Ivi REPORT — 1855. 



To sa\' nothing of Astrology and Alchemy, the experiments on the leg of 

 a dead frog were the primary source of the electric telegraph, electro- 

 plating, the power of producing submarine explosions, and of blasting rocks 

 with greater facility and safety, and the other invaluable applications of 

 voltaic electricity to the arts. 



The labours of our (zoologists teach us how to avoid useless expenditure in 

 searches for minerals where none can by possibility be discovered, and where 

 to seek for materials for our buildings. 



Those of the Botanist minister to our health ; and the Meteorologist will, 

 in addition to the other important applications of his science, soon be enlisted 

 iu the service of navigation. Nor is Science less necessary to excellence in 

 the arts of war than in those of peace ; the construction and use of arms, 

 fortification, surveys, rapid locomotion, screw steamers, and so forth, all 

 depend on it for their success. Nor is this all : the calamities and failures 

 in war may often be traced to the inefficient means possessed by governments 

 of distinguishing the really scientific man from the ignorant pretender. 



This enumeration might be greatly extended, but sufficient has been said 

 to prove how truly the same distinguished writer above quoted remarks, " No 

 limit can be set to the importance, even in a purely productive and material 

 point of view, of mere thought. The labour of the savant, or speculative 

 thinker, is as much a part of production, in the very narrowest sense, as that 

 of the inventor of a practical art ; many such inventions having been the 

 direct consequences of theoretic discoveries, and every extension of know- 

 ledge of the powers of nature being fruitful of applications to the purposes 

 of outward life*." 



On this subject Professor Liebig observes in a letter to Professor Faraday, 

 dated February 18t5, and cited in Lyell's Travels in North America: — 

 " What struck me most in England was the perception that only those works 

 that have a practical tendency awake attention and command respect ; while 

 the purely scientific, which possess far greater merit, are almost unknown. 

 And yet the latter are the proper and true source from which the others flow. 

 Practice alone can never lead to the discovery of a truth or a principle. In 

 Germany it is quite the contrary. Here, in the eyes of scientific men, no 

 value, or at least but a trifling one, is placed on the practical results. The 

 enrichment of Science is alone considered worthy of attention. I do not 

 mean to say that this is better ; for both nations the golden medium Mould 

 certainly be a real good fortune." 



Almost all who have replied to our Circular, or favoured us with sugges- 

 tions, are opposed to the establishment of Institutes or Academies ; nor is 

 there any wish expressed that men of science, as such, should be appointed 

 to high political offices in tlie State. As Assessors, however, or advisers 

 to executive Boai'ds, the services of scientific men would be highly valuable ; 

 and in foreign countries such services are believed to be much in request. 



Promotions in the Church have been occasionally made avowedly on the 

 ground of literary merit ; but if such claims be admissible, it would seem 

 that scientific acquirements should not be overlooked in an age in which 

 scepticism has been nourished by mistaken views of physical phenomena. 



The public offices which ought to be filled by men of science, as such, should 

 be sufficiently well remunerated, both to ensure their acceptance by the most 

 qualified men, and also to render them a desirable object of ambition, and 

 swell the list of tempting prizes for scientific distinction. We believe that, 

 with one single exception perhaps, all these offices are inadequately endowed. 



* See Mill's Political Economy, vol. i. p. 52. 



