7 
1917-18.] Opening Address by the President. 
The research laboratories described by Mr Fleming have been estab- 
lished in recent years. Their success is proved by the economic results. 
Manufacturers in the United States are much more alert in appreciating 
the value of scientific discoveries to industries than business men in this 
country, and they show their appreciation by giving constantly increasing 
facilities for industrial research. The most suggestive part of this report 
is the section relating to the organisation of British Industrial Research. 
The author admits that, since the war began, British industries have been 
ready to undertake new lines of manufacture, many of which owe their 
development to research. But the facilities for such investigation are 
quite disproportionate to the magnitude of British industry. In view 
of American experience, Mr Fleming discusses the following alternative 
schemes of research: (1) Research laboratories in individual works, (2) 
research laboratories for a group of works in the same industry, (3) the 
centralisation of research in the universities and colleges, (4) an imperial 
centralised laboratory for the whole industry. From experience in the 
States he does not approve of attaching special research laboratories or 
experimental stations to universities, but he considers that the other 
three schemes are applicable to Britain. 
A great administrative change affecting the National Physical Laboratory 
is announced. Arrangements have been made for the transfer of the 
property of that laboratory and the responsibility for its maintenance 
from the Royal Society to this new Department. The Executive Committee, 
under the chairmanship of Lord Rayleigh, will be appointed as in the past, 
but, in the future, it will be under the wing of the new Department, and 
will report through the Advisory Council. The report further alludes to 
the necessity of the adequate organisation of the Geological Survey, both 
economic and scientific, geodesy, the oceanographical survey and the 
related fisheries survey, meteorology, the survey of biological products of 
all kinds, and the survey of population, which are distinct from, though 
complementary to, the activities of the Advisory Council. 
Still another drastic change is under consideration, viz. the establish- 
ment in London of an Imperial Mineral Resources Bureau, which was 
recommended by the Imperial War Conference, including the repre- 
sentatives of our over-seas Dominions. A Committee has been appointed 
to prepare a scheme for founding such an institution, to collect information 
concerning the mineral resources of the Empire, and to advise how these 
resources may be best developed and made available to meet requirements. 
In the midst of these activities some anxiety has arisen concerning 
the recognition by the Government of the claims of research in Pure 
