ISLXXviii REPORT 1871. 



Tho success of the Kew Magnetic and Meteorological ObseiTatory affords 

 ah example of the great gain to be earned for science by the founda- 

 tion of physical observJitories and laboratories for experimental research, 

 to be conducted by qualified persons, whose duties should be, not teach- 

 ing, but experimenting. Whether we look to the honour of England, as a 

 nation v>iiich ought always to be the foremost in promoting physical science, 

 or to those vast economical advantages which must accrue from such esta- 

 blishments, we cannot but feel that experimental research ought to be made 

 with us an object of national concern, and not left, as hitherto, exclusively 

 to the private enterprise of self-sacrificing amateurs, and the necessarily 

 inconsecutive action of our present Governmental Departments and of casual 

 Committees. The Council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh has moved for 

 this object in a memorial presented by them to the Eoyal Commission on 

 Scientific Education and the Advancement of Science. Tlie Continent of 

 Europe is referred to for an example to be followed with advantage in this 

 country, in the following words: — - 



" On the Continent there exist certain institutions, fitted with instruments, 

 " apparatus, chemicals, and other appliances, which are meant to be, and 

 " which are made, available to men of science, to enable them, at a moderate 

 " cost, to pursue original researches." 



Tliis statement is fuUy corroborated by information, on good authority, 

 Avhich T have received from Germany, to the effect that in Prussia " every 

 " university, every polytechnical academy, every industrial school (Realschule 

 " and Gewerbeschule), most of the grammar-schools, in a word, nearly all the 

 " scliools superior in rank to the elementary schools of the common people, are 

 " supplied with chemical laboratories and a collection of philosophical in- 

 " struments and apparatus, access to which is most liberally granted by the 

 " directors of those schools, or the teachers of the respective disciplines, to 

 " any person qualified, for scientijic experiments. In consequence, though 

 " there exist no particular institutions like those mentioned in the me- 

 " morial, there wiU scarcely be found a town exceeding in number 5000 

 " inhabitants but offers the possibility of scientific explorations at no other 

 " cost than reimbursement of the expense for the materials wasted in the 

 " experiments." 



Eurther, with reference to a remark in the Memorial to the effect that, in 

 respect to the promotion of science, the British Government confines its 

 action almost exclusively to scientific instruction, and fatally neglects the 

 advancement of science, my informant tells me that, in Germany, " professors, 

 "preceptors, and teachers of secondary schools are engaged on account of 

 " their skilfulness in teacMng ; but professors of universities are never engaged 

 "unless they have already jjroved, hy their oxvn investigations, that they are 

 " to be relied upon for the advancement of science. Therefore every shilling 

 '•'spent for instruction in iiniversities is at the same time profitable to the ad- 

 " vaneement of science." 



The lAysical laboratories which have grown up in the Universities of 

 Glasgow and Edinburgh, and in Owens College, Manchester, show the want 

 felt of Colleges of Eesearch ; but they go but infinitesimally towards sup- 

 plying it, being absolutely destitute of means, material or personal, for ad- 

 vancing science except at the expense of volunteers, or securing that volunteers 

 shall be found to continue even such little work as at present is carried on. 



The whole of Andrews' splendid work in Queen's College, Belfast, has 

 been done under great difficulties and disadvantages, and at great personal 

 sacrifices ; and up to the present time there is not a student's physical 



