154 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 291. 



antitoxins, and the results of other workers 

 had been tested ; as a result a higher average 

 of antitoxic value had been reached. Several 

 races of streptococcus pyogenes had been used 

 in immunizing horses with the view of obtain- 

 ing a polyvalent serum. Researches dealing 

 with problems of immunity were in progress, 

 and papers had been published in the diph- 

 theria bacillus and a new pathogenic strepto- 

 thrix. 



TSE BRITISH NATIONAL PHYSICAL 

 LABORATORY. 



A DEPUTATION of prominent English men of 

 science waited on the financial Secretary of the 

 Treasury, Mr. Hanbury, M. P., on June 5th 

 with the object of securing a site in the Old 

 Deer Park, Richmond, for the new National 

 Physical Laboratory. Another deputation had an 

 interview with Mr. Hanbury a few days before 

 to protest against the proposed buildings as an 

 interference with the amenities of Kew Gar- 

 dens, and it was to meet their objections that 

 the present deputation waited upon Mr. Han- 

 bury. Amongst those present were Lord Lis- 

 ter, Lord Rayleigh, Lord Kelvin, Sir Courtney 

 Boyle, Sir John Wolfe Barry, Sir M. Foster, 

 M.P., Sir E. Carbutt, Sir N. Barnaby, Sir 

 Andrew Noble, and Professors Riicker, Clifton, 

 Schuster, Fitzgerald and Elliott. 



According to the report in the London Times 

 Lord Lister said the Royal Society was deeply 

 interested in the question of the new National 

 Physical Laboratory, and they were supported 

 by all the scientific bodies in the kingdom. 



Lord Rayleigh, as Chairman of the National 

 Physical Laboratory, said they recommended 

 " That the institution should be established by 

 extending the Kew Observatory in the Old 

 Deer Park, Richmond, and that the scheme 

 should include the improvement of the existing 

 buildings at some distance from the present 

 observatory." They had already the Kew Ob- 

 servatory, which had been doing very valuable 

 work cognate to that proposed to be undertaken 

 by the new institution, and that alone sug- 

 gested the Deer Park as a natural site. Be- 

 sides, there were very few sites that were 

 likely to be at all suitable, because the char- 

 acter of the work to be carried out was of the 



kind to be removed from all kinds of mechan- 

 ical and electrical disturbances. Electrical dis- 

 turbance was a new feature, but one that 

 might be made from tramways anywhere. On 

 that ground no private site could meet the case, 

 because there was no security from buildings of 

 other kinds creating mechanical and electrical 

 disturbances. 



This consideration greatly limited their 

 choice of sites for this laboratory. That princi- 

 ple was recognized by the Greenwich Observa- 

 tory being placed in the middle of a park ; the 

 German institution at Potsdam was in a park ; 

 and the International Bureau of Weights and 

 Measures stood in the park of Sevres. In a 

 public park they had some guarantee that the 

 buildings would be free from electrical and 

 other disturbances. Some comment had been 

 made on the provisional arrangement with the 

 woods and forests as to the 15 acres required. 

 One of the reasons for that large area being 

 taken was that they wanted one of their build- 

 ings to be at a considerable distance from the 

 other. It had never been proposed to cover 

 the whole 15 acres with buildings. The actual 

 area proposed to be covered with buildings was 

 only a quarter of an acre, or the 60th part of 

 the whole area proposed to be taken. 



Sir John Wolfe-Barry said that he was placed 

 on the committee which recommended this site 

 for the laboratory as the representative of ap- 

 plied science, numbering 9000 members, and 

 the general opinion was that it was extremely 

 important to establish this physical laboratory 

 from the point of view of the trade of this 

 country and the huge commercial interests at 

 stake. The committee gave the greatest pos- 

 sible attention to the question of site, and they 

 came to the conclusion that Kew was very suit- 

 able. The one thing they had in view was 

 quiet, and Kew possessed advantages which 

 could not be given at any other place within a 

 reasonable distance of London. It was easily 

 accessible and it was quiet. They wanted a 

 good space because they did not want the public 

 to approach too near. 



Mr. Hanbury, in reply, said : I hope the 

 deputation are under no misapprehension what- 

 ever as to our strong desire that this scheme for 

 a physical laboratory should be carried out. 



