TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. a 
quirements cannot be met by private enterprise and munificence, or even by corpo- 
rate bodies supported by private contributions. These postulates being admitted, 
it follows of necessity that the resources of the State alone can adequately supply 
the existing want; and that unless these are so employed the progress of scientific 
knowledge and discovery must become slower and slower. 
Without entering into premature details, the paper proposes that there should 
be established a system of national institutions for the sole purpose of advan- 
cing science by practical research, quite apart from teaching it; that such insti- 
tutions, provided with extensive appliances and skilled operators, should be pre- 
sided over by a governing body constituted with reference solely to the scientific 
eminence of its members, or, which would be better, by a single chief, directly 
responsible to a Minister of State, as now proposed for the British Museum. That 
this body or chief should direct the labours of the Executive into such fields as they 
may deem most worthy of being explored; and that they should also have the 
power of sanctioning experiments and investigations proposed by any person un- 
connected with them, thus rendering the institution as much as possible accessible 
to the scientific public, and to persons whose objects, manufacturing or other, re- 
quire for their promotion physical data which they may possess neither the skill 
nor the appliances to obtain. Publication of results should also be duly provided 
for. The paper observes that such institutions would form a consultative body to 
which the State would resort for that advice and assistance which is now sought 
to be obtained by the very costly and not always very satisfactory expedient of 
special commissions. The advantages which the nation derives from the results 
of science, cultivated even as it is at present, desultorily and inefficiently, would 
be enormously multiplied by the introduction of the principle of continuity in re- 
search, and by the employment of the highest skill and the most perfect appliances. 
Systematic investigation conducted in the comprehensive manner proposed must 
prove directly remunerative, whether applied to strictly State purposes, or whether 
utilized in the public works, the manufactures, and the general necessities of the 
nation. 
The objections that may be urged against the present proposal are then touched 
on. The chief of these are :—First, that such State institutions would tend to chill 
eet enterprise. The reply is, that in certain departments of science the State 
as long been compelled to intervene. National observatories, surveys, and museums 
are instanced. These rather tend to stimulate than to restrain the private cultiva- 
tion of science. But it is assumed, as the very foundation of the present paper, 
that private scientific enterprise, great as it is in England, does not satisfy the 
present demands for physical data and laws; and therefore, if State intervention 
may be expected to satisfy those demands, the risk of discouraging the present 
insufficient agency must be incurred. And it is maintained that the tendency of 
progressive civilization must be to supersede individual effort. Secondly, that such 
a system as that proposed would bring with it abuses and jobbery. Let this be 
admitted with regard to science in common with every human organization. Every 
oo and every branch of the public service suffers from the inevitable evil. 
ut in spite of obvious corruption and favouritism, we still keep up an army, a 
navy, and a parliament. The greatest care must be taken to exclude abuses ; and 
those that will undoubtedly gain admission must be considered as part of the 
price paid for the advantages obtained. There are no grounds for imputing to 
science any special capacity for corruption. Thirdly, that the amount of work to 
be done may not prove sufficient for the continuous employment of very extensive 
establishments. The paper, however, assumes the contrary; its limits do not 
admit of the discussion of this objection, which would be submitted for the opinions 
of the men most eminent in physical research. After a brief recapitulation, the 
paper concludes thus :— 
“ Kyery visitor to this Congress of Science receives a printed paper, in which he 
is told that 
“¢The objects of the British Association are to give a stronger impulse and 
more systematic direction to scientific inquiry,’ and ‘to remove any disadvan- 
tages of a public kind which-impede its progress,’ 
