igo Ignorance, the primary obstacle to research. 



large, in the shape of an increased price put upon the 

 commodity, in order to pay the cost of the patent, 

 like the grower of wheat is paid by the consumers of 

 bread, through the medium of the baker, the miller, 

 and corn merchant. 



Whilst the benefits derived from the labours of 

 -discoverers, flows chiefly in the form of money into 

 the hands of wealthy manufacturers, and finally gets 

 locked up in the possession of capitalists and land- 

 owners, it is hardly to be expected that the Govern- 

 ment will be in possession of funds necessary to 

 promote research unless some such plan as this is 

 adopted. Should the wealthy and governing classes 

 however become sufficiently acquainted with the 

 value of research, and of the essential and permanent 

 dependence of their material prosperity upon it, there 

 will then be some hope that they will be willing to 

 contribute in a more direct manner their just share 

 towards paying the expenses. There is, however, but 

 little prospect of this whilst the influence of wealth so 

 depresses the scientific education of those classes at 

 the Universities. 



The fundamental object in founding State labora- 

 tories should be to keep a staff of the most competent 

 men wholly engaged in original research in pure 

 science, and a secondary object might be to train as- 

 sistants to become investigators. Such laboratories 

 would doubtless be located in London, and be on a 

 scale of magnitude creditable to science and the 

 nation. They might very suitably include depart- 



