ss 



NA TURE 



[November 23, 1905 



NEW MUSEUM AND LABORATORIES OF 

 ZOOLOGY AT LIVERPOOL. 

 HTnE new museum and laboratories of zoology of the 

 -*■ University of Liverpool were opened on Saturday last, 

 November 18, by the Earl of Onslow, formerly President 

 of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, and now chair- 

 man of committees of the House of Lords. 



The history of the department of zoology at Liverpool 

 and the character of the new buildings are described in 

 a pamphlet issued by the university, and abridged at the 

 end of this record of the opening ceremony. 



Preparatory to the ai tual ceremony of inauguration at 

 the new building, there was a large gathering in the arts 

 theatre of the university of guests of the council and 

 senate of the university. Apologies and letters <J regret 

 for unavoidable absence wen- received from the president 

 of the Royal Society, Sir Archibald Geikie, Prof. Ray 

 Lankester, Sir Henry Roscoe, and many other men of 

 science. A resolution passed at the meeting of the Linnean 

 Society of London on November 16, signed by the cffkers, 

 and congratulating the University of Liverpool and their 

 president (Prof. Herd- 

 man) on the new labor- 

 atories, was rei eived. 



Dr. Nansen had aci ep- 

 ted the invitation and 

 hoped to be present, but 

 at the last sent his regrets 

 and a telegram saving : — 

 " Hearty < ongratulal ions 

 to the Zoological Depart- 

 ment of the University of 

 Liverpool. — Nansen. " 



Lord Onslow was intro- 

 duced to the assembly 

 by the Chancellor, the 

 Earl of Derby ; and in 

 the course of his remarks 

 he is reported by the 

 Liverpool Daily Posl am/ 

 Mercury to have spoken 

 as follows : — 



Lord Ons_ow <>\ Science 

 and the State. 



In the first pi. no In- 

 wished to congratulate (lie 

 University of Liverpool on 

 their decision to set apart 

 a sum sufficient properly 

 to equip the museum 

 and laboratories of tin- 

 natural histoiw and zoo- 

 logical department of the 

 university. He thought 

 that was a wise step, but 



it was a step which could Fig. i.— New liuilci 



only have been accom- 

 plished, in common with all the rest of the w< rk of 

 the university, by the great liberality of the captains of 

 industry in Liverpool, who had realised that the application 

 of science to commerce was one of the most important 

 things for commerce itself. When he looked back on the 

 list of benefactors to the Liverpool University, he found 

 the names of Brunner, Holt, Tate, Johnston, Rathbone, 

 and others, and he was struck by the fact that in Liverpool 

 at any rate the application of science to commerce was 

 thoroughly appreciated. Although there was in this 

 country a great amount of private wealth and of private 

 benefaction, he was afraid it must be confessed that the 

 amount which had been devoted to the promotion of uni- 

 versity education " pales its ineffectual fires " before what 

 had been done in America. In the Lnited States of 

 America as much as 7,000,000/. had been bequeathed cr 

 given in two years to the purposes of university education. 

 What was the reason for that? He thought that in a large 

 measure it was due to the great difference between the 

 United States of America and this country. The difference 

 was that in the United States there were no hereditarv 

 honours or titles, and if a man wanted the future gener- 

 ation to have a record of his existence it could onlv be 



done bv associating his name either with a university or 

 with a chair in that university, cr by some other great 

 benefaction. The result was that the United States had 

 rich universities, such as that of Cornell, founded by 

 individuals, and lie confessed that if he were a man of 

 great wealth It- would much rather posterity would re- 

 member him as having founded a university or a chair of 

 a universit) than as having been a liberal subscriber to 

 the funds of his party. i hough a good understanding 

 existed between this country and other Great Powers, pro- 

 vision should be made for the war in commercial 

 supremacy. What wire the armaments with which we 

 were to provide ourselves for the purpeses of defence m 

 the war i.l commercial supremacy? They were those pro- 

 vided bv science and by scientific research. Fortunately 

 for us, the inventions of science could not be patented in 

 the interests o! any one particular country, but tin- slightest 

 improvement upon them could, and it was those improve- 

 ments, arrived at by scientific research, which would make 

 or mar the supremacy of any country in commerce. The 

 power of adding to a train-load that could be carried by 

 a locomotive in the other hemisphere might make a differ- 



i of ihe I)e 



of Zu 



ogy, U,. 



iiy of Liverpool. 



NO. 1882, VOL. JT,) 



1 in i- of two shillings in the price of corn, which was the 

 shuttlecock between the political parties at the present 

 time. It w.e. the same with all cur manufactures. The 

 greatness if England in the past century had been due 

 to men of science- like Faraday, Watt, Stephenson, and 

 Kelvin. Were we doing all that we ought to see that 

 any latent genius in the whole of the British nation got 

 lie 1 ppi 1 -funky to come out, and to give to the world those 

 great triumphs of scientific research from which Ibis 

 country had so enormcuslv benefited ? He thought it must 

 be 1 ' nti ssed that until quite recently education in this 

 country was in a chaotic state. Even now it was only 

 in favoured cities and places that there was anything like 

 an educational ladder by which an intelligent boy at the 

 national school could, without cost to his parent, work his 

 way up until he look a university degree, and could devote 

 himself to scientific research fcr the benefit of his fellow- 

 countrymen. He had great hopes that a spirit was arising 

 in the nation n< w which saw the necessity of those educa- 

 tional facilities, and that by the assistance and liberality 

 1 I 1 in 1 itizens they would build up from the lowest to the 

 highest facilities that every citizen could avail himself of. 

 There were two great public questions before the people 



