304 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
Dr Sharpey, besides drawing out the foregoing memorandum, 
explaining the origin and objects of this parliamentary grant, has 
been so obliging as to send two printed returns, giving for the first 
twelve years the names of the persons who have shared in the 
grant, and the nature of the researches aided. Besides these re¬ 
turns (to Parliament), he has sent a statement—apparently not yet 
published—containing similar information for the years 1869 and 
1870. For the years from 1862 to 1869, no information is given, 
except that in the year 1864, as the memorandum mentions, the 
remarkable circumstance occurred, of the Society having paid back 
to Government the L.1000, in consequence of there being no claims 
on it which could not be otherwise met. 
Now, no one who looks at the returns showing how these annual 
grants were expended, will question the judicious and impartial 
manner in which they have been administered. I would, however, 
venture to remark, that as the grant was intended to assist scien¬ 
tific researches in all parts of her Majesty’s dominions, colonies 
included, some means should have been taken to make the exist¬ 
ence and the objects of the grant publicly known. The grant 
would, of course, be known to the Fellows of the Royal Society of 
London, but it has remained ever since its institution, now twenty 
years ago, generally unknown to men of science, and especially to 
persons resident in Scotland and Ireland. It is therefore not 
surprising that, in the year 1864, there being no demands on the 
grant, it had to be paid back to Government; and that out of the 
L. 14,000 embraced by the returns, no more than L.610 should have 
been expended on researches in Scotland. The great part of these 
researches w 7 as made by tw r o individuals, both of them Fellow r s of 
the Royal Society of London. 
It appears to me that, so far as the interests of science in Scot¬ 
land are concerned, these interests, if intended to be aided by a 
pecuniary grant from the State, would be better promoted were 
the grant administered by a suitable board in Scotland, instead 
of by one in London. Any researches and experiments carried 
on in Scotland, and the scientific character of the men who carry 
them on, must surely be better known in Edinburgh than in Lon¬ 
don. Limited as are my own opportunities of knowing of such 
researches and experiments, I may refer to some on the difficult 
