Dec. 8, 1881] 
NATURE 
139 
case for the very reason that science and scientific names are no 
longer unknown. That most of the leading men have oppor- 
tunities of meeting from time to time, and for scientific pur- 
poses, is certainly true; but that they should meet also on 
occasions when science is not too formal, is a thing which has its 
uses. And a concurrence of minds more numerous and more 
diversified than usual is sure to be fruitful of results. The 
whole advantage of these meetings, however, depends ultimately 
and fundamentally on the presence of a strong scientific element, 
which, from its own mere dignity and character, will repress all 
that is unworthy and will leaven the whole lump. Acting on 
this principle as a scientific duty, many good men have attended 
these meetings ; and although they may have approached them 
with some degree of reluctance, few who during their attendance 
have taken their fair share in the proceedings, have come away 
without having derived a more favourable impression than that 
with which they entered. 
Of such gatherings, the late meeting of the British Association 
at York was, if 1 may be permitted to express an opinion, a 
pattern and exemplar. And although it cannot be expected 
that in every year there will be so strong a muster as on the 
occasion of the fiftieth anniver-ary, yet all well-wishers of the 
Association must feel that it has entered upon its second half 
century with vigour and with dignity, and that it now remains 
only for its future supporters to maintain the high standard with 
which it has been handed down by those who have gone before. 
It may bea matter of regret, although doubtless inevitable, 
that the same causes which have affected the social, the intellec- 
tual, the industrial, and the political life of our generation, and 
have made them other than what they were, should affect also 
our scientific life ; but, as a matter of fact, if science is pursued 
more generally and more ardently than in former times, its 
pursuit is attended with more haste, more bustle, and more 
display than was wont to be the case. Apart from other rea- 
sons, the difficulty, already great and always rapidly increasing, 
of ascertaining what is new in natural science ; the liability at 
any moment of being anticipated by others, constantly present 
to the minds of those to whom priority is of serious importance ; 
the desire to achieve something striking, either in principle or in 
mere illustration; all tend to disturb the even flow of scientific 
research. And it is perhaps not too much to say that an eager- 
ness to outstrip others rather than to advance knowledge, and a 
struggle for relative rather than for absolute progress, are among 
the dangerous tendencies peculiar to the period in which we live. 
I do not, of course, for one moment mean to imply that this 
tendency universally prevails, for in Science, as well as in other 
pursuits, I believe that the best of the present would well stand 
comparison with the best of the past, and that there are now- 
adays men in the mid-stream of life who are as little affected by 
the eddies and back-waters with which they are surrounded as 
were the giants of former days. Nevertheless the danger is a 
real one, and is to be met with at every turn, 
But the part of Cassandra is neither agreeable to the player 
nor welcome to the audience; noris it indeed necessary that I 
should play it ; for, even although what I have said be true, it is 
still, I trust, not the wholetruth. Ihave already spoken of noble 
exceptions ; but although noble exceptions may go far to redeem 
the character of a nation or of a period, and example may have 
influences of which we hardly dream, yet for a general remedy 
I am more inclined to look to the natural course of events, and 
to what is often loosely spoken of as ‘‘things curing them- 
selves.” Such a cure may perhaps come about somehow on this 
wise. So multitudinous are the workers in every science, so 
numerous are the channels through which their discoveries are 
chronicled, that it is becoming every year more difficult for even 
the learned and the well-read to say what is and what is not new, 
or what has not been published before. Claims for novelty 
must, therefore, as time goes on, be put forward with greater 
and greater diffidence. The only originality that can be safely 
claimed will be originality on the part of the investigator ; and 
the question of absolute priority must be left to the verdict of 
time and of that sifting process by which ultimately all dis- 
coveries will find their proper places in the Temple of Science. 
When this stage is reached, and we are even now approaching 
it, the fever of to-day may in a great measure subside and give 
place to a more tempered, although still fervent glow of aspira- 
tion, The eagerness and haste to which we have become almost 
accustomed may be chastened by the reflection that questions of 
priority are not to be settled by a mere stroke of the pen, and 
that in the comparison of rival claims the question of the quality 
of work will undoubtedly arise and become interwoven with that 
of priority. And so-in the end it may come to pass that a 
half understood experiment or a hastily drawn conclusion may 
avail less than ever for establi-hing a reputation, and that, even 
for the purpose of winning the race, it may be worth while to 
spend sufficient time in laying sure foundations and in building a 
superstructure commensurate with that on which it stands and 
well-proportioned in all its parts. 
The transference of the Natural History Collections of the 
British Museum to the new building at South Kensington is 
still in progress. It is hoped that the building for the specimens 
preserved in spirits, as well as the fittings for the zoological 
department, will be so far completed as to allow of the moving 
of that department during the autumn of 1882, The lighting of 
the reading-room by Siemens’ lamps is so far satisfactory, that it 
has been decided to keep that room open in future until 8 p.m., 
instead of 7 p.m. This change, it is hoped, will prove to be of 
substantial service to a large class of readers. 
The Institution founded in 1851, under the title of the Go- 
vernment School of Mines and Metropolitan School of Science 
applied to Mining and the Arts, for the instruction of students 
in those branches of science which are indispensable to the 
Miner, the Metallurgist, the Geologi-t, and the Industrial Che- 
mist, has this year been organise? afresh, and, under its new 
title of the Normal School of Science and Royal School of 
Mines, adds to its former functions the training of teachers for 
the Elementary Science Classes under the Science and Art De- 
partment, the multiplication of which, in recent years, is a 
significant indication of the rapid spread of scientific instruction 
throughout the country, 
The accommodation requisite for practical teaching being 
inadequate in all cases and totally wanting in respect of many 
of the classes, inthe Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn 
Street, and in the Royal College of Chemistry in Oxford Street, 
all the instruction, except that in Mining, has been transferred 
to the Science Schools at South Kensington. The staff of pro- 
fessors and lecturers has been increased, and provision has been 
made for the teaching of various important subjects, such as 
Mathematics, Drawing, Botany, and the Principles of Agricul- 
ture, which were either omitted, or insufficiently represented, in 
the original programme of the school. 
Under its new organisation the Normal School of Science and 
Royal School of Mines will not merely supply from among its 
associates persons highly qualified to apply the principles of 
science to the Mining, Metallurgical, Chemical, and Agricul- 
tural industries of the country, and properly trained science 
teachers ; but, through the exhibitions attached to the yearly 
examinations of the Science and Art Department, it will place 
within reach of promising young students in all parts of the 
country, whose means do not enable them to obtain the benefits 
of a University education, such a training as will enable them 
to turn their natural abilities to account for the advancement of 
science and the improvement of its applications to industry. 
Under the latter point of view, the instruction given in the 
Normal School of Science will lead up to the special technical 
training of the Central Institute of the Guilds of the City of 
London. 
Under the auspices of the City and Guilds of London Insti- 
tute, further progress has been made during the past year in the 
promotion of Technical Education. It will be remembered that 
the work at present undertaken by the Institute embraces the 
establishment of a Technical Science School in Finsbury, a 
Technical Art School in Kennington, a Central Institution or 
Higher Technical College in Kensington, the subsidising of 
existing institutions, affording facilities for Technical Instruction 
and the encouragement of existing classes in the manufacturing 
centres by the grants paid to teachers on the results of the 
Technological Examinations, 
In May last the foundation stone of the Finsbury College was 
laid by H.R.H. Prince Leopold, and the new building, which 
will afford accommodation for the teaching of applied Chemis- 
try, Physics, and Mechanics, will be finished early in next year. 
Notwithstanding the inadequacy of the present temporary ac- 
commodation, large numbers of students have availed themselves 
of the instruction afforded. ‘The principles of Electric Lighting, 
and Transmission of Power, the making of Electrical Instru- 
ments, Coal Tar, and Spirit Distilling have been the subjects 
that have beea chiefly studied during the past session. 
Since October the classes that were previously conducted by the 
Artisans’ Institute have been transferred to the Finsbury College. 
