ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY, 3 
University Colleges afford for research are much reduced by the large 
demands usually made upon the time and energy of the Professor and the 
staff for elementary teaching. Nor is a thorough appreciation of the 
essential connection between research and all higher scientific education 
so widely diffused in England as it is in Germany, in the United States, 
and elsewhere. 
Tt must be manifest that the cure for this latter evil is not to be 
found in the establishment of a National Laboratory, but in such a 
change of public opinion as will make it possible to reproduce in England 
the conditions which have long obtained elsewhere. It is to be hoped 
that the research work now conducted at educational establishments in 
this country will largely increase in the future. We should earnestly 
deprecate any divorce between higher teaching and investigation, and 
should regard anything tending in that direction as a retrograde step. 
There are, however, investigations of particular types which have 
been recognised both in this country and abroad as lying outside the 
range of effort possible either to an individual or to a great teaching 
institution. 
These may be divided into three principal classes, viz.— 
(1) The observations of natural phenomena, the study of which must be 
prolonged through periods of time longer than the average duration of life ; 
(2) The testing and verification of instruments for physical investi- 
gation, and the preservation of standards for reference ; and 
(3) The systematic accurate determination of physical constants and 
of numerical data which may be useful either for scientific or industrial 
purposes. 
A laboratory for such purposes would aid and would not compete with 
laboratories maintained by individuals or institutions for more general 
physical research, and the reasons for establishing it as a National Insti- 
tution are much of the same kind as those for maintaining a National 
Astronomical Observatory. 
If England is to keep pace with other countries in scientific progress, 
it is essential that such an institution should be provided ; and this can 
scarcely be maintained continuously on an adequate scale, except as a 
national laboratory supported mainly by Government. 
In a paper read at Ipswich on the Reichsanstalt, it was suggested 
that the Kew Observatory might be extended so as to afford a satisfac- 
tory nucleus for a national physical laboratory. 
The Kew Observatory, endowed by the late Mr. Gassiot with an 
income that is now somewhat less than 500/. a year, is under the control 
and management of an unpaid committee appointed by the Council of 
the Royal Society. It is the central observatory of the Meteorological 
Office, from which it receives 400/. a year ; and it has gradually become 
an important standardising institution, as well as a recognised base station 
for observations in meteorology and terrestrial magnetism. Its gross 
income from these various sources is now somewhat less than 3,000/. a year ; 
but the greater part of this is derived from testing fees, and is almost 
entirely absorbed in working expenses. The Observatory is, however, at 
the present time in a thoroughly sound financial position. 
The building of the Observatory! stands in the Old Deer Park at 
1 See the ‘ History of Kew Observatory,’ by Mr. R. H. Scott, in Proceedings of 
the Royal Society, 1885, vol. xxxix. pp 27 86 
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