
Aug. 3, 1871] 
NATURE 
263 

and Cayley, according to which symbols of operation become the 
subjects not merely of algebraic combination, but of ditferentia- 
tions and integrations, as if they were symbols expres-ing values 
of varying quantities. An even more marvellous develojment of 
this same idea of the separation of symbels (according to which 
Gregory separated the algebraic signs + and — from other sym- 
bo's or quantities to be characterised by them, and dealt with 
them according to the laws of algebiaic combinations) received 
from Hamilton a most astonishing generalisation, by the invention 
actually of new laws of combination, and led him to his famous 
** Quaternions,” of which he gave his earliest exposition to the 
Mathematical and Physical Section of this Association, at its 
meeting in Cambridge in the year 1845. Tait has taken up the 
subject of quaternions ably and zealously, and has curri d it into 
physical science with a faith, shared by some of the most thought- 
ful mathematical naturalists of the day, that itis destined to hecome 
an engine of perhaps hitherto unimagined power for investigating 
and expres-ing results in Natural Philosophy. Of Herschel’s 
gigantic work in astronomical observation I need say nothing. 
Doubtless a careful account of it will be given in the ‘* Proceedings 
of the Royal Society of London” for the next anniversary 
meeting. ae , 
In the past year another representative man of British science 
is gone. Mathematics has had no steadier supporter for half a 
century than De Morgan. His great book on the differential 
calculus was, for the mathematical student of thirty years ago, a 
highly-prized repository of all the best things that could be 
brought together under that title. I do not believe it is less valu- 
able now ; and if it is less valued, may this not be because it is 
too good for examination purposes, and because the modern 
student, labouring to win marks in the struggle for existence, 
must not suffer himself to be beguiled from the stern path of duty 
by any attractive beauties in the subject of his s:udy ? 
One of the most valuable services to science which the British 
Association has performed has been the establishment, and the 
twenly-nine years’ maintenance, of its Observatory. The Royal 
Merecrological Observatory of Kew was built originally for a 
Sovereign of England who was a zealous amateur of astronomy. 
George the Third used continua ly to repair 1o it when any 
celestial! phenomenon of peculiar interest was to be seen ; anda 
manu-cript book still exists filled with observations written into 
it by his own hand. After the building had been many years 
unused, it was granted, in the year 1842, by the Commissioners 
of Her Majesty’s Woods and Forests, on application of Sir Ed- 
ward Sabine, for the purpose of continuing observations (from 
which he had already deduced important results) regardimg the 
vibration of a pendulum in various gases, and for the purpose of 
promoting pendulum observations in all parts of the world. The 
Government granted only the buildmg—no funds for carrying on 
the work to be done init. The Royal Socicty was unable to 
undertake the maintenance of such an observatory ; but, happily 
for science, the zeal of individual Fellows of the Royal Society 
and members of the British Association gave tve initial impulse, 
supplied the necessary initial funds, and recommended their new 
institution successfully to the fostering care of the British Asso- 
ciation. The work of the Kew Observatory has, from the com- 
mencement, been conducted under the direction of a Committee 
of the Briti-h Association ; and annual grants trom the funds of 
the Association have been made towards defraying its expenses 
up to the present time. To the initial object of pendulum re- 
seuch wis added continuous observation cf the phenomena of 
meteorology and terrestrial magnetism, and the construction and 
verification of thermometers, barometers, and magnetometers 
designed for accurate measurement. The magnificent services 
which it has rendered to science are so well known that any 
statement of them which I could attempt on the present occasion 
would be superfluous. Their value is due in a great measure to 
the indefatigable zeal and the great ability of two Scotchmen, 
both from Edinburgh, who successively held the office of Super- 
intendent of the Observatory of the British Association—Mr, 
Welsh for nine years, until his death in 1859, and Dr. Balfour 
Stewart from then until the present time. Fruits of their labours 
are to be found all through our volumes of Reports for these 
twenty-one years. 
The institution now enters on a new stage of its existence. 
The noble liberality of a private benefactor, one who has laboured 
for its wellare with self-sacrificing devotion unintermittingly from 
within a few years of its creation, has given it a permanent inde- 
pendence, under the general management of a Committee of the 
Royal Society. Mr. Gassiot’s gift of 10,000/, secures the con- 

tinuance at Kew of the regular operation of the self-recording 
instruments for observing the phenomena of terrestrial magneti-m 
and meteorology, without the necessity for further support from 
the British Association. 
The success of the Kew Magnetic and Meteorological Obser- 
vatory affords an example of the great gain to be earned for 
science by the foundation of physical observatories and labora- 
tories for experimental research, to be conducted by qualified 
persons, whose duties should be, not teaching, but experimenting. 
Whether we look to the honour of England, as a nation which 
ought always to be the foremost in promot ng physical science, 
or to those vast economical advantages which must accrue from 
such establishments, we cannot but feel that experimental re- 
search ought to be made with us an object of national concern, 
and not left, as hitherto, exclusively to the private enterprise of 
selt-sacrificing amateurs, and the necessarily inconsecutive action 
of our present Governmental Departments and of casual Com- 
mittees The Council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 
has moved tor this object in a memorial presented by them 
to the Royal Commission on Scientific Education and the 
Advancement of Science. The Continent of Europe is refe red 
to for an ex mple to be followed with advantage in this country, 
in the following wores :— 
“*On the Continent there exist certain institutions, fitted with 
instruments, apparatus, chemicals, and other appliances, which 
are meant to be, and which are made, availab!e to men of 
science, to enable them, at a moderate cost, to pursue original 
researches,” 
T is statement is fully corroborated by information, on good 
authority, which I received from Germany, to the effect that in 
Prus-ia “* every university, every polytechnical academy, every 
industrial school (Realschule and Gewerbeschule), most of the 
grammar-schools, in a word, nearly ail the schools superior in 
rank to the elementary schools of the common people, are sup- 
plied with chemical labora ories and a collection of philosophical 
instruments and apparatus, access to which is most liberally 
granted by the direc ors of those schools, or the teachers of the 
respective disciplines, to any per-on qualified, for scientific ex- 
periments. In consequence, though there exist no particular 
Institutions like those mentioned in the memorial, there wll 
scarcely be found a town exceeding in number 5,000 inhabitants 
bat offers the possibility of scientific explorations at no other cost 
than reimbursement of the the expense for the materials wasted 
in the experiments.” 
Further, with reference to a remark in the Memorial to the 
effect that, in respect to the pr motion of science, the British 
Government confines its actin almost exclusively to scientific in- 
struction, and fatally neglects the advancement of science, my 
informant tells me that, in Germany, ‘‘ professors, preceptors, 
and teachers of secondary schools are engaged on account of 
their skilfulness in teaching ; but professors of universities are 
never engaged unless they have already proved, by their own 
investigations, that they are to be relied upon for the advance- 
ment of science. Therefore every shilling spent for instruction 
in wniversi ies is at the same time profitable to the advancement 
of science.” 
The physical laboratories which have grown up in the Uni- 
versities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and in Owens College, 
Manchester, show the want felt of Colleges of Research ; but 
they go but infinitesima!ly towards supplying it, being absolutely 
destitute of means, material or personal, for advancing science 
except at the expense of volunteers, or securing that volunteers 
shall be found to continue even such little work as at present is 
carried on. 
The whole of Andrews’s splendid work in Queen’s College, 
Belfast, has been done under great difficulties and disadvantages, 
and at great personal sacrifices ; and up to the present time there 
is not a student’s physical laboratory in any one of the Queen’s 
Colleges in Ireland—a want which surely ought not to remain 
unsupplied. Each of these institutions (the four Scotch Univer- 
sities, the three Queen’s Colleges, and Owens College, Man- 
ches er) requires two professors of Natural philosophy—one who 
shall be responsible for the teaching, the other for the advance- 
ment of science by experiment. ‘The University of Oxford has 
already es ablished a physical laboratory. The munificence of 
its Chancellor is about to supply the University of Cambridge 
with a splendid laboratory, to be constructed under the eye of 
Prof. Clerk Maxwell. On this subject I shall say no more at 
present, but simply read a sentence which was spoken by Lord 
Milton in the first Presidential Address to the British Associa- 
