1869.] Practical Scientific Research. 41 



systematic observation, as for instance, the construction of planetary- 

 tables, the perfection of the lunar theory, and even the cataloguing 

 of the stars, have been carried on through the intervention of state 

 establishments. No one, even for a passing moment, doubts that 

 in these particulars the mode of carrying on the work has been an 

 advantageous one. Indeed it is not possible for even the most 

 ardent imagination to conceive that the results which have been 

 arrived at in these especial departments could have been secured 

 in any other way. It would certainly be worth while to ascertain 

 the opinion of the Astronomer Eoyal as to what, in all human 

 probability, those results would have been if all labour of this class 

 had been left to private ardour and enterprise ; if such things as 

 tables of the moon had been exclusively contributed by some few 

 dozens of private observers, each following his own notion of the 

 best way of observing and the most convenient way of reducing. 



But state intervention has not been confined even to this high 

 branch of scientific labour. It has been in reality found that there 

 are various other departments of intellectual investigation that can 

 only be carried on by the same operation. All the great measures 

 of the earth have been "interventions" of the state, and not con- 

 tributions of private enterprise. To the state is due all that has 

 been done for preservmg in uncontaminated integrity the national 

 standards of length, weight, and capacity. What private or simply 

 co-operative agency could have secured the result which has been 

 abeady attained at Bloomsbury and South Kensington? To say 

 nothing of the obvious future of the magnificent collections that are 

 gathered in the national museums located there. The influence for 

 good, of the School of Mines in Jermyn Street is now widely recog- 

 nized and accepted, and that certainly is an estabhshment that could 

 not have been organized and supported otherwise than by the state. 

 The Kew Observatory, although not a state institution, is a very 

 noteworthy instance on the same side of the argument. It proves, 

 in the first place, the excellent result of substituting organization for 

 desultory individual efibrt. Before its creation efiicient instruments 

 for delicate meteorological and magnetic investigation were scarcely 

 to be procured. It is now the generally recognized authority for 

 the verification of such instruments, and in addition to this main 

 work, other very refined and important investigations are carried 

 on there, which certainly would not be undertaken by individual 

 enterprise ; as, for instance, researches relating to the freezing-point 

 of mercury, the rotation of discs in vacuo, and the record by pho- 

 tographic agency of important features presented in the sun's face. 

 Now, this year it has only been found possible to devote the paltry 

 sum of 605Z. to the support of this useful institution. Who would 

 hesitate to say that in this case usefulness is limited by income, and 

 that under the- enjoyment of a more adequate provision from the 



