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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 608. 



had received an endowment of £10,000 

 from Mr. Gassiot for its maintenance, and 

 had further devoted to that purpose con- 

 siderable sums from its own donation fund 

 and government grant. Further aid for it 

 was also received from private sources. 

 From this observatory at last has sprung, 

 in the beginning of the present century, the 

 National Physical Laboratory in Bushey 

 Park, a fine and efficient scientific institu- 

 tion, built and supported by grants from 

 the state, and managed by a committee of 

 really devoted men of science who are 

 largely representatives of the Royal So- 

 ciety. In addition to the value of the site 

 and buildings occupied by the National 

 Physical Laboratory, the government has 

 contributed altogether £34,000 to the cap- 

 ital expenditure on new buildings, fittings 

 and apparatus, and has further assigned a 

 grant of £6,000 a year to the working of 

 the laboratory. This institution all men of 

 science are truly glad to have gained from 

 the state, and they will remember with 

 gratitude the statesmen— the late Marquis 

 of Salisbury, the Right Hon. Arthur J. 

 Balfour, Mr. Haldane and others— as well 

 as their own leaders— Lord Rayleigh, Sir 

 William Huggins and the active body of 

 physicists in the Royal Society— who have 

 carried this enterprise to completion. The 

 British Association has every reason to be 

 proud of its share in early days in nursing 

 the germ at Kew which has at length ex- 

 panded into this splendid national institu- 

 tion. 



I may mention also another institution 

 which, during the past quarter of a cen- 

 tury, has come into existence and received, 

 originally through the influence of the late 

 Lord Playfair (one of the few men of sci- 

 ence who have ever occupied the position of 

 a minister of the crown) , and later by the 

 influence of the Right Hon. Joseph Cham- 

 berlain, a subsidy of £1,000 a year from 

 the government and a contribution of 



£5,000 towards its initial expenses. This 

 is the Marine Biological Association, which 

 has a laboratory at Plymouth, and has 

 lately expended a special annual grant, at 

 the spontaneous invitation of His Majesty's 

 Treasury, in conducting an investigation 

 of the North Sea in accordance with an 

 international scheme devised by a central 

 committee of scientific experts. This 

 scheme has for its purpose the gaining such 

 knowledge of the North Sea and its inhab- 

 itants as shall be useful in dealing prac- 

 tically and by legislation with the great 

 fisheries of that area. You will, perhaps, 

 not be surprised to hear that there are per- 

 sons in high positions who, though admit- 

 tedly unacquainted with the scientific ques- 

 tions at issue or the proper manner of 

 solving them, are discontented with the ac- 

 tion of the government in entrusting the 

 expenditure of public money to a body of 

 scientific men who give their services, with- 

 out reward or thanks, to carrying out the 

 purposes of the international inquiry. 

 Strange criticisms are offered by these mal- 

 contents in regard to the work done in the 

 international exploration of the North Sea, 

 and a desire is expressed to secure the 

 money for expenditure by a less scientific 

 agency. I do not hesitate to say here that 

 the results obtained by the Marine Biolog- 

 ical Association are of great value and in- 

 terest, and, if properly continued and put 

 to practical application, are likely to benefit 

 very greatly the fishery industry ; on the 

 other hand, if the work is cut short or en- 

 trusted to incompetent hands it will no 

 doubt be the case that what has already 

 been done will lose its value— that is to 

 say, will have been wasted. There is im- 

 minent danger of this perversion of the 

 funds assigned to this scientific investiga- 

 tion taking place. There is no guarantee 

 for the continuance of any funds or offices 

 assigned to science in one generation by the 

 officials of the next. The mastership of 



