338 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. — 1916. 



ships, made considerable grants of money from time to time to educa- 

 tional institutions, and expended, in the forty-one years from 1868 to 

 1909, nearly 40,000Z. on lectm-es on scientific and other subjects to 

 working-men in tlie various towns of Great Britain and Ireland. Lord 

 Shuttleworth, Chairman of the trustees, described tlie work of the trust 

 in an address to the Bolton Education Society in 1910, and tlie addi-ess 

 is published in pamplilet form. The Secretary of the trust is Dr. A. H. 

 Pison, who has prepared for tiae present Committee the subjoined valu- 

 able statement of its work and his own views based upon long and 

 successful experience as a public lecturer. 



In framing the report Dr. Fison has had the advantage of advice 

 and suggestions from Lord Shuttleworth, \^■ho, as Sir Uglitred Kay- 

 Shuttleworth, became one of the trustees in 1877, and has ever since 

 taken the keenest interest in all the work of the trust. 



Eeport on the Gilcheist Popular Lectures. 

 By Dr. A. H. Pison, Secretary to the Gilchrist Trustees. 



The Gilchrist Lectures were first given in 1866, and were then 

 organised by Dr. W. B. Carpenter, at that time secretary to the trustees. 

 Dr. Carpenter died in 1885, and was succeeded after a short interval 

 by Dr. B. D. Roberts, who acted as secretary until liis death in 1911, 

 after which date it became, my duty to continue the work. Like Dr. 

 Roberts, I have taken a keen interest in the lectures, that constitute 

 only a part of the activities of the trustees, and my experience has given 

 me some definite ideas of the possibilities of popular lectures on science, 

 as well as some upon the caution that it is necessary to exercise in theu' 

 organisation if they are to achieve their highest educational purpose. 



The number of Gilchrist Lectm'es arranged annually has varied from 

 time to time, but, for a considerable period, about one hundred lectures 

 have been arranged for each winter, and tliis number may, I think, be 

 taken as a fair average. These hundred lectures have been given at 

 twenty selected towns, a course of five being allotted to each, and 

 dehvered at fortnightly intervals. In early years at least one endeavour 

 was made to give continuity to a course, tliough the lectures were given 

 by different lecturers, but the lectures have more generally been upon 

 different subjects, which again have been so selected as to open up as 

 many different views of science as possible. The trustees have from the 

 beginning exercised great care in their invitation to the gentlemen they 

 have asked to lecture for them, in regarding, as essential qualifications, 

 high academic distinction as well as the possession of the personal 

 quahfication that enables some men to treat a subject with worthy 

 dignity and at the same time to hold the attention of a popular audience. 

 Among the names of the many distinguished men who have assisted the 

 trustees as lecturers those of Prof. Dallinger, Sir Piobert Ball, and Prof. 

 Vivian Lewes at once occur as those of lecturers who have been pre- 

 eminently successful, as well as those to whom the success of the 

 Gilchrist Lectures has been largely due. For the fii'st thirty -two years 

 the lectures dealt exclusively with scientific subjects, but in 1898 Sir 

 Charles Waldstein lectured for the trustees upon Greek Art. The 



