154 THE KINGDOM OF MAN 



physicists in the Royal Society who have carried this 

 enterprise to completion. The British Association has 

 every reason to be proud of its share in early days in 

 nursing the germ at Kew which has at length expanded 

 into this splendid national institution. 



I may mention also another institution which, during 

 the past quarter of a century, has come into existence and 

 received, originally through the influence of the late Lord 

 Playfair (one of the few men of science who has ever 

 occupied the position of a Minister of the Crown), and 

 later by the influence of the Right Hon. Joseph Chamber- 

 lain, a subsidy of i,ooo/. a year from the Government and 

 a contribution of 5,ooo/. towards its initial expenses. This 

 is the Marine Biological Association, 1 which has a labora- 

 tory at Plymouth (see fig. 47), and has lately expended 

 a special annual grant, at the spontaneous invitation of 

 His Majesty's Treasury, in conducting an investigation of 

 the North Sea in accordance with an international scheme 

 devised by a central committee of scientific experts. This 

 scheme has for its purpose the gaining such knowledge of 

 the North Sea and its inhabitants as shall be useful in 

 dealing practically and by legislation with the great 

 fisheries of that area. The reader will, perhaps, not be 

 surprised to hear that there are persons in high positions 

 who, though admittedly unacquainted with the scientific 

 questions at issue or the proper manner of solving them, 

 are discontented with the action of the Government in 

 entrusting the expenditure of public money to a body of 



1 I had the honour and good fortune to found this association and 

 to collect the funds so generously given to it then for many years to act 

 as its honorary secretary, to design and superintend the erection of the 

 laboratory and to organize, in conjunction with my scientific colleagues, 

 its staff, its scheme of work and government. On the death of our 

 beloved president, Professor Huxley, I was elected as his successor, and 

 still occupy that position. 



