ADDKESS. O 



sums have not only been in the main wisely voted and usefully expended ; 

 but they have been themselves productive ot much additional voluntary 

 expenditure of both time and money on the part of those to whom the 

 grants have been entrusted. The results have come back to the Associa- 

 tion in the form of papers and reports, many of which have been printed 

 in our volumes. By this appropriation of a large portion of its funds, 

 the Association has to some extent anticipated, nay even it may have 

 partly inspired the ideas, now so much discussed, ot the Endowment of 

 Research. And whether the aspirations of those who advocate such 

 endowment be ever fully realised or not, there can 1 think be no doubt 

 whatever that the Association in the matter of these grants has afforded 

 a most powerful stimulus to original research and discovery. 



Regarded from another point of view these grants, together with 

 others to be hereafter mentioned, present a strong similarity to that use- 

 ful institution, the Professoriate Extraordinary of Germany, to which 

 there are no foundations exactly corresponding in this country. For, 

 beside their more direct educational purpose, these Professorships are 

 intended, like our own grants, to afford, to special individuals an oppor- 

 tunity of following out the special work for which they have previously 

 proved themselves competent. And in this respect the British Associa- 

 tion may be regarded as supplying, to the extent of its means, an elasticity 

 which is wanting in our own Universities. 



Besides the funds which through your support are at the disposal of 

 the British Association there are, as is well known to many here present, 

 other funds of more or less similar character, at the disposal or subject 

 to the recommendations of the Royal Society. There is the Donation 

 Fund, the property of the Society ; the Government Grant of 1,000£. per 

 annum, administered by the Society ; and the Government Fund of 4,000Z. 

 per annum (an experiment for five years) to be distributed by the Science 

 and Ait Department, both lor research itself, and for the support of 

 those engaged thereon, according to the recommendations of a Committee 

 consisting mainly of Fellows of the Royal Society. To these might be 

 added other funds in the hands of different Scientific Societies. 



But although it must be admitted that the purposes of these various 

 funds are not to be distinguished by any very simple line of demarcation, 

 and that they may therefore occasionally appear to overlap one another, 

 it may still, 1 think, be fairly maintainea that this fact does not furnish 

 any sufficient reason against their co- existence. There are many topics 

 of research too minute in their range, too tentative in their present con- 

 dition, to come fairly within the scope of the funds administered by the 

 Royal Society. There are others, ample enough in their extent, and long 

 enough in their necessary duration, to claim for their support a national 

 grant, but which need to be actually set on foot or tried before they can 

 iairly expect the recognition either of the public or of the Government. 

 To these categories others might be added ; but the above-mentioned 



