PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, S.T.E., 1874. 215 



tific laboratories of Europe. The professors of 

 science who threw out the general principle have 

 gained a rich harvest for the seed which they 

 sowed. They have now got back from the practical 

 telegrapher accurate standards of measurement, 

 and ready means of transmitting those standards 

 and of preserving them for years and years without 

 change, which have proved of the most extreme 

 value to the work of the scientific laboratory. I 

 might make similar remarks regarding electric 

 instruments. The theory of electric instruments 

 has been taught by those who have laboured in 

 theoretical science ; but the zeal and ability with 

 which the makers and users of instruments in the 

 service of the electric telegraph have taken up the 

 hints of science have given back to the scientific 

 laboratory instruments of incalculable value. 



But I wish rather to confine myself to looking 

 forward to the benefits which science may derive 

 from its practical applications in telegraph engineer- 

 ing, and to point out that this Society is designed 

 by its founders to be a channel through which 

 these benefits may flow back to science, and, on 



