November 23, 1905J 



NA TURE 



of this country upon which the prosperity of the future 

 of the country depended. One of them was the re-organ- 

 isation of the Army, and the other was the organisation 

 of the education of the country. Both those questions 

 required the expenditure of large sums of money, and he 

 did not believe that under the present system it would be 

 possible to obtain these large sums unless in seme manner 

 er another they cculd see their way to broaden the basis 

 of taxation. When the business of the fisheries of the 

 country was handed over to his (Lord Onslow's) depart- 

 ment he naturally expected, as an ignorant Minister did, 

 that he would find the broad lines upon which it was 

 expected that he should shape his policy already laid down 

 by experts and men of science. But instead of that he 

 found a wall of ignorance as regarded everything that 

 affected the biological and physical condition of ear terri- 

 torial waters. What they wanted to know was by scientific 

 research whether anything could be done to stem the 

 depopulation oi the mean if that depopulation was actually 



know how to protect human beings from the danger of 

 eating contaminated shell-fish. They had done much in the 

 Liverpool University for the study of tropical diseases ; 

 they had ascertained much to protect the lives of their 

 fellow-subjects who went out to the malarial coasts of West 

 Africa ; he sincerely hoped that they would be able also 

 to show them how they could avoid pollution from the 

 contamination of shell-fish. He hoped that all who had 

 worked in the laboratories of the university would be 

 stimulated to greater efforts by the better buildings in which 

 they would be housed. 



llii' Chancellor read a communication received from Sir 

 Thomas Elliott, Permanent Secretary of the Board of 

 Agriculture and Fisheries, intimating that the Board were 

 pleased to award the university a grant of 2001. for the 

 financial year ending March, 1906, in respect of the zoo- 

 logical work carried on in connection with the fishing 

 industry, and conveying the congratulations of the Board 

 on the completion of the zoological museum and labor- 



LONGITUDIMAL sSECTION 



f 



Scale of 



, 2.— New Buildings of the Depart 



Feet 

 lent of Zoc logy, Un 



ity of Li. 



going on. That work must be divided under two heads — 

 statistical and biological. The statistical work could not, 

 oi course, be properly performed by a university such as 

 that. That was a matter which must be taken in hand by 

 the central authority. He looked very largely to the 

 Lancashire Sea Fisheries Committee, acting in conjunction 

 with the University of Liverpool, to pursue the biological 

 part of these inquiries. He was in hopes that when the 

 expenditure of this country upon the international investi- 

 gation of the North Sea came to a close there might be 

 national funds available for assisting them in the research 

 which they had undertaken for some time past, and which 

 he could not doubt but with the opening of those new 

 buildings would be largely stimulated and increased, and 

 that thereby they might be assisted by them to solve prob- 

 lems which were great and national. There was also the 

 great and important question of the connection of human 

 disease with shell-fish. They wanted to find out to what 

 extent there was contamination in shell-fish, and also what 

 was not dangerous to the human frame. It was really of 

 the very greatest possible importance that they should 



atories, which they hoped would be of service " both in 

 the advancement of scientific knowledge and in the solution 

 of many problems of importance to the fishing industry." 

 sir Thomas Elliott afterwards spoke. 



Replying to a vote of thanks moved by Mr. E. K. 

 Muspratt and seconded by Sir John Brunner, M.P., Lord 

 Onslow said he was not by any means alone in his 

 appreciation of not only the benefit, but the absolute 

 necessity of all Government departments in their respective 

 spheres availing themselves of the advantages of scientific 

 research. It applied not only to Government departments, 

 but equally to all the great industries, to the Navy and 

 the Army, and to every branch of national enterprise. In 

 regretting that the 200/. contribution to which Sir Thomas 

 Elliott had referred was regarded as small, Lord Onslow 

 said it was not the Board of Agriculture who was rich, it 

 was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and when they got 

 a few thousands out of the Chancellor of the Exchequer 

 for all the purposes of agriculture and fisheries, they 

 thought they had done very well when they were able to 

 contribute 200/. to one place. 



NO 1882, VOL. 73] 



