297 
of Edinburgh, Session 1870-71. 
amount of aid and encouragement to them twenty or thirty years 
ago is now manifestly quite inadequate. 
Another obstacle in the way of farther discovery must not be 
overlooked. A great proportion of the philosophers who search 
after new truths and new principles are teachers, whose income as 
such alone enables them to obtain the means, scanty and precarious 
as it is, of prosecuting original investigations. But as know¬ 
ledge advances, the labours of instruction increase;—and if the 
teacher does his duty in that capacity very little time is left to 
allow of extraneous investigations. Yet these persons are often 
better qualified to be investigators of new truths, than teachers of 
old truths. I have in my own experience met with professors in 
our universities whose occupation in the work of teaching deprived 
science of those who most probably would have been instrumental 
in making great discoveries. 
The circumstances to which I have been adverting, as obstacles 
to the future advancement of science, were felt to be so serious, 
that two years ago they engaged the attention of the British Asso¬ 
ciation—an association whose chief object it is “to give a stronger 
impulse and more systematic direction to scientific inquiry,” and 
“to remove any disadvantages of a public kind which impede its 
progress.” The view submitted to the Association by those who 
brought the subject before it was, that as there are institutions for 
teaching old truths, so there ought to be institutions for discovering 
new truths, and that, as this last work had now become so difficult 
and costly, that few individuals could enter on it from their own 
resources, the State—which, on behalf of the great interests of the 
country, is interested to encourage discoveries and investigations— 
ought to come forward and establish institutions, in which men 
with an aptitude for original investigations might have facilities for 
carrying them on, without being distracted by any other vocation. 
The British Association so far entered into these views as to 
appoint a committee, consisting of some of its most eminent and 
influential members, and the two following questions were put to 
the committee for consideration :— 
“(1.) Does there exist in the United Kingdom of Great Britain 
and Ireland sufficient provision for the vigorous prosecution of 
physical research ? 
