22 president's address. 



is, I venture to think, one which demands the serious attention of all 

 scientists. It should be attacked in a comprehensive manner, and with 

 that insistence which has been so notable in connection with the efforts 

 of British investigators in the past. In such a task, some people might 

 suggest, we need encouragement and assistance from the Government 

 of the country. Surely we have it. As many here know, a great 

 experimental step towards the practical realisation of Solomon's House 

 as prefigured by Francis Bacon in the Neiv Atlantis is being made by the 

 Government at the present time. The inception, constitution, and 

 methods of procedure of the Department, which was constituted in 

 1915, were fully described by Sh Frank Heath in his paper to the Eoyal 

 Society of Arts last February, and it was there stated by Lord Crewe 

 that, so far as he knew, this was the only country in which a Govern- 

 ment Department of Eesearch existed." 



It is obvious that the work of a Department of this kind must be 

 one of gradual development with small beginnings, in order that it 

 may be sound and lasting. The work commenced by assisting a number 

 of researches conducted by scientific and professional societies which 

 were languishing as a result of the war, and grants were also made to 

 the National Physical Laboratory and to the Central School of Pottery 

 at Stoke-on-Trent. The grants for investigation and research for the 

 year 1916-17 totalled 11,055L, and for the present year are anticipated 

 to be 93,570J. The total income of the National Physical Laboratory 

 in 1913-14 was 43,713Z., and owing to the great enlargement of the 

 Laboratory the total estimate of the Eesearch Department for this 

 service during the current year is 154,650L 



Another important part of the work of the Department has been 

 to foster and to aid financially Associations of the trades for the purpose 

 of research. Nine of these Associations are already at work; eight 

 more are approved, and will probably be at work within the next two 

 months ; and another twelve are in the earlier stage of formation. There 

 are also signs of increased research by individual factories. Whether 

 this is due to the indirect influence of the Eesearch Department or to a 

 change in public opinion and a more general recognition of the im- 

 portance of scientific industrial research it is difficult to say. 



The possibility of the uncontrolled use on the part of a nation of 

 the power which Science has placed within its reach is so great a 

 menace to civilisation ° that the ardent wish of all reasonable people 

 is to possess some radical means of prevention through the establishment 



* Th© Italian Government are now, however, establishing a National Council 

 for Research, and a Bill is before the French Chamber for the establishment of 

 a National Ofl&ce of Scientific, Industrial, and Agricultural Research and 

 Inventions. 



* For instance, it might eom© day be discovered how to liberate instan- 

 taneously the energy in radium, and radium contains 2^ million times the 

 energy of the same weight of T.N.T. 



