20 F. B. GUTHRIE. 



last 15 years in the Government Laboratories at Somerset 

 House under the direction of Professor Thorpe. 



Our system of splitting up the work does not, I conceive, 

 necessarily imply greater efficiency, and is certainly not as 

 economical as would be the maintenance of a single estab- 

 lishment. I would go even further, and would like to see 

 established a central scientific institute where all the 

 scientific work (not the chemical alone) now conducted in 

 the separate departments would be carried on. Prom the 

 standpoint of economy there can be no comparison between 

 this and the present system. The number of laboratories 

 with their separate maintenances would be reduced to one. 

 The routine work would be performed with the same effici- 

 ency as at present and with no danger of its being duplicated. 

 But the principal advantage to be gained would be the 

 facilities it would afford for research work, which has now 

 to be undertaken always at the risk of neglecting the routine 

 work. Further than that there will be the advantage that 

 definite schemes of investigation of subjects of importance 

 to the community could be systematically carried out, and 

 this applies more especially to investigations which require 

 the co-operation of more than one branch of science. 



There are many very important problems that await 

 solution in such domains for example as those of public 

 health, stock, and agriculture, the solutions to which require 

 long and systematic investigations to which it is impossible 

 for the scientific officers in these departments to devote 

 themselves, whilst the routine and administrative part 

 of their work claims so much of their time. With a scien- 

 tific institute such as I have sketched, investigations of this 

 kind could be placed in charge of qualified men who could 

 devote their whole time and energy to their solution. 



Even if it were not considered feasible to establish such 

 an institute at the present time, much might be done to 



