Depressing effect of undue wealth upon progress. 2 1 3 



scientific research has been almost entirely excluded 

 from our old Universities, If the present tutors and 

 governing bodies of those Institutions cannot in- 

 duce students generally to be industrious, by what 

 means can it be expected that these young men can 

 be persuaded to exercise the still greater degree of 

 industry and intelligence requisite to prosecute re- 

 search, whilst they are decoyed from it by the attrac- 

 tions of wealth ? In Germany the conditions are 

 very different, the students in the Universities of that 

 country have much less money at their disposal. 

 Nearly the whole of the educational courses also 

 at the Grammar schools and other educational insti- 

 tutions in this country, are formed upon the plan of 

 sending all the superior scholars to our Universities, 

 and thus the defective state of scientific training at the 

 Universities operates through our whole scholastic 

 system, and depresses the entire scientific instruction 

 of the nation. It is evident that in this way the undue 

 wealth of this country largely retards national progress. 

 7///. Local Endowment of Research Funds. In 

 addition to the foregoing means, local efforts might be 

 made to encourage research in each great centre of 

 industry ; through the medium of the local scientific 

 societies. Nearly as early as the year 1660, Cowley 

 in a treatise, proposed a Philosophical Society to be 

 established near London, with liberal salaries to 

 learned men to make experiments ; but he could not 

 get the money raised. A plan of this kind is in 

 operation in Birmingham and carried out by the 



