ADDRESS. 49 
scarcely been correctly ascribable to any difficulty of organising fit 
illustrations of methods of investigation, of the attendant appliances, 
and of the results attained by experimental research ; it appears rather, 
to exist in the fact that physical science has hitherto had no share in such 
a combination of circumstances as has been favourable to the good fortunes 
and advancement of the natural sciences, and as is analogous to those which, 
from time to time, give rise to the provision of increased accommodation 
for our National Art Treasures. Our present National Science Collection, 
which has, indeed, had a struggle for existence, does not owe the de- 
velopment it has hitherto experienced to any such moral pressure as 
has been several times exercised in the case of our art collections, by 
the munificence of individuals, with the result of securing substantial 
aid from national resources; its gradual increase in importance has 
been due to the untiring perseverance of men of science, and of a few 
prominent influential and public-spirited authorities, in keeping before 
the public the lessons taught by careful inquiries, such as those en- 
trusted to the Royal Commission on Scientific Instruction, into the 
opportunities afforded for the cultivation of science and the development 
of its applications, in other Countries, as compared with those provided 
here. 
The success of the efforts made in 1875 by a committee thoroughly 
representative of every branch of experimental science, to bring together 
in London an international loan collection of scientific apparatus, and the 
widespread interest excited by that collection, led the President of the 
Royal Society, in union with many distinguished representatives of science, 
to lay before our Department of Kducation a proposal to establish a national 
museum of pure and applied science, including the Museum of Inven- 
tions, which had already existed since 1860 as a nucleus of a science- 
museum, the establishment whereof had formed part of the original 
scheme of the Science and Art Department. The Loan Collection of 
1876 did, in fact, and in consequence of the urgent representations then 
made, first put into practical shape the long-cherished desire of men of 
science to see an Institution arise in England similar to the Conservatoire 
des Arts et Métiers of France, and it became the starting-point of the 
National Collection, representative of the several branches of experimental 
science, which has been undergoing slow but steady development since 
hat time, patiently awaiting the provision of a suitable home for its 
contents. This collection, which illustrates not only the means whereby 
the triumphs of experimental research have been and are achieved, but 
also the methods by which these departments of science are taught, 
ields, small as it is, to none of our national museum. treasures in interest 
and importance. 
_ In yet another way did that Loan Collection become illustrious: one 
of the most interesting features connected with it was the organisation of 
a series of important conferences and explanatory lectures, serving to 
1890. id 
az 
