514 Meeting of the British Association. [| Oct., 
hours’ work it had been found that the copper or primary wire sur- 
rounding the core of the coil appeared to be quite cool, while the 
iron core itself was considerably heated. He therefore mainly assigned 
the production of the heat to the cause he had specified. 
Colonel Strange next read a paper “On the Necessity for State 
Intervention to secure the Progress of Physical Science.” The 
author stated that knowledge, of whatever kind, was promoted 
principally in three ways, viz. by teaching, by education, and by 
exhibition. Unless the young were instructed, unless the workers 
advanced beyond what they learned when young, and unless the 
world was reminded of what had been done, and of what remained 
to be achieved, knowledge must languish. The provision, such as 
it was, which had been made in England to meet these three main 
requirements, had grown up casually with the progress of society, 
and was not equally complete in all branches of knowledge. ‘The 
period is gone by when science generally can be cultivated with 
simple and primitive means; and the required researches of the pre- 
sent day need for their successful prosecution buildings expressly 
constructed for the purpose, extensive and costly appliances, and the 
continuous employment of the highest skill. It is evident that these 
requirements cannot be met by private enterprise and munificence, 
and it follows of necessity that the resources of the State alone can 
adequately supply the existing want; and that unless these are so 
employed the progress of scientific knowledge and discovery must 
become slower and slower. Without entering into premature details, 
the paper proposes that there should be established a system of 
national institutions for the sole purpose of advancing science by 
practical research, quite apart from teaching it; that such institu- 
tions, provided with extensive appliances and skilled professors and 
operators, should be presided over by a governing body constituted 
with reference solely to the scientific eminence of its members ; that 
this body should direct the labours of the executive into such fields 
as they may deem most worthy of being explored; and that they 
should also have the power of sanctioning experiments and inyes- 
tigations proposed by any person unconnected with them. The 
advantages which the nation derives from the results of science, cul- 
tivated even as it is at present, desultorily and inefficiently, would 
be enormously multiplied by the introduction of the principle of 
continuity in research, and by the employment of the highest skill 
and the most perfect appliances. Systematic investigation conducted 
in the comprehensive manner proposed must prove directly remu- 
nerative, whether applied to strictly State purposes, or whether 
utilized in the public works, the manufactures, and the general 
necessities of the nation. 
A Committee was subsequently appointed to inquire into the 
best means of carrying out the object proposed by Colonel Strange. 
