TRANSACTIONS. OF SECTION D. 523 
maintenance we may calculate at 1,500/. annually for each, or 60,000/. for the forty 
—equal to a capital sum of 2,000,000/. These institutes should be distributed in 
groups of five—eight groups in all—throughout the country. One such group 
would be placed in London (which is, at_present, almost totally destitute of such 
arrangements), one in Bristol, one in Birmingham, one in Nottingham, one in 
Leeds, one in Newcastle, one in Ipswich, one in Cardiff, one in Plymouth—in fact, 
one in each of the great towns of the kingdom where there is at present, or where 
there might be with advantage, a centre of professional education and higher study. 
The first and the most liberally arranged of these biological institutes—embracing 
its five branches, each with its special laboratory and staff—should be in London. 
If we can have nothing else, surely we may demand, with some hope that our 
request will eventually obtain compliance, the formation in London of a College of 
Scientific Research similar to that of Paris (the Collége de France). It is one of 
the misfortunes and disgraces of London that—alone amongst the capitals of 
Europe, with the exception of Constantinople—it is destitute of any institution 
corresponding to the universities and colleges of research which exist elsewhere. 
Either in connection with a properly organised teaching university or as an inde- 
pendent institution, it seems to me a primary need of the day that the Government 
should establish in London laboratories for scientific research. Two hundred and 
fifty years ago Sir Thomas Gresham founded an institution for scientific vesearch in 
the City of London. The property which he left for this purpose is now estimated 
to be worth three millions sterling. This property was deliberately appropriated 
to other uses by the Corporation of the City of London and the Mercers” Company 
about a hundred years since, with the consent of both Houses of Parliament. By 
this outrageous act of spoliation these Corporations, who were the trustees of 
Gresham, have incurred the curse which he quaintly inserted in his will in the 
hope of restraining them from attempts to divert his property from the uses to 
which he destined it. ‘Gresham’s curse’ runs as follows:—‘ And that Ido require 
and charge the said Corporations and chief governors thereof, with circumspect 
Diligence and without long Delay, to procure and see to be done and obtained, as 
they will answer the same before Almighty God; (for if they or any of them 
should neglect the obtaining of such Licenses or Warrants, which I trust can not 
be difficult, nor so chargeable, but that the overplus of my Rents and Profits of 
the Premisses hereinbefore to them disposed, will soon recompense the same; be- 
cause to soe good Purpose in the Commonwealth, no Prince ner Council in any Age, 
will deny or defeat the same. And if conveniently by my Will or other Con- 
venience, I might assure it, I would not leave it to be done after my death, then 
the same shall revert to my heirs, whereas I do mean the same to the Common- 
wealth, and then THz DEFAULT THEREOF SHALL BE TO THE REPROACH AND Con- 
DEMNATION OF THE SAID CORPORATIONS AFORE Gop’). I confess that I find it diffi- 
cult to see how the present representatives of the Corporations who perverted 
Gresham’s trust are to escape from justly deserving the curse pronounced against 
those Corporations, unless they conscientiously take steps to restore Gresham’s 
money to its proper uses. Let us hope that Gresham’s curse may be realised in no 
more deadly form than that of an Act of Parliament repealing the former one 
which sanctioned the perversion of Gresham’s money. Such a sequel to the Report 
of the Commission which has recently inquired into the proceedings of the Cor- 
» poration and Companies of the City of London is not unlikely. 
Whilst we should, I think, especially press upon public attention the need for 
an institute of scientific research in London, and indicate the source from which its 
funds may be fitly derived, we must also urge the foundation of other institutes 
in the provinces upon the scale already sketched, because it is only by the 
existence of numerous posts, and of a series of such posts—some of greater and 
some of less value, the latter more numerous than the former—that anything like 
a professional career for scientific workers can be constructed. It is especially 
necessary to constitute what I have termed ‘ assistantships,’ thatis, junior posts in 
which younger men assist and are trained by more experienced men. Even in the 
few institutions which do already exist additional provision of this kind is what 
is wanted more than anything else, so that there may be a progressive career open 
