NATURE 



{Nov. 7, 1S89 



purely physical line of inquiry, as already suggested, 

 seems to have yielded its utmost. The more biological 

 line of inquiry has only yet begun to yield a foretaste 

 of the results which will undoubtedly ultimately flow 

 from it. 



Something must be added as to systematic and geo- 

 graphical botany. The " Genera Plantarum " of Bentham 

 and Hooker, the work of a quarter of a century at Kew, 

 affords a complete review of the higher vegetation of the 

 world, and has been accepted generally as a standard 

 authority. To Bentham also we owe the completion of 

 the " Flora Australiensis," the first complete account of the 

 flora of any great continent. 



In geographical botany, perhaps the most interesting 

 results have been the gradual elaboration of a theory as 

 to the distribution of plants in Africa, and the botanical 

 exploration of China, of the vegetable productions of 

 which, twenty years ago, almost nothing was known. 



In the classification of the lower plants, perhaps the 

 most interesting result has been the happy observations 

 of Lankester upon a coloured Bacterium, which enabled 

 him to show that many forms previously believed to be 

 distinct might be phases of the same life-history. 



In geology probably the greatest advance has been in 

 the application of the microscope to the investigation of 

 rock structure, which has given rise to a really rational 

 petrology. All except the coarser-grained rocks were 

 only capable of being described in vague terms ; with 

 modern methods their crystalline constituents are deter- 

 minable, however minute, and the conditions under which 

 they were formed can be inferred. 



It is impossible, even in a brief review of this kind, 

 to think only of what has been won, and to ignore 

 the loss of leaders who were once foremost in the fray. 

 I n England three names which will never be forgotten have 

 been removed from the muster-roll. Darwin, Joule, and 

 Maxwell can hardly be at once replaced by successors of 

 equal eminence. As the need arises, however, men will 

 no doubt be found adequate to the emergency, and it is 

 at least satisfactory to know that they will appeal to a 

 public more capable than heretofore of appreciating their 

 efforts. 



The support afforded by the Governments of Western 

 Europe to scientific investigation has been markedly in- 

 creased within the period which we survey. France has 

 largely extended her subsidies to scientific research, whilst 

 Germany has made use of a large part of her increased 

 Imperial revenue to improve the arrangements for similar 

 objects existing in her Universities. The British Govern- 

 ment has shown a decided inclination in the same direc- 

 tion : the grant to the Royal Society for the promotion of 

 scientific research has been increased from ;^ioc)0 to 

 ^4000 a year ; whilst subsidies have been voted to the 

 Marine Laboratory at Plymouth, to the Committee on Solar 

 Physics, to the Meteorological Council, and quite recently 



to the University Colleges throughout the country, of 

 which last it is to be hoped that a fair proportion will be 

 devoted to the promotion of research rather than to the 

 reduction of class fees. 



Twenty years ago England was in the birth-throes of a 

 national system of primary instruction. This year has 

 seen the State recognition of the necessity of a secondary 

 and essentially a scientific system of education, and the 

 Technical Instruction Act marks an era in the scientific 

 annals of the nation. 



The extension of scientific teaching has gone on rapidly 

 within and without our Universities. Twenty years ago 

 the Clarendon Laboratory at Oxford was approaching 

 completion, and was the only laboratory in the country 

 which was specially designed for physical work. Now, not 

 only has Cambridge also its Cavendish Laboratory, but 

 both Universities have rebuilt their chemical laboratories, 

 both have erected buildings devoted to the study of biology, 

 and the instruction of students in both zoology and botany 

 has taken a characteristic practical form which we owe 

 to the system of concentrating attention on a series of 

 selected " types " introduced by Rolleston and by Huxley. 

 Oxford has been furnished with an astronomical obser- 

 vatory by the liberality of Warren De la Rue, and 

 Cambridge has accepted the noble gift of the Newall 

 telescope. Nor have such proofs of the vitality of science 

 been confined to the Universities. 



Twenty years ago the Owens College was a unique 

 institution: now, united with two thriving Colleges in Leeds 

 and Liverpool, it forms the Victoria University ; while 

 science is studied in appropriate buildings in Birmingham, 

 Newcastle, Nottingham, and half a dozen towns beside. 



A race is thus springing up which has sufficient 

 knowledge of science to enforce due recognition of its 

 importance, and public opinion can now, far more than in 

 the past, be relied on to support its demands. Fortunately, 

 too, these can be authoritatively expressed. The Royal 

 Society wields, if it chooses to exercise it, an enormous 

 power for good. Admitted on all hands to be the su- 

 preme scientific authority in this country, its decisions 

 are accepted with a deference which can spring only from 

 respect for the knowledge and scrupulous fairness by which 

 they are dictated. If sometimes it moves slowly, pur se 

 muove, and it is delightful to turn from the babble of the 

 politicians to the study of an institution which does its 

 work well, and perhaps too noiselessly. But even the 

 House of Commons, hitherto ignorant and therefore apa- 

 thetic in matters scientific, is awakening to the fact that 

 there are forces to be reckoned with and impulses to 

 be stimulated and controlled which are of more endur- 

 ing import to the national welfare than mere party 

 politics. And the people, too, are beginning to see that 

 it is to the economic working of these forces, and to 

 the right direction of these impulses, that their repre- 

 sentatives are bound to give attention. True it is that 



