1803.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 215 



will be accomplished the diffusion of knowledge and the 

 application of science to the improvement of arts and 

 manufactures. 



On May 2 it was resolved 6 that a Committee of 

 Science should be appointed from among the managers 

 to regulate the lectures and public experiments ; to 

 direct the publication of the Journals ; and to report 

 as to any experiments, or additions to apparatus, or 

 models.' It was to meet weekly and be appointed 

 monthly. Spencer, Banks, Cavendish, Hatchett, Sy- 

 monds, formed the first committee. 



On May 16 the managers resolved 'that the Com- 

 mittee of Science should carry out improvements in 

 the laboratory, that the workshops should be thrown 

 into the laboratory and fitted up as a lecture room for 

 120 persons.' For nearly sixty years this laboratory 

 theatre remained unchanged. 



Other traces of the activity of this Committee of 

 Science are to be found. On May 27 Sir Joseph 

 Banks, in the name of the Committee of Science of the 

 Royal Institution, wrote to the Board of Agriculture : 



The Committee do not expect in agricultural analysis the 

 same degree of precise accuracy as is necessary in that 

 intended to illustrate philosophical experiments ; it will be 

 enough for them if the component parts of substances and 

 their respective proportions to each other are marked with 

 sufficient precision to demonstrate the probable effects on 

 vegetables. 



The Committee are aware that at present the science of 

 agricultural chemistry is in its infancy, and that till it has 

 been more matured each analysis will take up a considerable 

 portion of time ; they trust, however, that it will not be 



