SCIENCE, INDUSTRY, AND EDUCATION 



direct improving of natural knowledge, but also the 

 spread of that knowledge and its influence upon the 

 life and industry of the nation. If we contrast the 

 culture and civilisation of the great nations of antiquity, 

 great as they were, with the altogether fuller life of to-day, 

 we cannot fail to recognise how completely the untold 

 conveniences, comforts, activities possible in so many new 

 and varied directions, the wide dissemination by means of 

 scientific processes of forms of beauty, and the power over 

 disease of the present time, which have not only increased 

 the average span of life, but to a much greater extent 

 made so much more possible to man within his short span 

 of years, have followed directly from the great improve- 

 ment which has been brought about, especially during the 

 last century, and largely by the work of the Royal Society, 

 in our knowledge of natural processes and of the laws which 

 govern them. 



An event, therefore, so closely associated with the 

 direct object for which the Royal Society exists, and of 

 so great significance and promise for a fuller recognition 

 in the future by the Government, of the importance of 

 scientific methods and of research to our industrial pro- 

 sperity, as the establishment of a National Physical 

 Laboratory, the opening of which has taken place since 

 our last Anniversary, should, it seems to me, receive on 

 this occasion more than a passing and mere formal notice, 

 especially as the ultimate control of the Institution is 



vested in the Council of our Society. 



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