April 7, 1870] 
NATURE 
5g! 
subjects of which we are at present in a state of comparative 
ignorance. Ii the inquiry produced no other immediate fruits than 
these, it would have performed a priceless service. Another 
result will be that we shall see for the first time what are the 
principles which should determine the action of the State for the 
advancement of science. At present there exists the most violent 
conflict of opinion on this subject, from those who hold that 
State intervention in science is unjustifiable and disadvantageous, 
to those who desire such intervention to be universal. Between 
these extremes there lies the middle and more reasonable section 
of thinkers, who recognise in the State simply a machinery for 
doing, on the part of the community, whatever is generally 
advantageous to the great mass of the people, but which tran- 
scends the power of individuals to perform. To discriminate 
fairly between the branches of scientific exertion which should 
devolve on the State and those which should be left to private 
energy, is one of the most valuable results that can be expected 
from the inquiry. 
We may hope, as another most important result, that a central 
ministerial administration of scientific affairs will be shown to be 
necessary. In all other civilised countries a Minister of State is 
charged with this duty. It seems absolutely impossible to 
organise or maintain in an efficient state anything like a harmonious 
scientific system, without a dominant authority presiding over 
the whole. There are already indications of a coming 
Minister of Public Instruction, to administer the proposed 
national system of primary education ; it can hardly be doubted 
that he should also have charge of whatever relates to State 
intervention in science. 
The creation of such new scientific institutions as may be 
proved to be necessary, is another result that may be looked for. 
‘Though I have long been of opinion that the want exists, I do 
not think that the time has yet arrived to indicate how it should 
be supplied. The inquiry will develope clearer and more con- 
sistent estimates of the extent of the want, and of the best mode 
of meeting it, than, in the absence of full information regarding 
existing institutions, anyone can now hope to form. ‘The cost 
of new scientific institutions alarms many persons who have 
only superficially examined such questions, but it will be pro- 
bably found that increased expenditure in some directions may be 
met by retrenchment in others, and that no great change in the 
aggregate outlay on science will have to be made. On the other 
hand, we may feel sure that no outlay whatever will be recom- 
mended by a Royal Commission, unless it be incontrovertibly 
proved that such outlay will be beneficial to the nation. 
Eventually, the responsibility of sanctioning increased expen- 
diture for scientific purposes must rest with Parliament, by whom 
any proposals of that kind will be most scrupulously examined. 
3. The Constitution of the Commission.—This is of vital 
importance. If its constitution be not such as to command, not 
only the confidence of the public generally, but also that of men 
of science, it cannot hope for success. The necessary elements 
in such a body seem to be administrative capacity, impartiality, 
and varied scientific knowledge. ‘The first two elements will be 
secured by the nomination of persons versed in public affairs, 
and of high and independent station ; the last by the due repre- 
sentation of the main branches of scientific activity. Probably 
four scientific members wili suffice, to represent respectively, 
(1) Mathematics, including Astronomy; (2) Chemistry; (3) Physics; 
and (4) Natural History. ‘To give a decided preponderance to 
either one of these great subdivisions will create strong and 
well-founded dissatisfaction. However lamentable the fact, 
it is certain that men engaged in one branch of science are 
very apt to underrate the importance of all others. The 
decision of a physiologist on an astronomical inquiry, or 
that of a mathematician on a matter connected with biology 
will be received with jealousy, a jealousy not by any means 
in most cases destitute of reasonable foundation. The 
subjects which will come before the Commission will be so 
difficult and so various, that four of the ablest men of science 
in their different departments will not be found more than will 
be necessary to give weight to the conclusions at which the 
Commission may arrive, and they should be men admittedly 
representative of their respective departments. 
In the remarks which I have ventured to make, J have not 
dwelt on the importance to a civilised nation of progress in 
scientific knowledge. I have felt that I might safely take this 
for granted in addressing the Society of Arts, a society whose 
efforts have been during so long a period devoted to the pro- 
motion of such progress, and who do not require to be told 
that our commerce, our arts, our national supremacy on land 
and at sea, and our everyday conveniences are, more or less, 
dependent on our application of the laws of nature and the pro- 
perties of matter. Whether or not an exhaustive inquiry into the 
state of science in England is imperatively needed, and what 
should be the scope of that inquiry, are the questions which, I 
believe, we have to-day met to discuss. It appears to me that 
the time for such an inquiry is opportune. 
At no period of our history has there been so great a readiness 
to place administrative power in the hands of the Government. 
Public opinion acts now so energetically and effectually in the 
legislature, that the old jealousy of Government interference has 
been almost entirely dispelled. The tendency of the day is rather 
to impose fresh duties on the Government than to restrict its 
action. Men’s minds, at the present time, view without appre- 
hension, and examine with more impartiality and a higher dis- 
crimination than at any former period, proposals for radical 
changes. The nation has, moreover, been roused from the 
apathy with which it used to regard the ignorance of the masses, 
and is prepared for measures to redress the evil which, even ten 
years ago, would not have been listened to. It cannot be 
doubted that an equal readiness will be shown to examine with 
calmness and candour well-considered proposals to place ona 
proper footing a department of the State’s duties which has 
never as yet undergone a strict and methodical examination. 
The nation requires primary education, and will enforce it upon 
those whom it is to benefit ; it insists on the teaching of science 
in schools and universities; will it not approve of measures 
without which that teaching must be comparatively fruitless— 
measures calculated to attain the ends to which teaching is but a 
means—a more perfect knowledge of nature, and more absolute 
sway oyer her forces and her laws ? 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
THE Student and Intellectual Observer, New Series, No. 2, for 
April, contains an article entitled ‘Animals as Fellow-Boarders,” 
being a translation of Von Beneden’s valuable paper on Comz- 
mensalisme, read before the Belgian Academy, describing the 
habits of creatures who may be said to board together, but whose 
association is distinct from that of victim and parasite. They are 
of two kinds, Free Fellow-Boarders, such as the tiny pea-crab, 
which lives in mussel-shells ; and the Fixed Fellow-Boarders, 
like the barnacles which cover the skin of whales. 
THE Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, New Ser.es, 
No. 2 (double number for March and April) contains the 
following original articles: On two new British /efatice, by 
Dr. Carrington; a fifth decade of new Chinese plants, by Dr. 
Hance ; on Rosa sepium, by Mr. J. G. Baker; Addenda to the 
‘Cybele Hibernica,’”’ by Mr. Ralph Tate; notes on Ray’s 
“* Hortus Siccus,” by Dr. H. Trimen, with other shorter papers ; 
also reports of recent additions to our moss and lichen flora, by 
Dr. Braithwaite and Rey. J. M. Crombie; a continuation of Mr. 
Baker’s Review of the genus Marcissus from the Gardener's 
Chronicle, with other extracts and translations, reviews of new 
publications, proceedings of societies, &c., &e. 
THE Revue des Cours Scientifigues for March 26 contains 
report of a Lecture by M. Paul Bert, on Sympathetic Nervous 
Actions, an article by Alph. Fayre on the Existence of Man in 
the Tertiary Epoch, and a notice of Prof. Harkness’s Spectro- 
scopic Observations. The number for April 2nd is almost en- 
tirely filled by a translation of Prof. Tait’s lecture before the 
University of Edinburgh, on the characters of a true science; and 
report of a lecture‘by M. Lorain at the Hospital Saint Antoine 
at Paris, on Scientific Medicine. 
In the Deutsches Archiv ftir Klinisches Medicin (xiii. and 
xvii. Heft. 1, received March 12),;Liebermeister, of Basle, deé- 
scribes a very ingenious apparatus, constructed under his super- 
intendence, for determining quantitative variations in the pro- 
duction of carbonic acid by man, and gives several examples of 
the results obtained. Amongst other conclusions he shows that 
the increase of carbonic acid in reading and singing is only to a 
small extent attributable to increased exertion consequent on 
fuller ventilation of the lungs, but is essentially due to the 
increased muscular energy exerted in the performance of those 
acts. 
REICHERT and Dubois Reymond’s Archiv fiir Anatomie und 
Physiologie, Heft. vi., 1869, is almost entirely occupied with a 
