392 British Association for the Advancement of Science. 



drawn by the speaker between the British Association and the plan 

 of such an institution, which should have for its business not to teach 

 mainly, but to make discoveries — to extend our knowledge of every 

 part of nature by all the appliances which experiment and theory, ob- 

 servation and calculation, ingenuity and perseverance can supply ; and 

 in addition to these, by more material resources, money and a multi- 

 tude of fellow laborers. He then proceeds : — 



" The British Association has now for ten years discharged the office 

 of such an institution as we have spoken of. Considerable funds, raised 

 by the contributions of its members, and expended under its direction, 

 have been employed in furthering and verifying discoveries. It is true 

 that we have not attempted to erect such edifices, and to make such 

 preparations for the purposes of experiment, as Bacon introduces into 

 his picture : but we have attained the same end more effectually, by 

 procuring the use of many of the great establishments of manufacture 

 and commerce which this empire possesses. We have had experiments 

 carried on at furnaces and iron- works, on railroads and canals, in mines 

 and harbors, w4th steam engines and steam vessels, upon a scale which 

 no institution, however great, could hope to reach ; but which has been 

 placed in our power by the enlightened liberality and scientific zeal of 

 the proprietors and directors of such means of research. We have not 

 had various bodies of professors of the art of discovery employed in 

 these inquiries — we have not attempted to form classes of mystery men 

 and dowry men — collectors of facts and interpreters of nature ; but we 

 have found the most gifted and eminent cultivators of science in our 

 own country, and several of those of other countries, ready and willing 

 to undertake for us the office of exploring and interpreting nature — of 

 extending and applying art. No institution, however formed, could 

 have hoped to collect, as its active members, such a body of philoso- 

 phers as have gladly come forward to labor for us, and have freely 

 given us the resources of their vast powers and matured skill. Mathe- 

 maticians, and astronomers, and geologists, and chemists, and natural- 

 ists, illustrious through Europe, have superintended the execution of our 

 commissions with as much care as their own most favorite researches ; 

 and we have seen a co-operation of experimenters and calculators, ob- 

 servers and generalizers, such as might satisfy the wishes of Bacon 

 himself. 



" That I may not dwell on mere generalities, I will mention a few of 

 the sums expended by the Association upon scientific researches ; which, 

 when it is understood that they have been spent under the direction and 

 vigilant control of such men as I have spoken of, will show the amount 

 of service which has been rendered to science by that body. In the 

 first three years, the sums thus expended were small^ the Association 



