14 REPORT — 1902, 



I' might have shrunk from doing, and to take the Royal Institution — ■ 

 after all, the foundation of an American citizen. Count Rumford— as the 

 basis of my inquiry. The work done at the Royal Institution during the 

 past hundred years is a fairly definite quantity in the mind of every man 

 really conversant with scientific affairs. I have obtained from the books 

 accurate statistics of the total expenditure on experimental inquiry and 

 public demonstrations for the whole of the nineteenth century. The 

 items are : 



£ 

 Professors' Salaries — Physics and Chemistry . 54,600 



Laboratory Expenditure 24,430 



Assistants' Salaries 21,590 



Total for one hundred years ... £100,620 



In addition, the members and friends of the Institution have contri- 

 buted to a fund for exceptional expenditure for Experimental Research the 

 sum of 9,580/. It should also be mentioned that a Civil List pension of 

 300Z. was granted to Faraday in 1853, and Avas continued during twenty- 

 seven years of active work and five years of retirement. Thirty-two 

 years in all, at 300/. a year, make a sum of 9,600/., representing the national 

 donation, which, added to the amount of expenditure just stated, brings up 

 the total cost of a century of scientific work in the laboratories of the 

 Royal Institution, togetiier with public demonstrations, to 119,800/., or 

 an average of 1,200/. per annum. I think if you recall the names and 

 achievements of Young, Davy, Faraday, and Tyndall, you will come to the 

 conclusion that the exceptional man is about the cheapest of natural 

 products. It is a popular fallacy that the Royal Institution is hand- 

 somely endowed. On the contrary, it has often been in financial .straits ; 

 and since its foundation by Count Rumfoixl its only considerable bequests 

 have been one from Thomas G. Hodgkins, an American citizen, for 

 Experimental Research, and that of John Fuller for endowing with 95/. a 

 year the chairs of Chemistry and Physiology. In this connection the 

 Davy-Faraday Laboratory, founded by the liberality of Dr. Ludwig 

 Mond, will naturally occur to many minds. But though affiliated to the 

 Royal Institution, with, I hope, reciprocal indirect advantages, that 

 Laboratory is financially independent and its endowments are devoted to 

 its own special purpose, which is to provide opportunity to prosecute 

 independent research for worthy and approved applicants of all nationali- 

 ties. The main reliance of the Royal Institution has always been, and 

 still remains, upon the contributions of its members, and upon corre- 

 sponding sacrifices in the form of time and labour by its professors. It 

 may be doubted whether we can reasonably count upon a succession of 

 scientific men able and willing to make sacrifices which the conditions of 

 modern life tend to render increasingly burdensome. Modern science is 

 in fact in something of a dilemma. Devotion to abstract research upon 

 small means is becoming always harder to maintain, while at the same 



