NA TURE 



169 



THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 1897. 



1 837- 1 897. 



THERE has been one feeling in the minds of the 

 inhabitants of Britain, and of Greater Britain, 

 during the last week, which has thrown all others into 

 the shade — a feeling of intense patriotism and loyalty to 

 the Queen, mixed with a deep reverence for her personal 

 qualities. It is this feeling which has brought repre- 

 sentatives to our shores from every part of the greatest 

 empire which so far the world has known ; which has 

 organised the stupendous ceremonial witnessed on Tues- 

 day in the metropolis, a celebration to be worthily 

 crowned on Saturday by the review of the first line of the 

 armed force of the nation. 



These most memorable events in the annals of our 

 time — events, indeed, beyond all precedents of former 

 times — which have so emphatically marked Her Majesty's 

 Diamond Jubilee, have naturally been connected in many 

 minds with the progress of the nation during the 

 last sixty years. It is satisfactory to note the general 

 recognition in the daily and weekly press of the im- 

 portance of the part played by science during that interval 

 in securing the tremendous advance which has been 

 achieved, along many lines, in things pertaining to the 

 increased well-being and usefulness of mankind. 



It is very generally recognised that the Victorian age is 

 emphatically the age of science, and indeed so true is this 

 that a hasty sketch of the progress of natural knowledge 

 during the last sixty years would require a volume. So 

 great has been the advance, so rapidly are all benefits 

 conferred by science applied to our daily needs, that it 

 is extremely difficult already to obtain a mental image 

 of many conditionings of life sixty years ago, and it is 

 not a little singular that many of the advances made, 

 which in some cases have profoundly influenced modern 

 thought, and in others have enormously increased the 

 Iiappiness, comfort and usefulness of our lives, are very 

 nearly conterminous with the reign. 



How changed are the Imperial conditions even from 

 the year of the famous Great Exhibition, when, in the 

 language of Tennyson, there were poured upon our 

 shores, 



" Things of beauty, things of use 



Which one fair planet can produce, 

 Brought from under every star." 



In the year 1837 the possibility of telegraphy was first 

 1 ealised, and Faraday was at work at frictional electricity. 

 Who can attempt to measure the value of this early 

 electrical and magnetic work, either from the pure science 

 or applied science point of view ? Has not the close 

 binding together of the various units of the Anglo-Saxon 

 race which has brought citizens of the Empire from under 

 every star been among the indirect results ? 



From that year to the present time not a sea, but an 

 ocean of marvels has been discovered. Our view has been 

 obscured by day with wires carrying currents, some of 

 which illuminate our cities and houses at night, while 

 others carry our messages to the ends of the earth. 

 Surely in all this progress in one restricted branch 

 NO. 1443. ^'OL. 56] 



since 1837 we have a clear indication that the study of 

 the useless— useless because it has never been used — is 

 the surest way to discoveries rich in public utility. 



It has also been recently pointed out that the art and 

 science of photography are conterminous with the reign. 



" In 1837 Daguerre and Fox Talbot were founding 

 photography. The Daguerrotype and Talbotype were 

 given to the world two years later. What would the 

 modern world do without photography, as we know it 

 in this year of Jubilee ? It has added ten thousand 

 million stars to the astronomer's stock-in-trade ; it is an 

 invaluable ally in the study of the physics and chemistry 

 of distant worlds ; while with a grand impartiality it 

 reveals to us the secrets of the infinitely little. Last of 

 all, not content with adding to the pleasures and the 

 knowledge of mankind, it comes to succour human ills, 

 and soon no hospital will be without its aid." 



We may note with pride that in the Victorian era Britain 

 has well retained her place, not to say her supremacy, 

 in the realm of ideas. One of the great poets — the 

 makers — of science whose name will go down to posterity 

 with that of Newton has added lustre to the Queen's 

 reign. 



But we may warmly congratulate ourselves that some- 

 thing more than science itself has advanced; the import- 

 ance of its methods and results in relation to the future 

 progress of the nation is at last receiving a tardy 

 recognition. 



The progress of science itself and its results are 

 naturally not confined to any one nation under the new 

 world condition of almost instantaneous exchange of 

 thought, but this same possibility of rapid exchange also 

 applies to the transit of raw material. Britain in the 

 past had for years a practical monopoly of coal and iron ; 

 this was her strength, but this strength is hers exclusively 

 no longer. 



At the present day Britain is distinctly behind Germany 

 in the national endeavour to face the conditions of 

 national peaceful competition as they exist. Our Govern- 

 ment has been supine in matters in which the German 

 Government have put forth all their strength, and so, eve n 

 assuming that the scientific spirit and the individual 

 endowment and advancement have been the same in 

 both countries, we have fallen sadly into arrear as to 

 those educational and scientific institutions on which 

 we must depend for the future production of workers and 

 new discoveries. 



There are signs that this condition of things is mend- 

 ing, that the error is being acknowledged by those who, 

 if they choose, can readily correct it. The Duke of 

 Devonshire last week, at the opening of the International 

 Congress on technical education, announced frankly : 

 " We have in this country a Department of Education, 

 but its functions are almost entirely limited to elementary 

 education, and we have not in our Administration any 

 minister who properly corresponds to the Minister of 

 Education of other Governments." 



It is as if one should say, "We have in this country a 

 Department of War, but its functions are almost entirely 

 limited to teaching the goose-step to recruits." 



Another encouraging sign is to be found in the recent 

 increase in the assistance rendered to the University 

 Colleges, all of wliich outside the metropolis have been 



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