NATURE 



{Jan. 7, 1875 



boring (which is now carried to a depth of 1,000 feet), and in 

 view of obtaining further assistance from her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment towards the work, the Council authorised me to lay before 

 the Chancellor of the Exchequer such a statement as I should 

 judge appropriate, with the object of obtaining a grant from the 

 public purse in aid of the boring. 



In pursuance of this resolution, I joined the Presidents of 

 the Geological Society and of the Institution of Civil Engineers 

 in presenting a memorial, which was most favourably receired, 

 and was answered by a promise on the part of the Treasury of 

 loo/. for every 100 feet of boring that should be accomplished, 

 down to a depth of i.ooo feet. 



TItc GoT'eninicnt Grant (of 1,000/. per^annum) continues to be 

 expended with satisfactory results. I must refer you to the 

 report which will be published in our Proceedings for the 

 statement of the grants, making, however, special allusion to 

 Dr. Klein's work on the Anatomy of the Lymphatic System, 

 towards which 100/. from this fund was granted, and by means 

 of which copies have been distributed to the best advantage in 

 this country and abroad. 



The Scicntijic-Rfluf Fund slowly augments, and has been of 

 the greatest service. It is almost unique among charities in 

 costing nothing in the working, and in being inaccessible to 

 direct or indirect canvassing. The amount hitherto expended in 

 relief since its establishment has been 2,240/., extended to fifty- 

 two individuals or families. 



T/ie Gilchrist Trust.— Ox^e of the most munificent bequests 

 ever made in the interest of science is that of the late Dr. 

 Borthwick Gilchrist, a retired Indian medical officer, well known 

 as the author of the "Grammar of Ilindostani." 



Dr. Gilchrist was an intimate friend of Dr. Birkbeck, Joseph 

 Hume, Sir John Bowring, and others of the advanced Liberals of 

 fifty years ago, and took part in the establishment of the 

 "London University," now University College. He died in 

 1S41, leaving his large fortune to be devoted, after his wife's 

 death, to "the benefit, advancement, and propagation of edu- 

 cation and learning in every part of the world, as circumstances 

 permit," the trustees having an " absolute and uncontrolled 

 discretion " as to the mode of applying it. The income of the 

 Trust, which is being gradually augmented by the sale of 

 building-lots at Sydney, where Dr. Gilchrist had invested a 

 considerable sum in the purchase of an estnte with a view to its 

 ultimate rather than its immediate productiveness, now amounts 

 to about 4,000/. per annum. The trustees have created various 

 scholarships for bringing young men of abihty from India and 

 the colonies to cany on their education in this country ; and 

 they have also given assistance to various educational institu- 

 tions which they considered to have a claim for occasional help 

 from the fund, such as the Working Men's College in London 

 and the Edinburgh School of Arts ; and they have instituted 

 short courses of scientific lectures to working men in London, 

 Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool. 



The trustees now desire to do something effectual for the 

 aavanceinoit of learning ; and a scheme — subsequently submit- 

 tel to the Council of the Royal Society — was suggested by Dr. 

 Carpenter, the secretary of the Trust, as one which seemed to 

 him to be the most effectual for carrying out this object ; and it 

 was adopted by the trustees on his recommendation. 



In a letter addressed to myself in June last, Dr. Carpenter 

 informed your Council that the trustees of the fund had 

 resolved to employ a portion of it in the promotion of scientific 

 research, and empowered him to submit the following liberal 

 proposal to the consideration of your Coimcil : namely, the 

 trustees propose annually to entertain the question of placing 

 1,000/. at the disposal of the Council of the Royal Society to 

 be expended in grants to men of proved ability in scientific 

 research, but who, from their Umited pecuniary means, are pre- 

 cluded from prosecuting inquiries of great interest by the 

 necessity of devoting to remunerative work the time they would 

 wish to devote to such inquiries ; the Council of the Society to 

 undertake on their part to recommend to the trustees suitable 

 subjects of inquiry, competent men circumstanced as indicated, 

 and the sum to be assigned in each case. The trustees desire, 

 further, that the grants should not be regarded as eleemosynary, 

 but rather as studentships carrying with them scientific distinc- 

 tion, and not as rewards for past work, but as means for work 

 to be done. 



Upon this communication^ (in which you cannot fail to per- 

 ceive not only an enlightened regard for the interests of science 

 on the part of the trustees, but, on the part of their secretary, 

 an accurate perception of the best means of supplying one of 



the greatest scientific needs), your Council appointed a committee 

 to report on the proposal. Their labours are already concluded ; 

 the proposition has been accepted, but under stipulation for 

 fulfilment of the following conditions by applicants for the 

 grants : — 



That the grants should be made for one year only in each 

 case, though subject to renewal. 



That the recipients be designated Gilchrist Students for the 

 year in which the grants are made. 



That no application for grants be received except it has been 

 approved by the President and Council of any one of the six 

 Societies — namely, the Royal, Astronomical, Chemical, Lin- 

 nean. Geological, and Zoological ; and that all applications be 

 submitted to a committee, consisting of the Presidents of the 

 six Societies together with the officers of the Royal Society, 

 which committee shall recommend the appUcants to the Gilchrist 

 Trustees. 



That a form of application be prepared setting forth the 

 general objects of the Gilchrist Studentships, and the condi- 

 tions upon which they are conferred. 



That each student furnish, at the end of the year for which 

 the grant is made, a report of his progress and results, signed by 

 himself and countersigned by the President of the Society 

 through which the application was transmitted. 



Simple and acceptable as such a scheme appears, it may 

 prove by no means always smooth in the working. It virill be 

 easy to find subjects, and candidates too ; but the trustees must 

 not expect in every case a full annual harvest for what they 

 annually sow, or that some of the seed will not be productive of 

 a crop of good intentions rather than good fruits. Putting 

 aside all the temptations to procrastination that pre-payment 

 fosters, there is the fact that every subject of scientific research 

 presents a labyrinth in which the investigator may wander 

 further and further from the main gallery, always following 

 some tempting lateral track leading to discovery, but never 

 either reaching the end of it 5 or getting back to that which he 

 set out to follow. 



We must, however, hope for the best results from so munifi- 

 cent an endowment of scientific research, and watch with the 

 deepest interest the progress of an experiment, the means for 

 instituting which, after being urgently called for from the 

 Government and our Universities, are now forthcoming from 

 private resources. 



The IVintringham Bequest. — Hitherto this curious bequest 

 has, so far as the Society is concerned, proved alike profitless 

 and troublesome, as will appear from a few particulars of its 

 history. 



Sir Clifton Wintringham, Bart., a Fellow and son of a Fellow 

 of this Society, died at Hammersmith, January loth, 1794, and 

 bequeathed 1,200/. Three per Ceut. Consols (payable twelve 

 months alter the decease of his wife) to the Royal Society, 

 subject to the condition that within one month of the payment 

 of the annual dividends in each year the President should fix on 

 the subjects for three essays in Natural Philosophy or Chemistry, 

 and submit them to the Society to be adopted by secret ballot. 

 The subjects were then to be advertised in the papers of 

 London, Paris, and the Hague : the essays were to be sent to 

 the Royal Society within ten months of date of advertisement, 

 each author to deliver ten copies ; and the President and nine 

 members of Council were to choose the best, and then to have 

 made a silver cup of 30/. value, to be presented to the success- 

 ful essayist on the last Thursday in December. In case of 

 failure the dividends were to be paid to the treasurer of the 

 Foundling Hospital. 



Lady Wintringham died in 1S05 ; but the Royal Society 

 heard nothing of the bequest until 1S39, when steps were taken 

 to obtain possession of ttie fund. The Foundling Hospital put 

 forward their claim ; legal proceedings were taken, costs being 

 paid out of accumulated dividends; and in 1S42 the Royal 

 Society were put in possession of the 1,200/. stock. Owing to 

 the essential difticulties of carrying out the conditions of the 

 testator's will, the dividends have ever since been paid to the 

 Foundling Hospital. 



The Council, desirous that those difficulties should be over- 

 come, have at different times appointed a committee to examine 

 the question and suggest, if possible, a solution ; but no satisfac- 

 tory conclusion has yet been arrived at. 



The Handhy Bequest.— ^Ix. Edwin Handley, of Old Brack- 

 nell, Berks, was a country gentleman, and the possessor of a 

 considerable landed and personal estate in Berkshire and Mid- 

 dlesex. He died in 1S43, having bequeathed the bulk of his 



