452 



NATURE 



[September io, 1903 



But there is another side to this picture. Anyone who has 

 discussed any scheme with the board of directors, the 

 manager, the engineer, and the chemist of one of our great 

 manufactories must have been strucli with the concentrated 

 ability there found in harness. It has often seemed to me 

 that it is a great misfortune that our professors of mechanics, 

 of physics, and of chemistry are in so many instances pre- 

 cluded from a better acquaintance with the working of these 

 great machines — .a misfortune not for the works, at least 

 directly, but for the professors, and more especially for their 

 pupils. 



Nowhere are scientific problems of greater complexity con- 

 stantly having to be solved than in a great manufactory ; 

 nowhere is such concentrated talent necessary as in a works 

 organised and carried on in competition with all the world. 

 I look upon these as our most valuable schools, and the 

 closer the touch between them and those whose province it is 

 to teach, the better for the teacher and the pupil. 



It is, perhaps, hardly desirable to mention any one where 

 there are so many. I am tempted to dwell upon the problem 

 which has been at last successfully solved bv Parsons, this 

 being the joint product of the school and of the works'; but 

 there is one picture — a contrast, I will not say of light and 

 shade, but of colour and colour — to which I must refer. I 

 remember in my early days, in the surroundings of a 

 classical atmosphere, the general feeling of contempt for the 

 manufacturer, the intellectually inferior creature who only 

 made money, but who knew nothing of rvirrw or rfrv/xfial. 

 I am not sure that some such feeling does not still exist 

 among those whose horizon is limited to the Latin and 

 Greek that they have learned — or should I sav limited by in- 

 stead of to? This recollection came back to me when not 

 long ago I was visiting one of the best organised and most 

 skilfully conducted works in the country— I mean Willans 

 and Robinson — when I remembered that another great manu- 

 factory, conducted on American lines, was near by, and when 

 across the road I saw the walls of one of our most famous 

 English schools. I pictured the old contrast : on the one 

 hand the conviction impressed upon me when a bov that there 

 IS something intellectually superior in the struggle with a 

 paragraph of Xenophon or a page of Homer, while manu- 

 facture is merely mechanical, sordid .and base, with what I 

 believe to be the reality on the other. I wondered in what 

 spirit the erection of these works was viewed at the school 

 and to what extent the high intellectual attainment there so 

 essential and so evident is properly appreciated. 



Of the last of the three headings,' Strenuousness, we have 

 plenty, but at school it is most apparent in cricket'and foot- 

 ball, and in after life in various expensive wavs of murdering 

 defenceless animals. 



However, a change is alreadv beginning to be felt. The 

 public schools no longer withhold the elements of chemistry 

 and physics, and those who have benefited, even in small 

 degree, are taking responsible places vacated bv those who 

 had no such opportunity. The numerous polytechnics are 

 providing more serious instruction to thousands'of our young 

 men, and it may be hoped that in time even the official— I 

 mean the mere official whose only conception of activity is 

 centred in obstructing progress and enlightenment— will 

 have some appreciation of things as well as of words. 



SECTION D. 



OlENING AdDRUSS HY PrOF. SydNEY J. HiCKSON, M.A., 



D.Sc, F.R..S., President of the Section. 

 At the last meeting of the British Association which was 

 held in Southport, the President of Section D, Prof. E. Rav 

 Lankester, delivered an impressive address on the provision 

 1.1 this country for the advancement of Biological Science, 

 in which he pointed out the very inadequate encouragement 

 which existed at that time for those who, bv education and 

 inclination, were fitted to pursue original investigation in 

 Zcology and Botany. Twenty years have passed since that 

 Address was written, and yet we have to acknowledge that, 

 notwithstanding the important part which our branch of 

 Science has played in contributing to the sum of useful 

 human knowledge during the last two decades, the progress 

 made in the direction indicated by Prof. Lankester is far 

 from satisfactory. I do not propose in this Address to make 



NO. 1767. VOL. 68] 



any detailed statement of the number of posts in this country 

 that are now open to zoologists, or of the amount of the 

 present-day endowments for the encouragement of Zoo- 

 logical Science as compared with those of twenty years ago ; 

 but I wish to point out that neither in the older Universities 

 of Oxford and Cambridge, nor in the Colleges and National 

 Institutions situated in London, nor in the newer Universi- 

 ties and Colleges of the provinces, have any new posts been 

 created or adequately endowed which enable the holder to 

 devote a reasonable amount of his time to the pursuit of bio- 

 logical knowledge. It is true that there are a few more 

 posts now than there were, in which a small stipend or 

 salary is offered to young trained zoologists for their services 

 as teachers of Elementary Biological Science to medical 

 students and others ; but the emoluments of such posts are 

 so small, depending as they do, almost entirely, upon a 

 share of the fees paid by the students, and the duties so 

 arduous and prolonged, that they really offer very little in- 

 ducement to the pursuit of continuous and systematic 

 original research. 



In one respect, however, we may notice and acknowledge, 

 with gratitude, an improvement in our position. In the 

 laboratory accommodation, both in our Universities and on 

 the sea coast, we are a good deal better off than we were. 

 Twenty years ago there was no biological laboratory on 

 the whole of the long line of the British Coast. Now, 

 thanks to the efforts made by biologists and their friends, 

 we have at Plymouth an institution for the study of the 

 marine fauna and flora under favourable conditions, and 

 similar institutions at Port Erin in the Isle of Man, at Piel, 

 at Millport, and at St. Andrews, and a provisional laboratory 

 for the study of fishery problems at Grimsby. New labor- 

 atories for the study of zoology have also been built at 

 Oxford, at Cambridge, at the University of Manchester, 

 at Edinburgh University, and elsewhere, and I may add that 

 a fine new laboratory is now in course of construction for 

 the department of Zoology in the University of Liverpool. 



These new institutions, however, only emphasise, they 

 certainly do not ameliorate, the weakness of our position 

 in having so little encouragement to offer to competent and 

 well-trained men who wish to devote their lives to the 

 advancement of Zoological Science. Moreover, I would 

 point out that these institutions have been built and are 

 being maintained almost entirely by funds supplied by 

 private benefactors, or out of the inadequate resources of 

 the Universities. 



The Treasury has made a provisional grant of loooZ. per 

 annum towards the maintenance of the work done bv the 

 Marine Biological Association, and it may be supposed that 

 a small share of the annual Government grant made to the 

 University Colleges and Scotch Universities goes to the 

 support of the zoological departments ; but, apart from this, 

 there has been no increase in the support given to us from 

 public funds. 



If we were to compare our progress in the matter of the 

 public appreciation of our science during the past two years 

 with that in other countries, we should find that our posi- 

 tion is by no means satisfactory. In Germany, France, 

 Belgium, Holland, and more particularly in the United 

 States of America, progress has been rapid and continuous. 

 The number of persons in these countries who by the aid 

 of university or public endowments are able to devote them- 

 selves to original work in zoology has considerably in- 

 creased of late years, and the number of magnificently 

 equipped institutions that have been built for their accom- 

 modation and convenience makes our efforts in the same 

 direction appear very small. 



It would not be difficult for me to bring facts and figures 

 before you in support of these general statements ; but my 

 object is not so much to lament over the past and to mourn 

 for the present position of our science in this country, as 

 to suggest directions in which we may wcrk together for 

 its development and progress. 



Upon one matter, however, I think we may congratulate 

 ourselves. If the research done by English zoologists has 

 not been as great in amount as it might have been, I think 

 it may be truly said that we have fully maintained its 

 standard as regards quality. 



The contributions that have been made to the Science of 

 Zoology by our countrymen during the past twenty years 

 in general interest and in theoretical importance are of such 

 a nature that any civilised race might well be proud of 



