248 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 



knowledge gained in science Britain ought to have 

 every year. ... It seems to me that to promote 

 the establishment of a British Year Book of Science 

 is an object to which the powerful action of the 

 British Association would be thoroughly appropriate.' 



Circumstances, then, have deprived the Associa- 

 tion of the power, even if it had the desire, to under- 

 take publication in the bulk to which it attained 

 during the second half of last century and the early 

 years of the present. The same is true in regard 

 to grants for research. Here are involved the con- 

 siderations, not merely that the Association necessarily 

 has a smaller surplus of receipts than formerly to 

 draw upon for the purpose of aiding research, but 

 also that new sources of provision for research have 

 come into existence since the Association was 

 founded ; notably such State institutions as the 

 Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, 

 But it must not be inferred that the British Associa- 

 tion (or, for that matter, other scientific institutions) 

 have the less need for public support. It is a wide- 

 spread public misconception that the great scientific 

 institutions of this country are wealthy : as a class 

 they are not. Probably any one of them certainly 

 the British Association could fittingly administer 

 for the advancement of science far larger funds than 

 it commands. To the national well-being science 

 contributes much more than it receives ; it has 

 not been its habit to bargain. The name of the 

 British Association has come to carry weight ; its 

 name attached to any subject of scientific research 

 or publication is a guarantee of the worth of that 

 subject. But not every item of scientific labour is 



