NATURE 
357 
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1873 
THE TESTIMONIAL TO MR, COLE 
AS was to be expected, the subscriptions for the well- 
deserved testimonial to Mr, Cole, to which we have 
already referred, have so far been thoroughly satisfactory, 
upwards of 2,000/. having already been subscribed. 
Among the names of the subscribers will be noticed the 
names of men eminent in nearly every department of hu- 
man activity. Thus we see Dr. De La Rue, Mr. Brassey, 
Mr. Baines, M.P., Messrs. Clowes and Son, Elkington and 
Co., Prof. Ella, Mr, C, J. Freake, Lord Ronald L. Gower, 
Sir Francis Grant, Earl Granville, Messrs. S. C. Hall, 
Hawkshaw, Hawksley, Lord Houghton, Messrs. H. A. 
Hunt, C.B., Jackson and Graham, John Kelk, Longmans, 
J. E. Millais, Lord C. Paget, Sir A, de Rothschild, Sir 
Titus Salt, Duke of Sutherland, Messrs, G. Trollope and 
Sons, Sir Richard Wallace, Dr. J. F. Watson, Marquis of 
Westminster, Sir Joseph Whitworth, &c. &. We may 
well hope that ere the list be closed many more names 
will be added, and such a sum subscribed as will render 
possible a testimonial worthy of the services performed 
by Mr. Cole to all the best interests of this country. 
The earliest work which can be considered to have a 
connection with Science undertaken by Mr. Cole, was 
the reform of the Patent Laws, which he advocated in 1850, 
afterwards inducing the Society of Arts to take’up the sub- 
ject. He wrote three Reports, and the principles which he 
laid down have been generally adopted as the basis of the 
present law. He particularly insisted upon the principle 
of a moderate fee at the first registration of an invention, 
such payment to increase at the option of the inventor in 
after years. He denounced all “taxes on inventions,” as 
such, and public opinion is now beginning to go with 
him. Successive Governments have received hundreds 
of thousands of pounds from this source, and still with- 
hold all proper aid to the encouragement of Science. 
There is a spice of sarcasm in the adage which has been 
worked in Sgraffito on the back wall of the new Science 
Schools, “ Scientia non habet inimicum nisi ignorantem.” 
In 1852 Mr. Cole reformed, or we may almost say 
established, the system of Art Schools, making it 
possible for every locality to have its Art School if it 
pleased. In 1853 the Department of Art was made 
Department of Science and Art, and Dr. Playfair was 
appointed to organise the Science division ; but he shortly 
afterwards resigned his post, and became Professor of 
Chemistry at Edinburgh. Mr. Cole then became ‘sole 
Secretary for Science and Art. The late Marquis of 
Salisbury was the Lord President, and doubtless to the 
great interest which this nobleman took in all matters 
appertaining to Science is to be ascribed some of the 
success with which Mr. Lowe was enabled to ventilate 
and carry out his views. Captain Donnelly, R.E., was 
invited to enter the Department, and through the instru- 
mentality of Lord Salisbury, Mr. Cole, and Captain 
Donnelly the present Government system of scientific 
instruction throughout the country, one of the things of 
which England has the greatest reason to be proud, was 
evolved ; and through the admirable harmony existing 
between Major Donnelly and Mr, Cole the work has been 
No, 201—VOol, vii. 
| brought to its present flourishing condition. In 1856 
there were 16 Science schools, in 1872 there were 1,238: 
This is one part of the work which Mr. Cole has done fo « 
English Science, and we blush to think that it has not 
been appreciated by men of Science as it ought to be 
and as it will be appreciated. 
The Report which has just been issued by the Science 
and Art Department as to the attendance in the various 
classes connected with it, and the number of visitors to 
the various museums during 1872, will give some idea of 
the magnitude of the work accomplished by Mr. Cole. 
The number of persons who have during the year 1872 
attended the Schools and classes of Science and Art in 
connection with the Science and Art Department is as 
follows: viz. 36,783 attending Science Schools and 
Classes in 1872, as against 38,015 in 1871, and 244,134 
receiving instruction in Art, showing an increase on the 
previous year of 31,633, or nearly 15 per cent. At the 
Royal School of Mines there were 20 regular and 148 
occasional, students ; at the Royal College of Chemistry, 
212 students’; at the Metallurgical Laboratory, 30; at 
the Royal {School of Naval Architecture there were 35. 
At the Royal College of Science for Ireland there were 
20 associate or regular students, and 19 occasional 
students. The lectures delivered in the lecture theatre of 
the South Kensington Museum were attended by 11,958 
persons, or 2,927 morethanin 1871. The evening lectures 
to working men at the Royal School of Mines were 
attended by 2,400 persons; and 186 Science teachers 
attended the special course of lectures provided for their 
instruction in the new Science Schools at South Ken- 
sington. The various courses of lectures delivered in 
connection with the Department in Dublin were attended 
by 2,577 persons; and at the evening popular lectures, 
which were given in the Edinburgh Museum of Science 
and Art during the Session of 1871-2, there was an 
attendance of 1,416, The total number of persons, there- 
fore, who received direct instruction as students, or by 
means of lectures, in connection with the Science and 
Art Department in 1872, is nearly 299,000, showing an 
increase as compared with the number in the previous 
year of 28,000 or Io per cent. The museums and collec- 
tions under the superintendence of the Department in 
London, Dublin, and Edinburgh,'were last year visited by 
upwards of 2,922,000 persons, showing the very consider- 
able increase of 1,141,000, or about 63 per cent. on the 
number in 1871. The returns received of the number of 
visitors at the Local Art and Industrial Exhibitions, to 
which objects were contributed from the South Ken- 
sington Museum, show an attendance of upwards of 
574,000. The total number of separate attendances 
during the] year 1872, as shown by the returns of the 
different Institutions and Exhibitions, in connection with 
the Department, has been upwards of 3,795,000. This total, 
compared with that of the previous year, presents an 
increase of 1,117,000, or 53 per cent,, not including the 
number of visitors at local exhibitions, which was excep- 
tionally augmented last year by the attendance of 420,000 
at the Dublin Exhibition of Art and Industry, and is 
necessarily liable to much fluctuation from year to 
year. 
We regret extremely to see that part of the great 
work done by Mr. Cole, in establishing the South Ken- 
U 
