Juty 18, 1912] 
NATURE 
507 
MacKenzie; Natal University College, Pietermaritz- 
burg, the Hon. J. C. D. Wilson; Royal Society of 
South Africa, Sir David Gill, K.C.B., F.R.S. 
Sir Archibald Geikie, P.R.S., in welcoming the 
delegates at the reception, said, according to The 
Times, that no more striking proof than’ was presented 
by that assembly could be given of the reality and 
cordiality of that spirit of frank and loyal cooperation 
which united into one great brotherhood the students 
of science in every land and in every language. Two 
hundred and fifty years seemed in some respects no 
long span of time in the course of human history, 
but the 250 years across which they looked back that 
day had been in the history of science a period of 
momentous importance,’ érowded with incident, and 
full of marvellous achievement. When in the earlier 
decades of the seventeenth century Francis Bacon 
was so cogently insisting on the necessity of study- 
ing nature by the careful observation of facts and 
the testing of conclusions by experiment he made but 
slight practical impression in England. The seed 
which he sowed had not sprung into life until after 
he had passed away. About the middle of the 
century, however, the spirit of eager curiosity and 
inquiry with regard to the world which spread over 
all civilised countries reached England also. The 
earnest desire to seek an explanation of familiar 
phenomena at last induced a remarkable group of 
men in this country to organise themselves system- 
atically for the prosecution of that experimental 
philosoma which Bacon had so longed to see pur- 
sued. 
The society had counted among its fellows some 
of the great leaders in all branches of natural know- | 
ledge. Starting its career with a notable group of 
physicists and mathematicians, among whom were 
Robert Boyle and John Wilkins, it ere long welcomed 
Isaac Newton into its ranks, published his immortal 
“Principia,” and annually elected him as its president 
for nearly a quarter of a century. The physical 
sciences had all along been strongly represented here. 
It seemed but yesterday that James Clerk Maxwell’s 
voice was heard in those rooms, and that Stokes and 
Kelvin sat in the presidential chair. That the 
succession of leaders was still well maintained, the 
presence that day of Lord Rayleigh, Sir William 
Crookes, Sir Joseph Thomson, Sir Joseph Larmor, 
and many others amply proved. Nor had the bio- 
logical sciences been less prominent in the work of 
the society. From the early days of John Ray down 
to those of Charles Darwin, Hooker, Huxley, and 
Lister, every branch of biology had been illustrated 
and advanced by their fellows. 
As science knew no restriction of country or 
language, the Royal Society had from its earliest 
beginning cultivated friendly relations with fellow- 
workers in research all over the world. This *con- 
fraternity of the commonwealth of science now 
reached the climax of its manifestation in their ex- 
perience, when they received delegates from so many 
countries, who by their presence expressed the sym- 
pathy and goodwill of the various institutions which 
they represented. 
In proposing at the banquet the toast of ‘‘The 
Royal Society,’’ the Prime Minister said that the 
society had not at any time had any direct financial 
assistance from the Government. For this the 
Government might he criticised; but he ventured to 
think the society is to be congratulated. It is not 
well that science should be a mendicant for State 
endowment. He did not forget the annual grants 
NO. 2229, vot. 89] 
| for scientific research which are administered by the 
society; but their administration is not a benefit con- 
ferred on the society by the State, but a service cun- 
ferred on the State by the society. It would not be 
possible for anyone to traverse in a few moments 
the history of the society, or to chronicle the achieve- 
ments of its fellows without at the same time 
| traversing and chronicling the history of English 
science itself. There is hardly a year when the roll 
of the society has not been enriched by a name to 
which not only we, as Englishmen, but the whole 
world, is indebted for a share in the slow but steady 
subjection of nature to the intelligence of man—that 
process which has been described in  Bacon’s 
immortal words, ‘“‘ Natura non nisi perendo vincitur.”’ 
If we look at the names of Isaac Newton and Locke, 
Flamsteed and Halley, Sir Hans Sloane, Adam Smith 
and Grote, Woolaston and Watt, Davy and Faraday, 
Pringle and Young, or closer to our own time, 
Darwin, Huxley, Hooker, Herschel, Huggins, Sir 
Michael Foster, Lord Kelvin, and one whose loss we 
lamented only a few months ago, perhaps the 
greatest benefactor in our time of the human race, 
Lord Lister—the roll contains the names of 
England’s worthiest children in the wide field of 
work which is comprised in the original project of 
this foundation. And the Royal Society which 
honoured them and was honoured by them is remem- 
bered when we remember them one and all. It has 
grown with the growth of England; it has advanced 
with the advance of science; and it stands now, after 
| 250 years, firmly established in the confidence of the 
nation and the respect of the world, still faithful, 
still fruitful in tke cause of human progress and 
human enlightenment. 
The president of the Royal Society, replying to the 
toast, said the society has had from its commence- 
ment close relations with the Government. They 
have never been financial relations. At first the 
society was very poor and tried hard to get money, 
| and among King Charles’s benefits, or his wishes to 
benefit the society, were the efforts which he made 
| for getting them a larger income. He was sorry to 
confess that those efforts were entirely unsuccessful. 
They had from him a college, but two years after he 
gave it he reclaimed it, and bought it back from 
them. He believed’ that 13001. was all the money 
they received from their founder Charles II., who 
devised a plan whereby the Royal Society should 
undertake to examine all applications for patents for 
philosophical and mechanical inventions. There was 
| no record of any payment for the services thus 
rendered. Fifty years later Queen Anne made a 
similar regulation, but again they had no record 
that any money passed, for services rendered, into 
the coffers of the Royal Society. Since then the 
relations of the society and the Government have 
taken a very much wider and closer form. They 
administer a. number of permanent grants from the 
Government, not for their own use, but for the 
general gonad of science. They are largely charged 
with the administration of the National Physical 
Laboratory, and they have to administer also the 
4oool. a year granted by the Government for the 
furtherance of scientific research, There are many 
committees which do not bulk very largely in the 
public eye, but which cost the society a great deal of 
time and labour and do excellent service, especially 
those connected with tropical disease. 
Viscount Morley of Blackburn proposed the toast 
of ‘Universities at Home and Abroad,” and the 
Archbishop of Canterbury that of ‘‘ Learned Societies 
in the Old World and the New.” 
