158 



NATURE 



\yune 27, 1872 



"Treasury Chambers, June 3, 1872 



" Sir, — The Chancellor of the Exchequer has referred 

 to the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury 

 the memorial of the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, forwarded to him with your letter of the 

 2ist ult., praying for Government assistance in connection 

 with tidal observations. 



" I am to state that their Lordships have given their 

 anxious attention to the memorial, and that they are 

 fully sensible of the interesting nature of such investiga- 

 tions ; but that they feel that if they acceded to this re- 

 quest it would be impossible to refuse to contribute to- 

 wards the numerous other objects which men of eminence 

 may desire to treat scientifically. 



" Their Lordships must, therefore, though with regret, 

 decline to make a promise of assistance towards the pre- 

 sent object out of public funds. 



" I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 



"(Signed) William Law 



" Sir W. Thomson, Athena:um Club." 



Nothing would be easier than to be sarcastically in- 

 dignant on such a theme as this. The picture of the 

 Lords Commissioners of H M. Treasury giving their 

 " anxious attention " to the tides, and expressing " regret " 

 that they cannot grant so large a sum as 150/. for in- 

 vestigations which they really think " interesting," lest 

 eminent men should avail themselves of so imprudent 

 a precedent, in order to make further demands for 

 " scientifically " treating other objects of the same charac- 

 ter — this picture is one which requires but a touch, it 

 hardly, indeed, needs a touch, to make it a far-fetched 

 caricature of civilised governing. 



To apply the lash, however, to narrow stupidity, can 

 only gratify temporary spleen ; and we must resist the 

 temptation in order to attain the higher object of illus- 

 trating, by this pointed example, the present condition 

 of State science in England, and of showing what we 

 require in order to prevent the mischief which its exist- 

 ing condition must cause. 



To begin with the British Association. Here is a body 

 carrying on operations by means of privately contributed 

 funds, of very limited amount, about 2,000/. a year; not 

 for the first, tenth, or hundredth time, quietly accepting as 

 a fact that certain scientific objects of national importance 

 will not be recognised or pursued by the Government, and, 

 therefore, stepping in to contribute as far as they can 

 towards their accomplishment. The Kew Observatoiy, 

 the map cf the moon, the utilisation of sewage, are other ex- 

 amples of the same kind. They have all been commenced 

 on a necessarily miserable scale — a little advance has been 

 made, and then the thing has dropped through for want of 

 funds. Now, according to our apprehension the British As- 

 sociation, though acting with the very best intentions and 

 motives, have greatly erred in these matters. It is absurd to 

 suppose that any one of the numerous large national scien- 

 tific problems they have taken up could be properly dealt 

 with even if their whole income of 2.000/. a year had been 

 devoted exclusively to it. The small contributions to 

 each which they have been able to afford, if not some- 

 times quite wasted, have almost invariably produced re- 

 sults quite inadequate even to the small expenditure, 

 simply because it was so small as to forbid really efficient 

 measures. This is an evil, but as some good results, 

 however slight and imperfect, have been achieved, it 

 might be submitted to if it were all. A far greater evil, 

 however, has been caused by the measures we allude to. 



An obscurity has been thrown round the great question 

 which England must soon solve. " What is the 

 scientific work which the Government is bound to per- 

 form for the benefit of the community at large ; and what 

 is the scientific work which cannot be performed by 

 State agency so well as by private enterprise 'i " 



So long as individuals, and bodies of individuals, 

 without discrimination, attempt to do what should pro- 

 perly devolve on the State, so long will a Government^ 

 destitute, like ours, of a particle of the scientific element, 

 neglect its legitimate duties. We therefore strongly 

 counsel the British Association, at their next meeting, 

 to take measures for classifying science under the two 

 great heads of Public and Private, to supply the Govern- 

 ment with a full statement of all comprehended under 

 the first head, and to refuse a single penny of its funds 

 to any object not distinctly appertaining to the second. 

 This will bring matters to a crisis — and we want a crisis. 



As to the Government, what can we say ? Poor JVIr. 

 Law's letter speaks volumes. It plaintively confesses its 

 total inability to grasp any State scientific problem lest 

 it should have to deal with all. We have no heart to 

 spurn a prostrate form so lowly and humble ; but can 

 we not raise it ? Can we not introduce into our Ad- 

 ministration a source of knowledge on which they can 

 rely to guide them in the choice of scientific objects 

 really profitable to the nation, and officials able to in- 

 sure a proper system for the attainment of such objects ? 



Many minds are busy on this very question ; and the 

 fact that a maritime Government will not give 150/. 

 towards investigating the tides is not likely to weaken 

 their determination to bring it to a decisive issue. 



PUBLIC HEALTH IN AMERICA 



Third Annual Report of the State Board of Health of 

 Massachusetts. (Jan. 1872.) 



PLIBLIC health problems in New England are very 

 much of the same character as they are in Old 

 England. The countries and climates are both healthy, 

 and there is plenty of preventible disease notwithstanding. 

 In both countries bad habits have much to do with the 

 causation of disease. In both countries civilisation takes 

 but small account of natural laws, and as a consequence 

 makes one step forwards where two might be made. One 

 reason of this is partly want of knowledge, but the report 

 before us shows that another not unimportant cau?e is 

 attempting to gain present advantages by discounting the 

 future. It is an old story told in a new country. There 

 is a small present profit to a small minority of the com- 

 munity, at the cost of the remainder ; but Nature, as has 

 been well said, "just goes on levying her own cess in her 

 own way," i.e., she sends in her account, net only to the 

 perpetrators of the damage, but to the whole community 

 which tacitly submits to it. 



The Report consists of two portions, one part giving a 

 brief account of the Board's proceedings, the other con- 

 taining an interesting series of repoits by different writers 

 on the effects of arsenical colours on health, on mill dams 

 and water obstructions as causes of disease, on the use 

 and abuse of intoxicating drinks, with reference to a 

 cosmic law of intemperance, on provision for the insane, 



