1869.] Practical Scientific Research. 39 



deserved position Great Britain has taken np among the advanced 

 nations of the world on other grounds, and that there is one very 

 clear and obvious reason for this undesirable fact which cannot be 

 too soon looked fairly in the face by the best friends and advocates 

 of scientific movement. The Colonel pointed emphatically to the 

 official declaration, that " The objects of the British Association are 

 to give a stronger impulse and more systematic direction to scientific 

 inquiry, and to remove any disadvantages of a ]3ublic kind which 

 impede its progress," and upon that manifesto based an argument 

 that there is now an imperative call and claim upon the enlightened 

 Association of British Philosophers to take action upon this avowed 

 principle, and use its powerful influence to lead the public mind to 

 a recognition of one great need from which the highest interests of 

 the general community are suffering at the present day. In this 

 appeal Colonel Strange urged the Association to bear well in mind 

 the importance of jjressing upon public attention the comparativily 

 backward condition of scientific research in the British Islands and 

 dependencies at the present time, and of insisting upon the inex- 

 pressible and unassessible value of the mighty engine of human 

 advancement that is thus allowed to remain in relative idleness 

 and disuse, while so many other engines are worked at their utmost 

 speed, and often with a reckless profusion of expenditure, that only 

 makes the contrast so much the more startling and humiliating for 

 a people aiming at a forward position and high excellence. If the 

 views entertained by the originator of this movement be substan- 

 tiated by facts, there can be no doubt that an association of philo- 

 sophers which professes to engage itself with " giving a stronger 

 impulse and a more systematic direction to scientific inquiry, and 

 with removing disadvantages that impede its progress," will bo 

 bound by its own profession to do all that may be done to indicate 

 how " the intellectual glories and material riches which a bountiful 

 Providence has created for man's use may be best placed, promptly 

 and systematically, at man's disposal." 



The plea which was offered at the Norwich Meeting of the 

 British Association by Colonel Strange was at any rate so far ad- 

 mitted by the court before which he elected to urge the appeal that 

 a committee, comprising the names of Thomson, Tyndall, Frankland, 

 Williamson, Stokes, Fleeming Jenkin, Hirst, Huxley, Balfour 

 Stewart, Stenhouse, Glaisher, and Huggins, besides those of the 

 chairman and secretary, was appointed to consider and report upon 

 the general questions, whether there exist in the United Kingdom 

 of Great Britain and Ireland sufiicient provision for the vigorous 

 prosecution of physical research, and whether, if it lie held that suffi- 

 cient provision does not exist, it can be shown what fm'ther provision 

 is needed, and what measures can be taken to supply the want. 



It will be observed that in this proceeding the action of the 



