40 Science neglected; doctrines supported. 



chemistry. In the Royal Institution of Great 

 Britain, the average annual expenses relating to 

 experimental research, including salaries to assist- 

 ants for research in the laboratory, from the year 

 1867 to 1871, did not amount to two hundred and 

 fifty pounds. On the other hand, the " total net 

 receipts " of the British and Foreign Bible Society 

 alone, amount to about 213,000 a year. These 

 circumstances strongly indicate extreme ignorance 

 of the value and necessity of new scientific know- 

 ledge, and an equally strong desire to aid any good 

 object which is understood. The money given to 

 charitable and religious objects is largely a result of 

 the unpaid labours of scientific investigators in the 

 manner already described. The fact that verifiable 

 truth is seriously neglected, whilst millions of pounds 

 are annually devoted in this country to the support 

 of .dogmas and doctrines, proves that the English 

 nation is even now in a very imperfectly civilized 

 state. 



Considering the multiplicity and variety of philan- 

 thropic institutions and bequests in this country, 

 and the great effect original scientific research has 

 in ameliorating the condition of mankind, and 

 reducing the amount of human misery, it is sur- 

 prising that no wealthy philanthropic individual has 

 bequeathed funds for the endowment of an institu- 

 tion for pure research in physics or chemistry.* In 



* As a notable exception to the above statement : " Scientific 

 research has now an Institute of its own in Birmingham, without 



