Work Done by British Association Committees. 63 



grants for scientific purposes already referred to (£66,700), 

 expended since 1832, might seem pretty large, it really repre- 

 sented but a fraction of what wouM have been paid if the same 

 investigators had been employed to do the work as part of their 

 regular paid professional or commercial work. Many eminent 

 ^professional men, whose fees when called in for advice might 

 sometimes be reckoned at pounds a minute, or men, like 

 Sir W. Fairbairn and others, who gave the use of 

 their works, materials, and the assistance of their staff, carried 

 out lengthy and troublesome investigations without charge. 

 It would be but fair to say that the ^66,700 would have been 

 expanded into probably a quarter of a million, if all the work 

 done had been paid for in the commercial sense, as the Railway 

 Commissioners, the Board of Trade, the Admiralty, and others 

 would have had to do if they had not had the British Associa- 

 tion to do so much for them as it had done. 



The Lecturer desired to draw attention to the many valuable 

 Reports made to the Association on educational subjects ; it 

 would, however, occupy too much time to enter into any 

 any review of these. Some were statistical and were mainly 

 valuable as an index of the progress or otherwise made in in- 

 troducing scientific and technical subjects into the courses of 

 various schools. Others contained reports from various 

 authorities, scholastic and otherwise, on their experience as to 

 the effectiveness of particular methods of teaching, and the 

 value of particular subjects as expanders of the general 

 faculties of the pupils. Others again dealt with such matters 

 as the proper fitting up and uses of museums and collections, 

 and the necessary provision in the way of demonstrator and 

 apparatus required to render these most useful. This matter 

 was especially worthy of attention, and was one in which most 

 museums were specially deficient, insomuch that the great 

 majority of the persons to whom museums or trade collections 

 should be useful were, partly from want of training, and 

 partly fron want of assistance, quite unable to take any 

 practical value out of the collections of objects before them. 



