INTEKNATIONAL SCIENCE. 513 



the risk of impaired efficiency. It can not be denied, however, that 

 the seat of the central office of an important undertaking confers a 

 certain dignity, and it is quite natural that a country should feel 

 some pride in the distinction. 



England as a whole has not done so badly. We should not forget 

 that in a great portion of the world all clocks strike the same minutes 

 and seconds. Before long all civilized countries (except Ireland) 

 will have adopted the Greenwich meridian for their standard of time, 

 and Ave may rightly therefore call Greenwich the central bureau of 

 universal time. The offices of the international catalogue and both 

 the central and computing bureaus of the solar union are situated in 

 this country, and if we have secured an even larger share of the oner- 

 ous but honorable duties incumbent on such offices the fault is our 

 own. The questions which at the present moment more especially 

 require combined treatment are those of geo-physics, a subject for 

 which very inadequate provision has been made in England. Our 

 earthqp.ake observations almost entirely depend on the self-devotion 

 of one man, and the meteorological office, which might reasonably be 

 expected to take charge of certain portions of the Avork, such as 

 atmospheric electricity, being kept in a state of chronic poverty, must 

 restrict its activity to w^ork of the most pressing necessity. Germany, 

 on the other hand, having a large number of well-equipped stations 

 for geodetic, magnetic, and aeronautic work, naturallj^ reaps tlie 

 reward Avhen the offices of an international undertaking have to be 

 chosen AvhicJi shall be attached to flourishing institutions in charge 

 of men possessing the leisure and qualihcations for the Avork. 



No serious advance Avill be made in our own country in this respect 

 until our universities pay more attention to the subject of terrestrial 

 physics. This would involve the establishment by the uniA^ersities of 

 separate laboratories or institutions, to Avhich their present funds 

 could not be applied. The matter wants consideration in detail and 

 should be carried out according to a homogeneous scheme Avhich 

 would prevent wasteful repetition in different places. But I feel 

 certain that until Ave have trained up a number of students Avho 

 possess an adequate knowledge of questions of meteorology, geo- 

 detics, terrestrial magnetism, and seismology the position which this 

 country will take in international organization can not be a leading 

 one, though it may be, and, indeed, oAving to i^rivate efforts, is at 

 the present moment one of which w^e need not be ashamed. 



Finally, I must lay stress on one aspect of the question Avhich I 

 hope may induce us to attach still greater importance to inter- 

 national undertakings. The cooperation of different nations in the 

 joint iuA^estigation of the constitution of the terrestrial globe, of the 

 phenomena which take place at its surface, and of the celestial 

 SM 190G 83 



