TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION A, 551 



into aratle land and pasture adapted to the demands of the avei-age man. Tlie 

 labour of the agriculturist in rendering soil fertile is, of course, beyond praise ; 

 but it is not the work of the pioneer. As Mr. Huxley eloquently put it, when con- 

 trasting' the application of science with the advance of science itself, speakiii"- 

 of the things of commercial value which the physical philosopher sometimes dis- 

 covers: — 'Great is the rejoicing of those who are benefited thereby, and, for the 

 moment, science is the Diana of all the craftsmen. But even while the cries of 

 jubilation resound, and this flotsam and jetsam of the tide of investigation is being 

 turned into the wages of workmen and the wealth of capitalists, the crest of the 

 wave of scientific investigation is far away on its course over the illimitable ocean 

 of the unknown.' 



I have spoken of the work of the National Laboratory as devoted to accuracy. 

 It is hardly necessary to .say that the laboratory will be also the natural custodian 

 of our standards, in a state fit for use and for comparison with copies sent to be 

 certified. Else perhaps some day our standard ohm may be buried in a brick wall 

 at Westminster, and no one living may be able to recall precisely where it is. 



But, in addition to these main functions, there is another, equally important 

 with them, to which I must briefly refer. There are many experiments which 

 cannot possibly be conducted by an individual, because forty or fifty years is not 

 long enough for them. Such are secular experiments on the properties of materials 

 — the elasticity of metals, for instance ; the effect of time on molecular arranorement ; 

 the influence of long exposure to light, or to heat, or to mechanical vibration, or to 

 other physical agents. 



Does the permeability of soft iron decay with age, by reason of the gradual 

 cessation of its Amperian currents ? Do gases cool themselves when adiabatically 

 preserved, by reason of imperfect elasticity or too many degrees of freedom of their 

 molecules ? Unlikely, but not impossible. Do thermo-electric properties alter with 

 time ? And a multitude of other experiments which appear specially applicable to 

 substances in the solid state — ^a state which is more complicated, and has been 

 less investigated, than either the liquid or the gaseous : a state in which time and 

 past history play an important part. 



Upon whichever of these long researches we may decide to enter, a National 

 Laboratory, with permanent traditions and a continuous life, is undoubtedly the only 

 appropriate place. At such a place as Glasgow the exceptional magnitude of a 

 present occupant may indeed inspire sufficient piety in a successor to secure the 

 continuance of what has been there begun ; but in most college laboratories, under 

 conditions of migration, interregnum, and a newregitre, continuity of investigation 

 is hopeless. 



I have at any rate said enough to indicate the kind of work for which the 

 establishment of a well-furnished laboratory -uath fully equipped staS' is desirable, 

 and I do not think that we, as a nation, shall be taking our proper share of the 

 highest scientific work of the world until such an institution is started on its career. 



There is only one evil which, so far as I can see, is to be feared from it : if ever 

 it were allowed to impose on outside workers as a central authority, from which 

 infallible dicta were issued, it would be an evil so great that no amount of good 

 work carried on by it could be pleaded as sufficient mitigation. 



If ever by evil chance such an attitude were attempted, it must rest with the 

 workers of the future to see that they permit no such shackles ; for if they are not 

 competent to be independent, and to contemn the voice of authority speaking as 

 mere authority, if their only safeguard lies in the absence of necessity for struggle 

 and effort, they cannot long hope to escape from the futility which surely awaits 

 them in other directions. 



I am thus led to take a wider range, and, leaving temporary and special con- 

 siderations, to speak of a topic which is as yet beyond the pale of scientific orthodoxy, 

 and which I might, perhaps more wisely, leave lying by the roadside. I will, 

 however, take the risk of introducing a rather ill-favoured and disreputable looking 

 stranger to your consideration, in the belief — I might say, in the assured conviction 

 — that he is not all scamp, and that his present condition is as much due to our 

 long- continued neglect as to any inherent incapacity for improvement in the subject. 



