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SCIENGE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 233. 



which Rumford's interest had centered, 

 they determined to carry on the scientific 

 establishment and to get money for so doing 

 by giving ' fashion to science.' This policy 

 may not have been magnificent, but it was 

 successful, and has resulted in securing to 

 the Royal Institution a place in the history 

 of scientific progress which all the patent 

 stoves and roasters in the world would 

 never have assured. 'Eot, after all, was 

 there anything very dreadful about it. 

 The private patron of science or art is not 

 despised because his liberality has aflbrded 

 some struggling genius the opportunity of 

 using his talents ; why, then, should an in- 

 stitution have been abused because it set 

 itself to organize the public into a sort of 

 collective patron ? 



The domestic record of the Royal Insti- 

 tution from the time when, in Davy's 

 words, it definitely took the "form of a 

 body for promoting experimental science 

 and for diffusing every species of philo- 

 sophical knowledge " contains few events of 

 surpassing interest. Financial crises have 

 been not infrequent, and sometimes acute, 

 but have never proved fatal. Increased 

 prosperity was hoped for as a result of the 

 modification of its constitution by Act of 

 Parliament in 1810, but its first endowment, 

 some 23 years later, was none the less wel- 

 come. This consisted of a sum of £10,000 

 from John Fuller, and rumor says that it 

 was a token of gratitude because the lec- 

 ture theatre of the Institution was the only 

 place where he could overcome the insom- 

 nia from which he habitually suffered. 

 AVith two-thirds of the money professor- 

 ships of chemistry and physiology were to 

 be endowed, while the remaining portion 

 went to form an accumulating fund, the in- 

 terest on which, when the capital amounted 

 to £10,000, was to be applied to the general 

 purposes of the Institution. Since then it 

 has received many legacies and donations. 

 Money left by Mr. Alfred Davis in 1870 



enabled the chemical laboratory to be re- 

 built in accordance with modern require- 

 ments ; in 1892 Mr. T. G. Hodgkins, of 

 Setauket, Long Island, gave $100,000 for 

 the ' investigation of the relations and co- 

 relations existing between man and his 

 Creator '; and in 1896 Dr. Ludwig Mond 

 founded and endowed the Davy-Faraday 

 Research Laboratory, which is contiguous to 

 the Royal Institution and under the super- 

 intendence of its managers. This is spe- 

 cially interesting as being in great meas- 

 ure the realization of a scheme which the 

 Institution all but adopted more than half 

 a century before. In 1843 a proposal was 

 made to establish on its premises a school 

 of chemistry, not only to give instruction to 

 students, but to provide a place where orig- 

 inal research could be carried on by skilled 

 workers. The scheme met with cordial ap- 

 proval from Faraday and the managers of 

 the Institution, and they only abandoned 

 it because they were reluctantly driven to 

 the conclusion that the accommodation was 

 not suflicient to carry it out properly. Since 

 that time schools of chemistry have been 

 started in abundance, but no place designed 

 exclusively for the prosecution of independ- 

 ent research existed in England until Dr. 

 Mond's liberality provided this laboratory, 

 which is open to qualified workers without 

 distinction of sex or nationality. 



The real history of the Royal Institution 

 is the history of the discoveries made by 

 the distinguished men who have worked in 

 its laboratories, and to write that in full, at 

 least for the early part of this century, 

 would be little less than writing the history 

 of scientific progress in England. The 

 Institution had the good fortune to secure 

 among its first professors three of the great- 

 est natural philosophers this century has 

 known. The first, Thomas Young, was a 

 man of the most remarkable and varied at- 

 tainments, but, perhaps, his best title to 

 fame is that he was one of the prime found- 



