io8 



NATURE 



[December i, 1904 



institute in that country. A standing committee was ap- 

 pointed in consequence by tiie council for tiie purpose of 

 giving advice on matters connected witii scientific inquiry, 

 probably mainly biological, in India, which should be sup- 

 plementary to the standing observatories committee which 

 was already established at the request of the Government as 

 an advisory body on astronomical, solar, magnetic, and 

 meteorological observations in that part of the Empire. 



An investigation, onerous indeed, but of the highest 

 scientific interest and of very great practical importance, 

 has been carried on by a series of committees successively 

 appointed at the request of the Government for the consider- 

 ation of some of the strangely mysterious and deadly diseases 

 of tropical countries. In 1896 a committee was appointed 

 at the request of the Colonial Secretary to investigate the 

 subject of the tsetse-fly disease in South Africa. Two years 

 later Mr. Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, 

 requested the society to appoint a committee to make a 

 thorough investigation into the origin, the transmission, 

 and the possible preventives and remedies of tropical 

 diseases, and especially of the malarial and " blackwater " 

 fevers prevalent in Africa, promising assistance, both on the 

 part of the Colonial Office and of the Colonies concerned. 

 A committee was appointed, and, under its auspices, skilled 

 investigators were sent out to Africa and to India. In the 

 case of the third committee the societv itself took the initi- 

 ative. \n outbreak in Uganda of the disease, appalling in 

 its inexorable deadliness, known as " .sleeping sickness " 

 having been brought to the knowledge of the society, a 

 deputation waited upon Lord Lansdowne at the Foreign 

 Office, Nasking him to consider favourably the dispatch of a 

 small commission to Uganda to investigate the disease. He 

 gave his approval, and a commission of three experts, ap- 

 pointed on the recommendation of the committee, was sent 

 out to Uganda, 600/. being voted out of the Government 

 grant towards the expenses of the commission. 



The investigations in tropical diseases, promoted and 

 directed by these committees, have largelv increased our 

 knowledge of the true nature of these diseases', and, what is of 

 the highest practical importance, they have shown that their 

 propagation depends upon conditions which it is in the 

 power of man so far to modify, or guard against, as to 

 afford a reasonable expectation that it may be possible for 

 Europeans to live and carry on their work in parts of the 

 earth where hitherto the sacrifice of health, and even of life, 

 has been fearfully great. A general summary of the work 

 already done on malaria, especially in regard to its pre- 

 vention, and also on the nature of "blackwater " fever, has 

 been published in a Parliamentary paper, which records 

 Mr. Chamberlain's acknowledgment to the Roval Society 

 for its cooperation in the work undertaken by the Colonial 

 Office. The reports on sleeping sickness up to this time 

 form four whole numbers of the Proceedings, giving evi- 

 dence in support of the view that this deadly disease is 

 caused by the entrance into the blood, and thence into the 

 cerebro-spinal fluid, of a species of Trypanosoma, and that 

 these organisms are transmitted from the sick to the healthy 

 by a kind of tsetse fly, and by it alone ; sleeping sickness is, 

 in short, a human tsetse-fly disease. 



In 1897, the council was requested to assist the Board of 

 Trade in drawing up schedules for the establishment of the 

 relations between the metric and the imperial units of 

 weights and measures. A committee was appointed, which, 

 after devoting much time and attention to the matter, drew 

 up schedules which were accepted by the Board of Trade 

 and incorporated in the Orders of Council. 



Soon after the reports were received of the appalling vol- 

 canic eruptions and the loss of life which took place in the 

 West Indies in 1902, the council received a letter from Mr. 

 Chamberlain to ask if the society would be willing to under- 

 take an investigation of the phenomena connected with the 

 eruptions. The council, considering that such an investi- 

 gation fell well within the scope of the objects of the society, 

 organised a small commission of two experts, who left 

 England for the scene of the eruption eleven davs onlv after 

 the receipt of Mr. Chamberlain's letter, the expenses being 

 met by a grant of 300/. from the Government Grant Com- 

 mittee. Six weeks were spent in the islands, including 

 Martinique, by the commission, which was successful in 

 securing results of great scientific interest. A preliminary 



NO. 1831, VOL. 71] 



report was published at the time, and a full report has since 

 appeared in the Transactions. 



Time forbids me to do more than mention the successive 

 expeditions sent out by the society, conjointly with the Royal 

 Astronomical Society, for the observation of total solar 

 eclipses ; and the onerous work thrown upon the society for 

 several years in connection with the National Antarctic Ex- 

 pedition, undertaken jointly with the Royal Geographical 

 Society, which has this year returned home crowned with 

 success; but the society's labours are not at an end, for the 

 prolonged and responsible task of the discussion and pub- 

 lication of the scientific results of the expedition is still before 

 them. 



To the Royal Society is entrusted the responsible task of 

 administrating the annual Government grant of 4000Z. for 

 the purpose of scientific research, and a grant of loooJ. in 

 aid of the publication of scientific papers. 



In addition to these permanent responsibilities, which are 

 always with the society, its advice and aid are sought from 

 time to time both by the Government and by scientific institu- 

 tions at home and abroad, in favour of independent objects 

 of a more or less temporary character, of which, as ex- 

 amples, may be taken the recent action of the society for 

 the purpose of obtaining Government aid for the continu- 

 ation through Egypt of the African arc of meridian, and 

 tor the intervention of the Government to assist in securing 

 the fulfilment of the part undertaken by Great Britain in 

 the International Astrographic Catalogue and Chart. 



Upon the present fellows falls the glorious inheritance of 

 unbounded free labour ungrudgingly given during two 

 centuries and a half for the public service, as well as of the 

 strenuous prosecution at the same time of the primary object 

 of the society, as set forth in the words of the Charter : 

 the promotion of Natural Knowledge." The successive 

 generations of fellows have unsparingly contributed of their 

 time to the introduction and promotion, whenever the oppor- 

 tunity was afforded them, of scientific knowledge and 

 methods into the management of public concerns by depart- 

 ments of the Government. The financial independence of 

 the Royal Society, neither receiving, nor wishing to accept, 

 State aid for its own private purposes, has enabled the 

 society to give advice and assistance which, both with the 

 Government and with Parliament, have the weight and 

 finality of a wholly disinterested opinion. I may quote here 

 the words of a recent letter from H..M. Treasury : — " Their 

 Lordships have deemed themselves in the past very fortunate 

 in being able to- rely, in dealing with scientific questions, 

 upon the aid of the Royal Society, which commands not only 

 the confidence of the scientific world, but also of Parlia- 

 ment." 



In the past the Royal Society has been not infrequently 

 greatly hampered in giving its advice by the knowledge 

 that the funds absolutely needed for the carrying out of the 

 matters in question in accordance with our present scientific 

 knowledge would not be forthcoming. Though I am now 

 speaking on my own responsibility. I am sure that the 

 society is with me, if I say that the expenditure by the 

 Government on scientific research and scientific institutions, 

 on which its commercial and industrial prosperity so largely 

 depend, is wholly inadequate in view of the present state of 

 international competition. I throw no blame on the in- 

 dividual members of the present or former Governments; 

 they are necessarily the representatives of public opinion, 

 and cannot go beyond it. The cause is deeper, it lies in 

 the absence in the leaders of public opinion, and indeed 

 throughout the more influential classes of society, of a 

 sufficiently intelligent appreciation of the supreme import- 

 ance of scientific knowledge and scientific methods in all 

 industrial enterprises, and indeed in all national under- 

 takings. The evidence of this grave state of the public 

 mind is strikingly shown by the very small response that 

 follows any appeal that is made for scientific objects in this 

 country, in contrast with the large donations and liberal 

 endowments from private benefaction for scientific purposes 

 and scientific institutions which are always at once forth- 

 coming in the United States. In my opinion, the scientific 

 deadness of the nation is mainly due to the too exclusively 

 mediaeval and classical methods of our higher public schools, 

 and can only be slowly removed by making in future the 

 teaching of science, not from text-books for passing an 

 examination, but, as far as may be possible, from the study 



