544 REPORT — 1894. 



when propositions such as those I have cited were only accepted on the authority 

 of the names of Stokes and De Morgan. 



The other fact to which I would refer is that the Clarendon Laboratory, in 

 which the meetings of Section A are to be held, though erected barely a quarter of 

 a century ago, was the first laboratory in this country which was specially built 

 and designed for the study of experimental physics. It has served as a type. 

 Clerk Maxwell visited it while planning the Cavendish Laboratory, and traces of 

 Professor Clifton's designs can be detected in several of our university colleges. 



But though our surroundings remind us of the improvement which has been 

 effected in the equipment of our science, it would not be difficult to indicate weak 

 points which should forthwith be strengthened. On these, in so far as they affect 

 education, I will not dwell — and that for two reasons. In the first place, we meet 

 to-day not as teachers, but as students ; and, secondly, I think that whereas we 

 have as a nation awoke — though late in the day — to the importance of education, 

 we are not yet fully awake to the importance of learning. Our attitude in such 

 matters was exactly expressed by one of the most eminent of the witnesses who 

 "■ave evidence before the ' Gresham Commission.' In his opinion the advancement 

 of knowledge must in a university in London be secondary to tlie higher instruc- 

 tion of the youth of London. If this be so — and I will not now dispute it — we 

 shall surely all agree that somewhere or other, in London or out of it, included in 

 our universities or separate from them, there ought to be institutions in which the 

 advancement of knowledge is regarded as of primary and fundamental interest, and 

 not as a mere secondary by-product thrown off in the course of more important 

 operations. 



It is not essential that in such an institution research should be the only taslc. 

 Investigation may be combined with the routine work of an observatorj', with 

 teaching, with the care of standards, or witli other similar duties. It is, however, 

 essential that, if the advancement of knowledge is seriously regarded as an end 

 worth attaining, it should not be relegated to a secondary place. 



Time and opportunity must be found for investigation, as time and opportunity 

 are found for other tasks. It is not enough to refer to research in a prospectus and 

 then to leave it to be accomplished at odd times and in spare moments not claimed 

 b}^ more urgent demands. Those to wlioiu the future of the higher learning in 

 England is dear must plan and scheme to promote the life-long studies of men, as 

 in the last quarter of a century they have struggled, with marked success, to 

 promote the preparatory studies of boys and girls. That the assignment of a 

 secondary position to research is the more popular view, and that the necessity for 

 encouraging it has as yet hardly been gi-asped by many of those who control our 

 modem educational movements is, I fear, too true. It is therefore a matter for 

 congratulation that within the last j-ear Oxford has established a research degree, 

 and has thus taken an important step towards gathering within her fold workers 

 of mature years who are able and willing, not merely to gain knowledge, but to 

 add to it. 



We may also note, with pleasure and gratitude, that the stream of private 

 munificence has recently been in part directed to the advancement of learning. 

 Sir Henry Thompson has generously offered a sum of 5,000/. to provide a 

 large photographic telescope for the National Observatory at Greenwich. The 

 new instrument is to be of 26 inches aperture and 22 feet Ij inches focal length, or 

 exactly double the linear dimensions of that which has been previously employed. 

 Mr. Ludwig Mond, too, has added to his noble gifts to science by the new 

 research laboratories which he is about to establish in connection with the Royal 

 Institution. Albemarle Street is thronged with memories of great discoveries. 

 The researches of Lord Rayleigh and the remarkable results of Professor Dewar's 

 studies of matter at low temperatures are maintainina: the great reputation which 

 the Royal Institution has gained in the past, and all English physicists will rejoice 

 that prospects of new and extended usefulness are opening before it. 



Another hopeful, though very embarrassing, fact is that the growth in the 

 number of scientific workers makes it increasingly difficult to find the funds 

 which are necessary for the publication of their work. Up to the present the 



