A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 



" To the solid ground 

 Of Nature trusts the mind which buUds for aj^."— -Wordsworth 



THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1878 



RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 



IN beginning with the present Number what is prac- 

 tically a New Series of Nature, the journal has 

 reached a definite stage of its career, one at which it will 

 perhaps not be considered out of place that we should 

 make a reference both to its past and future. 



That Nature has succeeded in attaining the object 

 for which it was started will, we think, be admitted by 

 men of science both at home and abroad; and it is 

 because Nature has become more and more widely 

 recognised as the organ of science all the world over, that 

 at last we are compelled to enlarge it in order to find space 

 for the stream of communications that week after week 

 come pouring in upon us from all parts. If we have, 

 either directly or indirectly, contributed to this spread 

 of a taste for scientific knowledge, this is due to the un- 

 tiring assistance and sympathy which the many students 

 and friends of science in this and other countries have 

 afforded us, and which aid we are anxious to take this 

 opportunity of acknowledging. In the future, as in the 

 past, we are sure this stream will continue to flow, so that 

 the editor's function will, as heretofore, be a modest one. 



Beyond this we need not dwell on the past and future 

 of the journal. The work accomplished in the past nine 

 years, and the direction in which it has progressed, is a 

 much more important matter. Both writers and readers 

 have, as it were, arrived at a stage of their journey. 

 From it the countries which they have explored are still 

 plainly visible, while those in front of them, never before 

 trodden, even if they show fair promise of being similar 

 to those already traversed, are shrouded in mystery, and 

 may in truth turn out to be very different from what they 

 seem. 



We may take advantage, then, of this halt to glance at 

 the nine years' crop of knowledge which Nature has 

 recorded ; to consider the scientific progress accomplished 

 in that period, and to seek for the indications afforded 

 as to the lines along which activity may be expected in 

 the future. 



Vol. xviii. — No. 444 



We certainly do live in deeply interesting times. Since 

 the first number of this journal appeared there has un- 

 doubtedly sprung up a much greater general interest in 

 science than was formerly to be found, and questions 

 concerning scientific discovery, research and teaching, 

 have now a much more direct interest to the public than 

 they formerly possessed. No better test of this can be 

 required than the continually growing space given to 

 such matters by the daily press, and the more intelligent 

 discussion of such questions as. the endowment of 

 research, and the importance of science at our univer- 

 sities and in our schools which is everywhere noticeable. 



The matters to which we have just referred are, 

 indeed, those in which a distinct progress has been 

 made — a progress which we firmly believe is only a small 

 foretaste of that which is to follow. 



We have, ever since the journal was started, main- 

 tained, through evil report and good report, the crying 

 necessity to the country of a greater endowment and a 

 wider diffusion of pure science, because the one provides 

 us with raw material, the other distributes it, so that 

 throughout the length and breadth of the land, new 

 manufactures in the shape of new applications of science 

 may arise. There are many signs which indicate 

 that the necessity of this, which is obvious at the- 

 present time only to the comparatively few, will be uni- 

 versally insisted upon. If it is not, future historians may 

 have to show how different might have been our conditiort 

 if our mental resources, which are doubtless as rich as our 

 material ones, had been utilised in the same way ; if 

 education had done for mind, what, for instance, coal has 

 been compelled to do for iron. 



The Government has not been slow to recognise this 

 growing interest in scientific matters. In the period to 

 which we refer a commission, of which the Duke of 

 Devonshire was chairman, and of which the two secretaries. 

 of the Royal Society were among the members, has gone 

 over, and reported at length on, the whole field of scientific 

 instruction and the advancement of science in the 

 three kingdoms. 



The only direct response made up to the present 

 time by the Government to the recommendations of 

 the Duke of Devonshire's Commission, has been the 



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