14 



awarded to the author of an original paper, will, in many instances, suf- 

 fice to supply the books, or to pay for the materials, or the manual labor 

 required, in prosecuting the research. 



There is one proposition of the programme which has given rise to much 

 discussion, and which, therefore, reqnires particular explanation; I allude 

 to that which excludes from the contributions all papers consisting merely 

 of unverified speculations on subjects of physical science. The object of 

 this proposition is to obviate the endless ditficulties which would occur in 

 rejecting papers of an unphiiosophical ciiaracter^ and though it may in 

 some cases exclude am interesting communication, yet the strict observance 

 of it will be found of so much practical importance that it cannot be dis- 

 pensed with. It has been supposed, from the adoption of this proposition, 

 that we are disposed to undervalue abstract speculations: on the contrary, 

 we know that all the advances in true science — namely, a knowledge of the 

 laws of phenom-ena — are made by provisionally adopting well-conditioned 

 hypotheses, the product of the imagination, and subsequently verifying 

 them by an appeal to experiment and observation. Every new hypothesis 

 of scientific value must not only furnish an exact explanation of known 

 facts, but must also enable us to predict, in kind and quantity, the phe- 

 nomena which will be exhibited under any given combination of cir- 

 cumstances. Thus, in the case of the nndulatory hypothesis of light, it 

 was inferred, as a logical consequence, that if the supposition were true 

 that light consisted of waves of an ethereal medium, then two rays of light, 

 like two waves of water under certain conditions, should annihilate each 

 other, and darkness be produced. The experiment was tried, and the 

 anticipated result was obtained. It is this exact agreement of the deduc- 

 tion with the actual result of experience that constitutes the verification of 

 an hypothesis, and which alone entitles it to the name of a theory, and to 

 a place in the Transactions of a scientific institution. It must be recollected 

 that it is much easier to speculate than to investigate, and that very few 

 of all the hypotheses imagined are capable of standing the test of scientific 

 verification. 



For the practical working of the plan for obtaining the character of a 

 memoir, and the precaution taken before it is accepted for publication, I 

 would refer to the correspondence, given in a subsequent part of this report, 

 relative to the memoir now in process of publication by the institution. 

 As it is not our intention to interfere with the jwoceedings of other insti- 

 tutions, but to co-operate with them, so far as our respective operations are 

 compatible, communications may be referred to learned societies for inspec- 

 tion, as in the case of the above mentioned memoir, and abstracts of them 

 given to the world through the bulletins of these societies^ while the details 



