INITIATION OF RESEARCH WORK 153 



of the co-operation in research afforded by the Associa- 

 tion. Kelvin's biographer records how ' his assiduous 

 attendance at meetings of the British Association 

 stimulated younger men into combined effort. He 

 secured their service on committees, suggested often 

 by himself, to investigate different subjects.' x Of 

 the value of the work of such committees there could 

 be no better judge, for from 1860 onward he himself 

 served on forty-one of them. 



It is further to be observed that the Association 

 has never avowedly taken upon itself the burden of 

 any grant which might be expected to become per- 

 manent. Grants made by the Association have been 

 made rather with the object of setting on foot some 

 new movement in scientific investigation, which, 

 if justified by initial results and likely to require 

 financial support of a permanent character, might 

 seek such support, with the backing of the Association, 

 from public or other sources better able to meet its 

 needs. Even the expenditure of more than 12,000, 

 over a term of thirty years, on the Kew Observatory 

 was actually, as we shall presently see, a piece of 

 pioneer work which led on to the establishment of 

 one of the most important scientific foundations 

 in the world. In regard to not a few other scientific 

 developments of its period, the Association is in the 

 position of a parent whose share of responsibility 

 for the success of his offspring in later life is not 

 always assessed at full worth. 



It may well be that in future the Association will 

 contribute less than before in pounds, shillings, and 

 pence to the direct support of research. The value 

 of money has changed so far that the balance at the 



1 Silvanus Thompson, Life of Lord Kelvin, vol. ii., p. 1127. 



