400 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



gestion, made in the Address delivered by him at the opening 

 of our Society in Session 1849-50, when he so earnestly 

 urged the duty of steps being taken by our public bodies 

 and others to bring under the notice of Government and the 

 country the want of a ITational Museum for Scotland. It 

 was the Eoyal Physical that took the first well-defined step 

 towards the realisation of the Museum of Science and Art. 



The scheme thus presented in broken outline may seem 

 vague enough, but it is not fanciful. And, I am quite sure, 

 that to present it, so as to set it before you as if in working 

 detail, would show that it has advantages both as regards 

 the actual work of science, and the influence of science on 

 public thought and the public interests of the time, as might 

 make it to be desired by most who take a hearty and intel- 

 ligent interest in them. 



But, drawing back from such a far outlook, let me glance, 

 if only at the surface of some of the active influences in the 

 midst of which we at present work — influences which, 

 whether we will or no, colour our views, for even those of 

 strongest will and steadfast self-reliance cannot wholly resist 

 the power, fascinating or repellant, of environments. We 

 may be ever on the alert to banish bias, and may succeed 

 in satisfying ourselves that we have done so. But this may 

 be the surest proof to others of utter failure in this direction 

 of effort. One's chief comfort in the circumstances is, that, 

 as the condition indicated here " pertaineth unto the nature 

 of man," bias is never all on one side. So that all workers 

 in this respect stand on the same platform. Great changes 

 have recently taken place, and are continuing to take place 

 in the wide field covered by the natural sciences. And in 

 nothing are the chanoes better marked than in the literature 

 itself of science. To see this we have only to look into a 

 work representative of any department of contemporary 

 science, and to compare its first edition with its last, issued 

 after an interval of six or seven years between them. Some 

 of its terminology even has become obsolete ; its classification 

 has had to be remodelled; inferences perfectly legitimate 

 six or eight years ago have been found inept — not that the 

 Wic has been at fault, but because the data with which the 



