November 'J, IS*;:!.] 



SCIENCE. 



613 



of the men in control of it, and the recognition 

 granted bv tiie Queen and llie Prince of Wales, 

 render it certain that the profits will be devoted 

 to some public enterprise. In the midst of 

 multifarious minor propositions, two plans are 

 receiving serious support. One of these is 

 that first brought forward by Professor Ray 

 Lankester, in his address upon ' The (possible) 

 scientific results of the exhibition,' and relates 

 to the establishment of a laboratory of marine 

 zoology in Great Britain, for the joint ad- 

 vant^e of fisheries and science. Professor 

 Lankester's original memorial was signed by 

 sixteen leading men of science, and lias since 

 had the indorsement of the British association. 

 The rival scheme relates to the establishment 

 of an orphanage for fishermen's children ; and 

 this, as may be imagined, is much more popu- 

 lar among the people and tlieir newspaper 

 exponents. One influential trade-journal ex- 

 presses itself in energetic fashion in a para- 

 graph which I cannot refrain from quoting, 

 since it shows how little the opinion of a large 

 class of Englishmen has been acted upon by 

 the leaven of scientific thought. Speaking 

 of the meeting of the British association, the 

 editorial proceeds : — 



"The conductors of the daily prints, always very 

 amiable to the promoters of these useless gatherings, 

 fool the navants to tlie top of their bent by reporting 

 the 'papers' and discussions at an absurd length, 

 thus making the credulous 'scientists' believe that 

 the public t.akes a lively interest in their proceedings. 

 ... It is [the president's] grim task to write .an 

 'address' usually so wildly mystifying as to drive 

 his hearers and re,aders to the verge of idiocy. By 

 common consent, this year's presidential address was 

 not only more bewildering than any previously deliv- 

 ered, but absolutely incomprehensible ; and it is 

 charitably hoped that the .Southport meeting is the 

 beginning of the end. But these dreamy gentlemen 

 are sufficiently wide awake to their own interests. 

 . . . This they are, of course, entitled to do; and, if 

 they can squeeze any money out of the public or 

 out of the government, to aid them in the pursuit 

 of their ' fads,' we shall have nothing to say. When, 

 however, they go to the length of proposing to get a 

 portion of the fisheries exhibition surplus into their 

 hands for the purpose of establishing ' a marine zoo- 

 logical station on the English coast,' we take leave 

 to denounce such a proceeding as both audacious and 

 preposterous," etc. 



In the mean time the executive committee 

 makes no promises, except in the proposition 

 to expend the sum necessaiy to bring over a 

 Cape-Ami schooner, with a selected crew of 

 fishermen, to demonstrate the American meth- 

 ods of fishing with purse seine, deep-sea trawl- 

 lines, and dories, on those parts of the British 

 coasts in which their use may be practicable. 

 If any precedent is required for devoting a 

 part of the proceeds to scientific ends, they 



have onh' to look to the Edinburgh exhibition 

 of 1882, the suriilus of which to tlie amount 

 of nearly eight thousand dollars has been given 

 to establish a marine laboratory near Edin- 

 burgh, under the direction of Mr. John Mur- 

 raj' of the Challenger, anil others. It is to 

 be hoped that the demands of science will 

 be remembered. Charities of all descriptions 

 flourish luxuriantly in England, but the work- 

 ers in science seem to feel that their needs are 

 often seriously neglected. 



The amount of the surplus is variousl}' esti- 

 mated at from forty thousand to a hundred 

 and fifty tliousand dollars. The management 

 is not satisfied with the present success, how- 

 ever, and has leased the grounds for three 

 years more from the commissioners of the 

 exhibition of 18.il, who, it will be remem- 

 bered, bought with the surplus of that great 

 enterprise those tracts of land uow so valuable, 

 on which all the museums and schools of 

 science and art in South Kensington are now 

 placed. Three great international exhibitions, 

 similar in plan to the fisheries exhibition, are 

 to follow, year by j-ear ; and b}' the end of 

 1880 the buildings will have more than paid 

 for themselves, and a substantial sum will have 

 accumulated, to be used, perhaps, in continu- 

 ing the exhibition and museum movement 

 which England has found to be so valuable to 

 its intellectual and industrial welfare. The 

 character of these exhiliitions has not yet 

 been determined upon. That of 1884 would 

 doubtless have been devoted to horticulture, 

 floricnlture, and forestry, had not Scotland 

 pre-occupied the field with a similar undertak- 

 ing, ancl already secured the patronage of 

 royalty. Edinburgli will therefore have its 

 ' international exhibitiou of objects relating 

 to practical and scientific forestry and forest 

 products' next year; and London will follow 

 in 188.5 with a forestry exhibition, which can- 

 not fail to be of world-wide importance. The 

 London fisheries exhiI)itioii of 1883 gained 

 much through the experiences of similar exhi- 

 bitions in Norwich in 1881, and Edinburgh in 

 1882. The subject of the London exhibition 

 of 1884 is not announced, but it is ver\- possi- 

 ble that it will have to do with food-products. 

 Another programme, hinted at In^ the Prince 

 of Wales in his speech at the close of the ex- 

 hibition, provides for a hygienic exhibition in 

 1884. one of the progress of invention in 188.5, 

 and in 188G an exhibition of colonial products. 



The literature of the exhibition is one of 

 its most important features. Almost every sub- 

 ject connected with marine zoology and the 

 technolosrv of fishinsr has been discussed in at 



