November 14, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



695 



ing tlie "Principia" of Newton, it has lent 

 its powerful aid and support to many a 

 British investigator, who without it would 

 have been absolutely isolated. Its large 

 collection of instruments, the accumula- 

 tion of more than two centuries, is freely 

 placed at the disposal of those who need 

 them. Its Philosophical Transactions and 

 Proceedings have furnished the most de- 

 sirable means of publication for an enor- 

 mous mass of scientific literature. Its 

 meetings bring together every Thursday at 

 Burlington House the leading scientific 

 men of the kingdom, and furnish an oppor- 

 tunity for stimulating interchanges of view 

 which have played a great part in scien- 

 tific progress. Its various gold medals, im- 

 partially bestowed at home and abroad, in 

 recognition of advances in science, have 

 been powerfully supplemented by financial 

 assistance to investigators from the Govern- 

 ment Grant Fund of £4,000 per annum, 

 which is administered by the Society. To 

 its influence is largely due the high stand- 

 ard of efficiency maintained by the govern- 

 ment in its appointment of astronomers 

 royal and other directors of the scientific 

 research of the nation. When the govern- 

 ment decided to establish a national phys- 

 ical laboratory it turned at once to the 

 Eoyal Society, to which it delegated the 

 planning and control of this great institu- 

 tion. Its Catalogue of Scientific Papers, 

 continued as the International Catalogue 

 of Scientific Literature, has contributed 

 in a most important way to the accessibil- 

 ity and usefulness of the literature of sci- 

 ence, and is indispensable to every investi- 

 gator. It has supplied both money and in- 

 struments to scientific expeditions sent to 

 all parts of the globe, and provided for the 

 suitable reduction and discussion of the 

 observations obtained. It has aided the 

 government of India in the work of the 

 Indian Meteorological Department and 



participated with the meteorological office 

 in the direction of the work of the Kew 

 and its sister observatories. The reports of 

 the Sleeping Sickness Commission have 

 advanced in an important degree our 

 knowledge of tropical diseases. In fact, 

 one could point to an almost unlimited 

 number of illustrations of the beneficent 

 activities of the Royal Society as the lead- 

 ing representative of British research, and 

 as one of the most powerful factors in 

 broad projects of cooperation, such as those 

 of the International Association of Acad- 

 emies. 



Unlike the academies of St. Petersburg, 

 Berlin, Vienna and Stockholm, which 

 maintain large research laboratories or sup- 

 port research professorships, the Royal 

 Society has no laboratories of its own. 

 Closely allied with it, however, is the Royal 

 Institution, formerly known as "the work- 

 shop of the Royal Society." No labora- 

 tory in existence can match its extraordi- 

 nary record, accomplished at an almost in- 

 credibly small cost.*" When one recalls 

 Young's great work in laying the founda- 

 tion of the wave-theory of light, not to 

 speak of his success in discovering the first 

 clue to the translation of Egyptian hiero- 

 glyphics; Davy's long series of discoveries 

 in chemistry, and his brilliant lectures 

 and demonstrations; Faraday's unparal- 

 leled achievements in physical and chemical 

 research, and the dignity and luster he 

 imparted to the popular presentation of 

 scientific results to a general audience; 

 Tyndall's success in the same lecture-hall, 

 and his services in popularizing science in 

 the United States; and the long series of 

 important investigations, especially in the 

 fruitful field of low temperature phenom- 

 ena, which we owe to Dewar, who has now 

 occupied the chair of chemistry even 



*o Dewar, address as president of the British 

 Association, Belfast, 1902, p. 11. 



