^,62 



NATURE 



{Sept. 2, 1875 



other of these and existing- institutions every requisite 

 investigation will range itself. I have not stopped to 

 inquire whether one or another is more or less important. 

 My aim in the spirit of my postulate No. 2 * has been 

 completeness. It may be necessary for a manufacturer to 

 prosecute only such particular investigations as promise 

 direct and speedy profit. A great nation must not act in 

 that commercial spirit. All the operations of nature are 

 so intimately interwoven, that it is impossible to say 

 beforehand that a given line of research, apparently unpro- 

 ductive, may not throw light in unsuspected directions, 

 and so lead to untold and undreamt-of treasures." . . . 



Sir W. Thomson's evidence is as follows : — 



" Are you of opinion that any national institutions sup- 

 ported by the Government are required for the advance- 

 ment of science ? — I think that there ought to be institu- 

 tions for pure research supported by the Government, and 

 not connected with the Universities. The only suitable 

 place at present for such institutions would be London, 

 or the neighbourhood of London ; in that situation, I 

 believe, very great things could be done by institutions 

 for pure research, at which work of a very great imme- 

 diate money value would be produced at an extremely 

 moderate cost, and I believe that discoveries redounding 

 to the honour and credit and pleasure of this country 

 would infallibly be made." 



" Are you able to give any idea as to how many such 

 institutions would be required? — There should be five. 

 One at present exists, namely, the Royal Observatory at 

 Greenwich. Another in my opinion is very much wanted, 

 an observatory for astronomical physics, then again a 

 physical laboratory, and a laboratory for chemical re- 

 search, and a physiological laboratory are necessary." . . . 



" Would such a physical laboratory differ in any essen- 

 tial respects from a physical laboratory attached to an 

 University ? — Yes ; it would be adapted solely for re- 

 search, with no provision for pupils except what may be 

 called apprentices, or pupils for research ; no provision 

 for teaching the mere elements of manipulation, but pro- 

 vision for researches directly adapted to increase know- 

 ledge, and for making pattern researches for the sake of 

 training research pupils who had already gained experi- 

 ence and proved ability in institutions of instruction." 



" Would you leave the researches to be carried on at 

 such a laboratory mainly to the discretion of the person 

 who had charge of it, or would you place it in any degree 

 under the control of the council of which you have been 

 speaking ? — I would leave it to the discretion of the person 

 who has charge of it." . . . 



"And that the Government should also be able to 

 command investigation on the advice of the council ? — 

 Yes." 



" Of course the director would report ? — Yes, the 

 director would report on everything, both researches 

 undertaken at his own instigation, and investigations 

 undertaken for the council or for the Government." 



*' And your view of what should be done in the chemi- 

 cal and physiological laboratories would, I presume, be 

 something of the same nature ? — Yes, something of the 

 same kind, imUatis mutandis^^ 



" With respect to the apparatus, and the annual supply 

 of apparatus, it is probable, is it not, that the physical 



* Col. Strange opened his evidence before the Royal Commission in the 

 following terms : — 



" I can hardly do better than by stating the four postulates on which I 

 base all my recommendations : it seems to me indispensable that I should 

 state the basis upon which I am about to speak. I'hose postulates are as 

 follows:— (i) That science is essential to the advancement of civilisation, the 

 development of national wealth, and the maintenance of national power. (2) 

 That all science should be cultivated, even branches of science which do not 

 appear to promise immediate direct advantage. (3) That the State or Go- 

 vernment, acting as trustees of the people, should provide for the cultivation 

 of those departments of science which, by reason of costliness, either in time 

 or money, or of remoteness of probable profit, are beyond the reach of pri- 

 vate individuals ; in order that the community may not suffer from the effect 

 of insufficiency of isolated effort. (4) That to whatever extent science may 

 be advanced by State agency, thatiagency should be systematically consti- 

 tuted and directed." 



laboratories would be the most costly ? — Yes, the most 

 costly in apparatus." 



*' Some very fine instruments of a costly kind are now 

 required in physiological inquiries, and large pieces of 

 apparatus are sometimes employed, such as the respira- 

 tion apparatus at Munich, which was put up on the 

 recommendation of Prof. Pettenkofer ? — Yes, it would ba 

 in my opinion necessary not to limit to a fixed endowment 

 the expenditure of any one of those institutions, but to let 

 it be determined (if I may use the expression once more) 

 by natural selection ; applications for money to be made 

 to the council to be duly weighed, and the council to 

 apply to the Treasury. That would be much more econo- 

 mical than giving a fixed sum which, being to be spent, 

 might be spent without due regard to economy, or 

 which, on the other hand, might prove to be insufficient 

 for valuable researches, causing the institution thereby to 

 be crippled and to lose efficiency," 



" You would not think it indispensable, would you, that 

 such institutions, if the Government thought fit to esta- 

 blish them, should be in the heart of London, or in any 

 very central situation ? — No ; it would be much better 

 that they should be in the country in positions conveni- 

 ently accessible to London." . . . 



"You would not institute any regular provision for 

 teaching in those laboratories ? — No." 



" But you would allow young men or students who 

 wished to carry out original research to avail themselves 

 of them under the direction of the persons who were in 

 charge of them ? — Yes, under the direction, and to some 

 degree under the instruction of the persons in cbarjje ; 

 but the instruction should be limited to methods for 

 advancing science. The director of such an institution 

 must not be occupied with lecturing in any other institu- 

 tion, or with lecturing at all. He ought indeed to be pro- 

 hibited from lecturing, except one or two occasional 

 lectures in the course of a year." 



" You think that the object for which you recommend 

 the establishment of those laboratories could not be 

 accomplished by any other means — not by investigations 

 carried on in other laboratories in the country? — Certainly 

 not by any other means." 



Dr. Frankland thus refers to the double function which 

 such laboratories might perform, and states his view in 

 reference to their management : — 



" Can you make any suggestions as to stimulating 

 original research in this country? — .... We have in 

 this country a considerable body of investigators who are 

 not engaged in teaching at all, and I think that this is a 

 peculiarly hopeful feature of our case. It shows that the 

 English have not only a taste for research, but that they 

 have a natural talent for it. We have numerous men 

 like Mr. Gassiot, Sir W. Grove, Dr. De la Rue, Mr. 

 Spottiswoode, Mr. Huggins, Mr, Duppa, Mr. Buckton, 

 Mr. Joule, Mr. Lockyer, Mr. Perkin, Mr. Schunck, Col. 

 Yorke, and others whom I could name, who are not in 

 any way engaged in teaching, and never have been, but 

 who have made important original researches, and have 

 spent a good deal of their time in the working out of new 

 discoveries. Now that method of stimulating research 

 which I have mentioned in my former examination would 

 not of course apply to them. Men of this class are really 

 peculiar to England, for I have never known any such 

 instance in Germany or in France, of men altogether dis- 

 connected with teaching taking up research in the way it 

 is done in England. I think that for such men the esta- 

 blishment of national institutions such as those which are 

 recommended by Col. Strange would be pecuharly useful. 

 In fact, I have heard several of these gentlemen express 

 strong opinions as to the great advantage it would be to 

 them if they could go to some institution of that kind to 

 conduct research, where expensive instruments, which are 

 often required for their experiments, were provided for a 



