be done. 

 We need to put men in control who are gifted with broader sympathies 

 than those can be who have been selected on tlie narrow basis of a 

 limited literary proficiency. 



In an article by Carl Snyder entitled " America's Inferior Place 

 in the Scientific World," published in the January, 11)02, number of 

 the North American Reriea\ the statement is made that, " It would 

 be hardly too much to say that during the hundred years of its 

 existence the Royal Institution alone has done more for English 

 science than all of the Enghsh Universities put together. This is 

 certainly true with regard to British industry, for it was here that 

 the discoveries of Faraday were made." 



Sir James DcAvar was led by this to inquire into the total 

 expenditure of the Institution on experimental inquiry and public 

 demonstrations during the whole of the nineteenth century, and in 

 his Presidential Address at the British Association at l>elfast in 1902. 

 he published the following statement of the items : — 



Professors' Salaries — Physics and Chemistry . . 54,600 



Laboratory Expenditure . . . . . . . . 24,430 



Assistants' Salaries . . . . . . . . . . 21,590 



Total for one hundred years . . £100,620 



In addition, he said, the members and friends of the Institution have 

 contributed to a fund for exceptional expenditure for Experimental 

 Research the sum of £9580. It should also be mentioned that a 



