1883.] 
A Plea for Pure Science . 
673 
elaborate apparatus, and with a full corps of assistants. 
Such are Regnault’s experiments on the fundamental laws 
of gases and vapours, made thirty or forty years ago by aid 
from the French Government, and which are the standards 
to this day. Although these experiments were made with a 
view to the practical calculation of the steam-engine, yet 
they were carried out in such a broad spirit that they have 
been of the greatest theoretical use. Again, what would 
astronomy have done without the endowments of observa- 
tories ? By their means, that science has become the most 
perfect of all branches of physics, as it should be from its 
simplicity. There is no doubt, in my mind, that similar 
institutions for other branches of physics, or, better, to 
include the whole of physics, would be equally successful. 
A large and perfedfly equipped physical laboratory with its 
large revenues, its corps of professors and assistants, and its 
machine shop for the construction of new apparatus, would 
be able to advance our science quite as much as endowed 
observatories have astronomy. But such a laboratory should 
not be founded rashly. The value will depend entirely on 
the physicist at its head, who has to devise the plan, and to 
start it into practical working. Such a man will always be 
rare, and cannot always be obtained. After one had been 
successfully started, others could follow ; for imitation re- 
quires little brains. 
One could not be certain of getting the proper man every 
time, but the means of appointment should be most care- 
fully studied so as to secure a good average. There can be 
no doubt that the appointment should rest with a scientific 
body capable of judging the highest work of each candidate. 
Should any popular element enter, the person chosen 
would be either of the literary-scientific order, or the dabbler 
on the outskirts who presents his small discoveries in the 
most theatrical manner. What is required is a man of 
depth, who has such an insight into physical science that 
he can tell when blows will best tell for its advancement. 
Such a grand laboratory as I describe does not exist in 
the world, at present, for the study of physics. But no 
trouble has ever been found in obtaining means to endow 
astronomical science. Everybody can appreciate, to some 
extent, the value of an observatory ; as astronomy is the 
simplest of scientific subjects, and has very quickly reached 
a position where elaborate instruments and costly computa- 
tions are necessary to further advance. The whole domain 
of physics is so wide that workers have hitherto found 
enough to do. But it cannot always be so, and the time 
