May 14, 1874] 



NATURE 



23 



volved. In the main features of the scheme nearly all 

 the witnesses who were examined on the subject are at 

 one ; many of the details in which they differ are of 

 such a nature as can be settled only by actual trial. 



On the many other subjects touched upon in the volume 

 we cannot enter here. Much of the evidence bearing on 

 the Universities tends to prove that the interests of 

 Science are inadequately attended to in these in- 

 stitutions, and that the scientific teachers in some of 

 them have to contend with very great difficulties. 

 With respect to what Universities should do to 

 advance the interests of Science, not to speak of the 

 utilisation of the enormous funds at the disposal of 

 0.\ford and Cambridge, such men as Dr. Siemens, Dr 

 Frankland, Dr. Sanderson, and others are of opinion that 

 for the highest degrees in Science original research 

 should be required ; Prof. Balfour-Stewart thinks that 

 Universities ought to afford facility for the prosecution of 

 original research, and Dr. Carpenter that University 

 Fellowships should be given to men employed in original 

 research. 



Many of the most eminent witnesses — as Sir B. Brodie, 

 Lord Salisbury, Dr. Frankland, Prof Williamson, Colonel 

 Strange, Sir William Thomson, &c. — are of opinion that 

 research ought to be endowed quite apart from teaching 

 in the ordinary acceptation of the term. 



Most of the witnesses who spoke to the condition of 

 Science in this country contrasted it with the great en- 

 couragement given to research in nearly every other 

 European country, and in America. In this relation we 

 cannot help quoting a very striking statement made by 

 Sir William Thomson in respect to France, in answer 

 to the question as to how many institutions for research 

 he would recommend. 



" There should be five," he says. " One at present 

 exists, namely, the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. 

 Another in my opinion is very much wanted, an observa- 

 tory fir astronomical physics; then again a physical 

 laboratory, and a laboratoiy for chemical research, and a 

 physiological laboratory are necessary. In respect of 

 such institutions, I believe, we might with great advantage 

 obtain information, with a view to following example, in 

 Paris. The strong feeling of the necessity to promote 

 scientific research which was evinced shortly alter the 

 recent sad disasters which came upon France illustrates 

 very strongly the national value of such institutions. In 

 the depths of their misfortunes, one of the first strong 

 feelings shown by the most intelligent part o! the French 

 nation was the want of rigorous and accurate scientific 

 research. Competitive examinations seemed in France to 

 have swallowed up scientific energy, and there was a 

 strong feeling of the insufficiency of the national institu- 

 tions for promoting the advancement of Science." 



In conclusion, we cannot do better than quote the 

 forcible and noble language of Sir William Thomson, on 

 the much-discussed question of the " utility '' of abstract 

 scientific research. To the question as to some of the 

 objects to be gained by the establishment of a Council of 

 Science, Sir William Thomson replies : — 



" The immediate utility of the work is undoubtedly a 

 very important object, and perhaps may be considered to 

 be the first duty of the Government ; but yet there is 

 another duty Avhich, although we cannot call it the first 

 duty, is certainly not an inferior duty, and that is, to 

 promote the honour of this country. Ttere can be no 

 doubt but that the inhabitants of this country do get 

 benefit from the feeling of satisfaction that naturally 



results from any great scientific discoveries or great ad- 

 vances in Science made by their own countrymen, and 

 especially by the assistance of their own Government. 

 The Royal Observatory at Greenwich is an honour and a 

 glory to this country, and I am quite sure that the money 

 paid for it is very well spent, in the satisfaction that the 

 country feels in the honour of having one of the greatest 

 and best, if not i/ie greatest and best, of scientific astro- 

 nomical observatories in the world. This country un- 

 doubtedly has a great permanent possession in the name 

 of Newton and in the name of Faraday. The promotion 

 of scientific research in a regularway cannot make Newtons 

 and Faraday?, but it can obtain great scientific results by 

 systematic business-like action, carried out through well- 

 instructed and able men. It seems to me to be a duty of 

 the Government to make the national honour in scientific 

 investigation a subject of its solicitude and an occasion 

 (with due safeguards against abuse) f9r spending the 

 public money." , J. S. K. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Procetdings of the London Mathematical Society, vol. iv. 



Nos. 41-66. (Messrs. Hodgson, Gough Square.) 

 The volume before us contains the papers which have 

 been read during the eighth and ninth sessions of the 

 Society. We notice a favourable sign in the much greater 

 number of contributions which have been made in the 

 later session — 36 against 15. A large number of the 

 members have been led to take an interest in the meet- 

 ings, and the papers without losing their former high cha- 

 racter are in some cases less " caviare to the general" 

 than in previous volumes. The Society's first president 

 himself thus wrote, " Not a drop of liquor is setn at our 

 meetings, except a decanter of water ; all our ' heavy' is 

 a fermentation of symbols, and we do not draw it mild. 

 There is no penny fine for reticence or cccult science ; 

 and as to a song ! not the ghost of a chance." The Society, 

 however, as we see, has reached its tenth year ; and though 

 some of the members drop off for reasons which perhaps 

 may be gathered from our quotation, yet the number of 

 members recorded in this volume is fairly satisfactory : the 

 present number of members of the Mathematical So.ciety is 

 about 117. In Paris the new Society (la socidtd mathd- 

 matique de France) started with almost double this num- 

 ber of members. So far as we have seen, however, the 

 papers of the volume under notice and of previous volumes 

 will not lose by a comparison with the opening numbers 

 of the younger society's BuUctin. Of course no volume 

 would fairly represent English mathematics without having 

 contributions from Prof Cayley's fertile pen ; here we have 

 no less than ten papers, some of considerable length, prin- 

 cipally on curves and surfaces, and constructions for me- 

 chanically describing the former. — Dr. Sylvester furnishes 

 only short notes on the properties of numbers. — Prof. 

 H. J. S. Smith contributes an arithmetical demonstration 

 of a theorem in the integral calculus, and two other papers 

 bearing upon linear congruences and determinants. — 

 Prof W. K. Chfford writes, among other things, upon 

 geometry, on an ellipsoid, and a new form of Biquaternion. 

 — Mr. Samuel Roberts rivals Prof Cayley in the extent 

 and nnture of his communications upon parallel surfaces, 

 ard ;:'^ upon epi- and hypo-trochoids. — Prof Clerk- 

 Ma.wv il takes us to another sphere, and treats of the 

 transformation of solids, of the equations of motion, of a 

 system o( ekr*'ified conductors, and of the focal lines of 

 a refracted pL;.v..l. — Lord Rayleigh too takes us into the 

 domain of pliysical science, in his vibrations in a sphere, 

 the investigation of the disturbance produced by a 

 spherical obstacle on the waves of sound, general 

 theorems relating to vibrations. — A presidential address 

 by Mr. Spottiswoode treats of some recent generalisa- 

 tions of algebra." -Mr. J. W. L. Glaisher writes on 



