1876.] 



Presidenfs Address. 



341 



(more than 2000) taken at Ely, from 1863-1874, imder the late Canon 

 Selwyn's instructions. 



Ton will share my feeling of pleasure when I inform you of the deposit 

 in the hands of our Treasurer of a munificent contribution, .£6000, 

 to be devoted to the aid of scientific research, by ]\ir. Thomas Phillips 

 Jodrell, the founder of the Chair of Animal Physiology in University 

 College, London, and donor of the Laboratory of Physiological Eesearch to 

 the Establishment at Kew. Early in last year, Mr. Jodrell informed me by 

 letter that it was his wish to place at the disposal of this Society, as the 

 one body in which all branches of British science are represented, this 

 generous sum, to be applied (principal as well as interest) in any manner 

 that the Society may consider most conducive, for the time being, to the 

 encouragement among our countrymen of original research in the physical 

 sciences — his object being not, on the one hand, to found a permanent 

 endowment for the benefit of a future generation, nor, on the other, to 

 relieve the Government of any part of its obligations to the present, but 

 to ascertam, as far as may be, by practical experiment on a limited scale, 

 to what extent the progress of original research in the physical sciences 

 is retarded in this country by the want of public support to those engaged 

 in it, and in what form an increased measure of such support would be 

 most Kkely to promote its development. 



I need hardly add that your Council, before whom I laid Mr. Jodrell's 

 letter at once, thankfully accepted his offer, and appointed a Com- 

 mittee to consider and to report upon the best means of giving effect to 

 his liberal views. Before, however, the Committee had presented their 

 report, w^e were informed of the intention of Her Majesty's Government 

 to increase largely the funds placed at the Society's disposal in aid 

 of scientific investigations, and to allow part of the increment to be 

 devoted to the sustentation or remuneration of in^^estigators — thus 

 fulfilling the main desire which Mr. J odrell had in view in making his 

 donation. 



When I communicated the intention of the Government to Mr. Jodrell, 

 he signified his desire to reopen the question of the application of the 

 £6000, which he still wished to leave in our Treasurer's hands ; for 

 his object had been to induce the Government to do what, to the surprise 

 of every one, it had done, and not to supplement a permanent government 

 endowment by a temporary one of his own. Whatever might be the 

 ultimate decision, he did not doubt that this Society would be the most 

 competent agency for carrying it into effect ; and he suggested that the 

 fund should be invested temporarily, and the question of its appropriation 

 reserved until we should meet this session. Einally, Mr. Jodrell has 

 proposed that the gross sum should be retained in its present invest- 

 ment ill the prospect of some want of it arising in the course of the next 

 few years, and that the interest accruing in the mean time should be 

 applied by the Society as part of our revenue. This proposal was willingly 



