[title page]
SEVENTH REPORT
OF THE
ROYAL COMMISSION
ON
SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION AND THE
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
Presented to Parliament by Command of Her Majesty
LONDON:
PRINTED BY GEORGE EDWARD EYRE AND WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE,
PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
FOR HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE.
1875
[C.-1297.] Price 10d.
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CONTENTS
| PAGE |
COMMISSIONS | iii |
REPORT | 1 |
APPENDICES | 41 |
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ROYAL COMMISSION ON SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION AND THE
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
VICTORIA R.
VICTORIA, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, To Our Right Trusty and Right Entirely Beloved Cousin William Duke of Devonshire, Knight of Our Most Noble Order of the Garter, - Our Right Trusty and Entirely Beloved Cousin Henry Charles Keith Marquess of Lansdowne, - Our Trusty and Wellbeloved Sir John Lubbock, Baronet, - Our Trusty and Wellbeloved Sir James Phillips Kay-Shuttleworth, Baronet, - Our Trusty and Wellbeloved Bernhard Samuelson, Esquire, - Our Trusty and Wellbeloved William Sharpey, Esquire, Doctor of Medicine, - Our Trusty and Wellbeloved Thomas Henry Huxley, Esquire, Professor of Natural History in the Royal School of Mines, - Our Trusty and Wellbeloved William Allen Miller, Esquire, Doctor of Medicine, Professor of Chemistry in Kings College, London, - and Our Trusty and Wellbeloved George Gabriel Stokes, Esquire, Master of Arts, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in the University of Cambridge, Greeting:
Whereas We have deemed it expedient for divers good causes and considerations that a Commission should forthwith issue to make Inquiry with regard to Scientific Instruction and the Advancement of Science and to Inquire what aid thereto is derived from Grants voted by Parliament or from Endowments belonging to the several Universities in Great Britain and Ireland and the Colleges thereof and whether such aid could be rendered in a manner more effectual for the purpose.
Now Know Ye that We reposing great Trust and Confidence in your Ability and Discretion have nominated constituted and appointed and do by these Presents nominate constitute and appoint you the said William, Duke of Devonshire - Henry Charles Keith, Marquess of Lansdowne - Sir John Lubbock - Sir James Phillips Kay-Shuttleworth - Bernhard Samuelson - William Sharpey - Thomas Henry Huxley - William Allen Miller - and George Gabriel Stokes - to be Our Commissioners for the purposes of the said Inquiry.
And for the better enabling you to carry Our Royal Intentions into effect We do by these Presents authorize and empower you or any three or more of you to call before you or any three or more of you such persons as you may judge necessary by whom you may be the better informed of the matters herein submitted for your consideration and also to call for and examine all such Books Documents Papers or Records as you shall judge likely to afford you the fullest information on the subject of this Our Commission and to Inquire of and concerning the Premises by all other lawful ways and means whatsoever.
And our further Will and Pleasure is that you or any three or more of you do Report to Us under your Hands and Seals (with as little delay as may be consistent with a due discharge of the Duties hereby imposed upon you) your opinion on the several matters herein submitted for your consideration, with power to certify unto Us from time to time your several proceedings in respect of any of the matters aforesaid, if it may seem expedient for you so to do.
And We do further Will and Command and by these Presents ordain that this Our Commission shall continue in full force and virtue and that you Our said Commissioners or any three or more of you shall and may from time to time proceed in the
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execution thereof and of every matter and thing therein contained although the same be not continued from time to time by adjournment.
And for your assistance in the execution of these Presents We do hereby authorize and empower you to appoint a Secretary to this Our Commission to attend you whose services and assistance we require you to use from time to time as occasion may require.
Given at Our Court at Saint James's, the Eighteenth day of May 1870, in the Thirty-third year of Our Reign.
By Her Majesty's Command,
H. A. BRUCE.
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ROYAL COMMISSION ON SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION AND THE
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
VICTORIA R.
VICTORIA, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, To Our Trusty and Well-beloved Henry John Stephen Smith, Esquire, Master of Arts, Savilian Professor of Geometry in Our University of Oxford, Greeting:
Whereas We did by Warrant, under Our Royal Sign Manual, bearing date the Eighteenth Day of May, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seventy, appoint Our Right Trusty and Right Entirely Beloved Cousin, William, Duke of Devonshire, Knight of Our Most Noble Order of the Garter, Our Right Trusty and Entirely Beloved Cousin, Henry Charles Keith, Marquess of Lansdowne, together with the several Gentlemen therein named, to be Our Commissioners to make Inquiry with regard to Scientific Instruction and the Advancement of Science, and to inquire what aid thereto is derived from Grants voted by Parliament, or from Endowments belonging to the several Universities in Great Britain and Ireland, and the Colleges thereof, and whether such aid could be rendered in a manner more effectual for the purpose: And whereas since the issue of the said Warrant William Allen Miller, Doctor of Medicine, one of the Commissioners thereby appointed, hath deceased:
Now Know Ye, that We, reposing great Trust and Confidence in Your Zeal, Discretion, and Integrity, have authorized and appointed, and do by these Presents authorize and appoint you the said Henry John Stephen Smith to be a Commissioner for the purpose aforesaid, in addition to, and together with, the Commissioners now acting under the above-mentioned Royal Warrant.
Given at Our Court at Saint James's the First Day of December 1870, in the Thirty-Fourth Year of Our Reign.
By Her Majesty's Command,
H. A. BRUCE.
Professor Henry John Stephen Smith, M.A.,
To be a Commissioner for inquiring into
Scientific Instruction and the Advancement of Science.
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SEVENTH REPORT
TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY,
WE, the Commissioners appointed by Your Majesty to make Inquiry with regard to Scientific Instruction and the Advancement of Science, and to Inquire what Aid thereto is derived from Grants voted by Parliament, or from Endowments belonging to the several Universities in Great Britain and Ireland, and the Colleges thereof, and whether such Aid could be rendered in a manner more effectual for the purpose, humbly beg leave to present to Your Majesty, in continuation of our former Reports, the following Report on the University of London; on the Universities of Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow, St. Andrew's, and Aberdeen); on the University of Dublin and Trinity College; and on the Queen's University in Ireland.
As in our Third Report we have dealt with The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and as in our Fifth Report we have referred to the Arrangements made by The University of Durham for the Promotion of Scientific Instruction at Newcastle-On-Tyne, the present Report will conclude that part of the Inquiry entrusted to us which relates to the Universities in Great Britain and Ireland and the Colleges thereof.
I. The University of London
1. The University of London was founded by Royal Charter, on the 28th of November, 1836, for Objects which are best expressed in the words of its Original Charter:
"Deeming it to be the duty of our Royal Office, for the Advancement of Religion and Morality, and for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge, to hold forth to all classes and denominations of our faithful subjects, without any distinction whatsoever, an encouragement for pursuing a regular and liberal Course of Education; and considering that many persons do prosecute or complete their studies both in the Metropolis and in other parts of the United Kingdom, to whom it is expedient that there should be offered such facilities, and on whom it is just that there should be conferred such distinctions and rewards, as may incline them to persevere in these their laudable pursuits; further know that for the purpose of ascertaining, by means of Examination, the persons who have acquired proficiency in Literature, Science, and Art, by the pursuit of such course of education, as evidence of their respective attainments, and marks of honour proportioned thereunto, we do will, grant, declare, and constitute our right trusty and right well beloved cousin, William Cavendish Earl of Burlington [with 37 others], one Body Politic and Corporate, by the name of 'The University of London'."
2. The Governing Bodies of the University are the Senate, and the Convocation. The Senate consists of the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, and Fellows. The Fellows (36 in number, exclusive of the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor for the time being) are appointed partly by the Crown and partly by the Members of the Senate under the powers granted by the Charter. The following Graduates of the University constitute the Convocation of the University, viz., all Doctors of Law, Doctors of Medicine, and Masters of Arts; all Bachelors of Law of two years' standing, all Bachelors of Medicine of two years' standing, all Bachelors of Arts of three years' standing, all Doctors of Science, all Bachelors of Science of three years' standing; and also all Graduates holding other Degrees recognized as qualifications for admission to Convocation by resolution of Convocation.
3. The whole of the annual expenses of the University are provided for in the Civil Service Estimates, the Estimates for the financial year 1874-75, being £9,861. The fees received by the University are paid into the Exchequer: the sum thus paid in for the same year is gIven in the Appendix, together with the annual expenses for 1875-76.
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4. That the Government which founded the University desired specially to encourage the introduction of Scientific Study into General Education, may be inferred from the character of the original Body of Fellows; which included many names distinguished in Science, as well as many eminent members of the Medical Profession.
5. The Senate was not originally empowered to grant any other Degrees than those of Bachelor and Master of Arts, Bachelor and Doctor of Laws, and Bachelor and Doctor of Medicine.
6. Certificates of Studentship in some one or more of the affiliated Colleges or Medical Schools were required from all Candidates for Examination; and on the Report of the Senate to the Home Secretary, from time to time; the list of such affiliated Institutions might be varied, altered, or amended.
7. The Examinations have from the first been conducted by Examiners appointed by the Senate.
8. In proceeding to frame a Curriculum of Study for Degrees in Arts and Medicine (Degrees in Laws being originally conferred only upon such as had previously Graduated in Arts), the Senate determined to institute a Matriculation Examination, which should be the test of the candidate's qualification to enter upon a course of Academical Study for either of such Degrees. This Examination included, from the first, not merely Classics, Mathematics, and English, but also an Elementary Knowledge of either Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, or Natural History; and a further encouragement to the study of these Departments of Science was given by subsequent Honours Examinations.
9. The value attached to this Matriculation Examination, as a test of a good School Education, is increasingly shown by the large number of Candidates (now exceeding 1,000 annually) who present themselves at it; a considerable proportion of these having no intention of proceeding to any Degree.
10. No practical Examination was originally instituted at Matriculation, and no change in this respect has been hitherto made. It is evident that there would be considerable difficulty in organizing such an examination for five or six hundred candidates. But there can be no doubt that if this difficulty could be overcome, the enforcement of a practical test would accelerate the introduction of Practical Work into School Teaching, and would thus exert a very favourable influence on the progress of Scientific Education.
11. The Curriculum for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts included Animal Physiology, with Classics, Mathematics and Mental Philosophy, as subjects of the Pass Examination; and Honours Examinations were instituted in Chemistry, Animal Physiology, and Vegetable Physiology with Structural Botany.
12. The First Examination for the Degree of Bachelor of Medicine included Chemistry and Botany, in both which subjects the examination was practical as well as written and oral. A subsequent Honours Examination was held in Chemistry, to which was attached an Exhibition of £30 per annum for two years. And an Honours Examination was held in Botany.
13. In the Second Examination for the Degree of Bachelor of Medicine, Physiology (with Comparative Anatomy) took equal rank with Medicine, Surgery, and Midwifery; and was the subject of a subsequent Honours Examination, to which was attached a Scholarship of £50 per annum for two years, with a gold medal and the style of University Medical Scholar.
14. No material change in these arrangements took place until the grant of a New Charter in the year 1858, by which the University was empowered to confer the several degrees of Bachelor, Master, and Doctor, in Arts, Laws, Science, Medicine, Music, and in such other Departments of Knowledge (except Theology) as the Senate might determine. And the same Charter provided that persons not educated in any of the affiliated Institutions, might be admitted to examination for any of the Degrees conferred by the University, other than Medical Degrees.
15. Before the terms of this Charter were finally settled, a Memorial had been presented to the Senate, signed by 20 of the most eminent Scientific Men in the Metropolis, urging the propriety of establishing Degrees in Science, and a Committee of the Senate, which included Dr. Arnott, Mr. Brande, and Mr. Faraday, with the subsequent addition of Mr. Hopkins, had been appointed for the consideration of the subject. In the following year (1859) the Degrees of Bachelor and Doctor in Science were instituted, under Regulations which, with some alterations in detail, remain in force at the present time.
16. The principle on which the Curriculum of Study for the Degree of Bachelor in Science was framed, was that of laying a broad foundation of Scientific Culture, upon which the student might advantageously base his acquirements in whatever department of Science he might choose as his special pursuit. The First (Pass) Examination for the
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Degree of Bachelor of Science includes Pure Mathematics, Experimental Physics, Inorganic Chemistry, Zoology, and Botany. Subsequent Honours Examinations are held in these several branches of knowledge; an Exhibition of £40 per annum for two years being awarded to the highest proficient in each, provided that he is found deserving of it. The competition for the Exhibition in Mathematics is open also to Candidates who have passed the First Examination for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts; and the competition for the other exhibitions is open also to Medical Candidates.
17. The First Examination, for the Degree of Bachelor of Science, with the omission of Mathematics, under the style of the Preliminary Scientific Examination for the Degree of Bachelor of Medicine, is now imposed on all Candidates for degrees in Medicine, as a preliminary to the proper Medical Curriculum; the subjects of Inorganic Chemistry and Botany being omitted from the First Examination for the Bachelor's Degree, while Physiology is now transferred to it from the Second. All Medical Candidates are required to go through a Practical Examination in Chemistry; and it is the intention of the Senate to impose this test on Candidates for Degrees in Science also. The Examinations in Zoology and Botany have from the first been partly practical.
18. The Second (Pass) Examination for the Degree of Bachelor of Science includes Mechanical and Natural Philosophy, Organic Chemistry, Geology and Palæontology, Animal Physiology, and Logic and Moral Philosophy. Subsequent Honours Examinations are held in these several branches of knowledge; Scholarships of £50 per annum for three years (the competition for which is open also to candidates who have passed the Second Examination for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts) being awarded to the highest proficients in Mathematics and in Logic and Moral Philosophy respectively; and Scholarships of £50 per annum for two years being awarded to the highest proficients in Chemistry, Zoology (including Physiology), and Geology and Palæontology respectively.
19. The Programme of Subjects for the Degree of Doctor in Science, on the other hand, was framed with a view of encouraging the highest proficiency in some special Branch of Knowledge; the candidate being expected to be so fully conversant with the principal subject he may select, as to be able to go through any test (whether by theoretical or practical Examination) of his acquirements in it that can be fairly applied. Sixteen Primary Branches are specified; but several of these are again subdivided, and others may be treated in different ways, at the option of the Candidate.
20. The total number of Candidates who have obtained the Degree of Bachelor in Science up to the present time is 157; the number of those who have obtained the Degree of Doctor in Science is 21, of whom 11 presented themselves in one or other of the Departments of Chemistry.
21. In our Third Report we have suggested that a Doctorate in Science should be established in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and we have expressed the opinion "that Candidates for this Degree should not merely show proficiency of knowledge as tested by Examination, but should also offer some Original Contribution to Science." This principle has already been adopted by the University of Edinburgh, and we think that the senate of the University of London would do well to consider whether they should not also award the Degree of Doctor of Science only to those who have given proofs of the desire and the capacity to make some addition to Scientific Knowledge.
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II. The Universities of Scotland
GENERAL REMARKS
22. The four Scottish Universities were, as lately as 1863, the subject of an Inquiry, conducted, at considerable length and with great minuteness, by Commissioners appointed under the Universities (Scotland) Act of 1858. The powers given to the Commissioners included the Arrangement of the Financial Affairs of the several Universities and Colleges; the Foundation of new Professorships; the Regulation of the Course of Study and of Examinations for Degrees; and the Revision of Foundations. These powers were, however, conferred upon the Commissioners on the understanding that the additional sum to be provided by Parliament for the four Universities was not to exceed £10,000 a year, and there can be no doubt that in making the Recommendations contained in their Report, they were influenced, not only by the ascertained wants of the Universities, but by the consciousness that their expenditure was to be confined within this limit.
23. We have not thought it necessary to follow the Report of the Commissioners through its various details. It is, however, important that we should point out the position assigned by them to Science in the System of Education enjoined by their Ordinances.
24. The fourteenth Ordinance, which applies to the four Universities, prescribes for Graduation in Arts "a course extending over four winter sessions, and including attendance on the Classes of Humanity, Greek, Mathematics, Logic, Moral Philosophy, and Natural Philosophy"; and, in addition to these, "attendance on a course of English Literature", which previously had not been required in any Scottish University except that of Edinburgh.
25. The Commissioners "considered it necessary to take, as the basis of a System applicable to the Universities of Scotland, the course of study which had been followed in those Universities for a very long period"; they dwelt upon the variety of the subjects which that course already embraced, and upon the injurious effect of too large a variety in dissipating the attention of the Students; and they hesitated to recommend any steps which might tend to distract the attention of the Student still further.
26. They were, however, of opinion that it was impossible to dispense with any of the branches of study already embraced in that course. "No one", they said, "who is competent to form an opinion on such a question, could doubt the propriety of making Classical Learning the Foundation of a University Course." Again, the historical distinction of the Scottish Universities as "Seminaries of Learning for the cultivation of the various branches of Mental Philosophy", rendered the Commissioners unwilling to assign to it a position less considerable than that which it had hitherto occupied. So, too, the study of Mathematics, which, under the terms of Ordinance 14, includes Pure Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, appeared to form an essential subject. Finally, "considering the importance which belongs to the study of the English Language and Literature as part of a liberal education", and the success of the Literature Classes already in existence, although not compulsory, in the different Universities, the Commissioners "did not hesitate to prescribe, over and above the three original subjects, attendance on the Language and Literature Course to all Candidates for Degrees [without Honours] in Arts".
27. These four subjects once admitted to the curriculum, the Commissioners were unwilling, unless the Universities themselves should think it expedient, to require attendance on a Natural Science Course (including in that term Geology, Zoology, Chemistry, and Botany) in addition to the subjects prescribed as essential by Ordinance 14.
28. Previously to this, however, attendance at Lectures on a branch of Natural Science, either Chemistry or Natural History, had been included in the course of study at the Universities of St. Andrew's and Aberdeen, and representations were addressed to the Commissioners by gentlemen connected with the latter University. In consequence of these representations a fresh Ordinance, No. 18, was issued, sec. 4 of which empowers the University Court of each University to require all Candidates for Graduation to give attendance on the Lectures of any one of the Professors of Natural History, Chemistry, or Botany, whose lectures are included in the Department of Honours in Natural Science. The University of Aberdeen is the only one which has taken action under this Ordinance.
29. For the purposes of Graduation with Honours, Ordinance 14 permits a student to select any one, or more, of the four following Departments:
(1) Classical Literature.
(2) Mental Philosophy; including Logic, Metaphysics, and Moral Philosophy.
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(3) Mathematics; including Pure Mathematics and Natural Philosophy.
(4) Natural Science; including Geology, Zoology, Chemistry, and Botany.
30. In each of the first three of these Departments two Grades of Honour are recognised. In the Department of Natural Science, however, one Class only was instituted by the Commissioners, in the anticipation that, for some time, fewer candidates would present themselves in this than in the other Departments.
31. The effect of this arrangement has been stated to us by Dr. Young, the Professor of Natural History in the University of Glasgow:
The understanding amongst the Professors, both in Glasgow and, I believe, also in Edinburgh, is, that the limitation to one class of Honours in Science means, practically, that the candidate shall pass simply. We require two classes of Honours in Arts, and a pass is all that is requisite, under the Ordinances, in Natural Science, so that hitherto there has been, one might almost say, no inducement to Students to attend the Classes in Natural Science.
32. In order to prevent this discouragement of the study of Natural Science, we Recommend that for the future two Classes be recognised in the Natural Science Honours List.
33. We have already, in our Report on the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, expressed the opinion that, just as a knowledge of Language and Literature is indispensable to the Science Student, so also some acquaintance with Natural Science is essential to the completeness of that education of which a Degree in Arts given by one of the National Universities is accepted as a proof.
We observe with satisfaction that this principle has been adopted by the Scottish Universities, as the chief Departments of Experimental Physics are included under the head of Mathematics, which is one of the compulsory subjects for the Degree in Arts. We would suggest that the Student should be allowed to show the required proficiency, whether in Science or Literature, by passing an Examination at such a period in his University career as will enable him, in the latter part of his Academical Course, to devote his attention systematically to a particular group of subjects.
34. A large proportion of the Students at the Scottish Universities attend the Courses with the object of preparing themselves for a Profession. Their education is, not unfrequently, procured with difficulty, and at a sacrifice by which their resources are severely taxed. "It is undoubted", say the Commissioners of 1858, "that a very large number of the Students in the Scotch Universities are in exceedingly poor circumstances. Many of them engage during the summer in teaching and other employments, in order to gain the means of supporting themselves at the University during the winter; and the Professors receive, in the last few weeks of the Winter Session, frequent applications from Students to dispense with their longer attendance, on account of their scanty funds being already exhausted."
It follows from this that the payments which the Universities feel themselves justified in demanding from their Students are small, and the resources of the Universities themselves, in so far as they are derived from fees, are slender in proportion. Nor will their endowments bear comparison with those of the sister Universities in England. It was no doubt upon these grounds that Parliament, upon the occasion of the passing of the Universities (Scotland) Act, agreed to make, from public funds, a contribution in Aid of these Universities. An account of the application of these Grants, so far as they are available for Science Teaching, will be subsequently given.
35. In Universities accessible to, and widely used by, the middle classes, it is not surprising that, side by side with a system of education which has been successful in producing Literary and Scientific Culture of the highest order, there should exist a body of teaching more utilitarian in its character, and assigning a prominent position not only to Pure but to Applied Science.
Thus, in each of the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen, there is a complete Medical School, at which a large body of Students are engaged in qualifying themselves for the Medical Profession, by attendance on the Lectures of the Professors, and by Clinical Instruction in the Hospitals. In the University of St. Andrew's there is a Medical Faculty but no Medical School.
Again, both in Edinburgh and in Glasgow there are Chairs of Engineering, of which an account will be found in a subsequent part of this Report. These Chairs, as well as a Chair of Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh, the teaching of all of which has a decidedly technical character, are directly endowed by Government from Public Funds, while they share the advantages which have been secured to the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow by the expenditure of large sums of money voted by Parliament for the erection of University buildings.
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EDINBURGH
The Scientific Curriculum
36. The position assigned to Science in the University of Edinburgh has, in so far as it enters into the Examination for Graduation in Arts, been already described in the general account which we have given of Ordinance 14 of the Commissioners of 1858.
37. The Scientific Subjects taught in connexion with the Medical School may be divided into three groups:
A. The general Sciences, in which all Medical Students are instructed and examined in a manner to be presently described.
B. The Sciences more especially appertaining to Medicine, such as Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathology.
C. The Special Medical Subjects themselves, such as the Practice of Medicine, Surgery, and the Clinical Courses.
38. All Candidates for the Degrees of Bachelor and Doctor of Medicine are required to pass an Entrance Examination, including, among other subjects, Mechanics. and Natural Philosophy. They then undergo a Preliminary Examination in Botany, Natural History, and Chemistry; and Candidates obtaining more than 75 per cent of the marks are placed in the Honours List. This Examination is irrespective of those in the more strictly Medical Departments of Study included in the second and third of the above Groups. It is, however, proper to point out that doubts have been thrown by one of the Witnesses whom we have examined (the Professor of Natural Philosophy) upon the sufficiency of these Examinations for the purposes of his own Department. Mr. Tait states that "there is no provision in the University Regulations for attendance on Natural Philosophy by Medical Students. They are required to pass an exceedingly slight Entrance Examination in the merest elements of what is commonly called Mechanics, and there is also another Examination on what is called Natural Philosophy, but it would be absurd to say that the so-called elements of Natural Philosophy in which they are examined embrace the whole subject."
39. The Examinations for Degrees in Science are described in the following extracts from a Statement furnished to us by a Committee of Senatus of the University.
Candidates for the Degrees of Bachelor and Doctor of Science, in the Department of Physical and Natural Science, undergo a Preliminary Scientific Examination in Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry Zoology, and Botany. This examination is called the First Bachelor of Science Examination. The candidate may then select one of the following groups for the Second Examination, on passing which he attains the Degree of Bachelor of Science:
(a) The Mathematical Sciences (Higher Mathematics, Natural Philosophy).
(b) The Physical Experimental Sciences (Experimental Physics, Chemistry).
(c) The Natural Sciences (Zoology, Botany, Physiology, Geology).
For the Degree of Doctor of Science, the candidate must profess that Science which he intends to be the special object of his future study, and must further select a particular branch of it in which he believes himself to have attained a considerable knowledge.
40. Since the foregoing information was received from the Authorities of the University of Edinburgh, a Regulation has been made that each Candidate for the Degree of Doctor of Science must submit a Thesis containing "Some Original Researches on the subject of his intended examination, and such Thesis must be approved before the candidate is allowed to proceed to Examination".
41. In addition to the above General Degree in Science, there is also a Special Degree in the Department of Engineering, which is thus referred to in the same document:
Candidates for the Degrees of Bachelor and Doctor of Science in the Department of Engineering must undergo a Preliminary Examination in Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Chemistry. They may then proceed to the Second Bachelor of Science Examination in the following subjects - Mathematics applied to Mechanics, Engineering, and Mechanical Drawing. On passing this Examination they receive the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Engineering. The candidate for the Degree of Doctor of Science in Engineering must profess one, and not more than one, of the subdivisions in each of the two following groups of subjects:
I. Practical Engineering
(a) The design of machinery, with complete drawings, specifications, and estimates.
(b) The preparation of designs, specifications, and estimates for Civil Engineering Work.
II. Applied Science
(a)Applied Mathematics.
(b) Chemistry.
(c) Geology.
(d) One branch of Natural Philosophy.
(e) Telegraphy.
The examinations in Group I. consist in requiring the actual execution of the specified work, the candidate is examined orally in connexion with the work submitted as his own.
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42. To the Departments in which Degrees in Science may be obtained, has, we also learn, been recently added a Department of Public Health, an account of which will be found in the Appendix to this Report.
The System of Examination
43. We desire, before proceeding further, to refer to the Evidence which we have received with regard to the manner in which the Examinations for Graduation are conducted, in this University. Its means have not admitted of payments to Special Examiners for the Science Degree, and the Examinations have consequently been hitherto conducted almost entirely by the Professors themselves, who receive no remuneration for their labour as Examiners.
44. The Examination for Degrees in the case of the Faculty of Medicine was, at the time when we received Evidence from this University, entrusted to all the Professors in the Medical Faculty, with three Non-Professorial Examiners, elected by the University Court, and paid by a Parliamentary Grant of £100 a year each.
45. This arrangement was not one with which the University Authorities were content. "Many of my Colleagues", says the Professor of Anatomy, "and myself also are of opinion that our System of Examination would be improved if we had more than three Non-Professorial Examiners specially qualified. We are by no means indisposed to receive additional examiners ab extra, supposing that any arrangement could be made for properly remunerating them." With reference to this subject, the Professor of Chemistry stated to us that all his Colleagues "desired an increase in the number of Non-Professorial Examiners, because, as they are not appointed as Examiners in any one Department, it must frequently happen that no one of them is specially acquainted with the subject" in which he is called upon to examine.
46. Since this Evidence was given, the University Court has, in the case of the Medical Examinations, thoroughly recognised the principle of associating with the Professors additional Examiners, unconnected with the Professoriate, and has introduced a large number of additional Examiners. It would be very desirable that a similar improvement should be introduced into the other Scientific Examinations of the University. We learn that the question of appointing additional Examiners, not Professors, for the Degrees in Science, has been under the consideration of the University Court, but that this useful reform is still likely to be retarded, owing to want of funds. We should regard it as a fortunate result if, out of any assistance granted to the University, funds could be appropriated for this object.
Financial Statement
47. The capital of the University was stated, in 1872, to amount to £144,951. Of this capital, the sum of £103,556 is specially limited to certain uses. The income available for other than these special uses consists of -
1. Interest on the difference between the above sums.
2. Matriculation and Graduation Fees.
3. The Annual Grant from Government.
4. Sundry minor receipts.
From these various sources the University derives an income of £7,375, of the distribution of which we received the following account:
The general administration of the University (viz., the salary of the Secretary, the salary of the Clerk, the salary of the Factor, that is our man of business, the salary of the Dean of the Medical Faculty, of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, and the Editing of the Calendar) costs £981 a year: the Library absorbs £1,584 annually; £217 is allowed for the support of the Anatomical and Botanical Museums; the repair, cleaning, heating and lighting of the buildings, the poor rate and water rate, and insurances, absorb £1,827; on the general service of the University, in the shape of door-keepers, warders, and so on, £595 is spent; £1,465 for Class Assistants and class expenses; £366 for printing and advertisements; £207 for prizes; £18 for graduation expenses, and £41 for sundries making altogether £7,301. The balance of unexpended income for the year 1871 was only £74.
48. Out of the income derived from the capital sum of £103,556, the interest of £24,056 is applied under special bequests to the Endowment of five Chairs, including one of Natural History, while the interest of £54,720 is set apart for Bursaries, Scholarships, and Fellowships, of which, however, one only is given in the Medical, and three only in the Natural Science School, the remainder being associated with the Faculties of Arts and Theology.
49. We have been supplied with the following Statement of the Funds Annually applied to Scientific Instruction, whether from Endowments or Parliamentary Grants or from the general University Fund.
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FUNDS ANNUALLY APPLIED TO SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION, DERIVED FROM ENDOWMENTS OR PARLIAMENTARY GRANTS
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FUNDS ANNUALLY ALLOCATED FROM THE GENERAL UNIVERSITY FUND TO SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION†
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*This sum is independent of other emoluments which the Professor of Practical Astronomy receives as Astronomer Royal for Scotland; the two offices being, by his Commission, conjoined.
†Conditional on the state of the General University Fund, which is principally made up from Matriculation and Graduation fees, and depends, therefore, on the number of students attending at the University, and on the number graduating. There are many other unavoidable charges on this fund, such as the maintenance of the College buildings, salaries of librarians, clerk, servitors, &c. &c., so the amount available for scientific purposes is very inadequate.
‡The salaries of Assistants in the Chemical Department amount to £434, and the excess of this over the £200 allowed is paid by the Professor.
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50. A Statement of the total Emoluments of the Professors, inclusive of fees, will be found in the Appendix. It will be observed that there is a great disparity in the amounts received.
51. In the early part of the present century the University received from Government £129,000 towards the erection of the present buildings, which had been commenced with a sum of £30,000 only, raised by public subscription in Scotland. The result of this large expenditure has been to provide the University with buildings containing much excellent accommodation, though, as will be shown by the Evidence to which we shall subsequently refer, they are absolutely insufficient for its present needs.
Number of Students
52. The number of Students who have Matriculated at the University each year, since 1867, indicates a steady and rapid increase, as will be seen from the following Statement:
1867-68 | 1,513 |
1868-69 | 1,564 |
1869-70 | 1,698 |
1870--71 | 1,768 |
1871-72 | 1,854 |
1872-73 | 1,906 |
1873-74 | 1,930 |
The number of Students in the Medical and Engineering Schools during the same period was as follows:
| No. of Medical Students | No. of Engineering Students
|
1867-68 | 445 | - |
1868-69 | 516 | 29 |
1869-70 | 586 | 47 |
1870-71 | 678 | 55 |
1871-72 | 725 | 45 |
1872-73 | 782 | 52 |
1873-74 | 839 | 50 |
53. With regard to the numbers of Students newly joining the different Faculties of the University in the Summer Session, the following Statistics, relating to the last three years, have been placed before us:
*This sum falls much below the annual amount which the Professor is called upon to expend, in order to carry out, in an efficient manner, Instruction in Practical Anatomy.
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54. During the Winter Session of 1874-75, the number of Students attending the University Course in the different Faculties has been as follows:
Faculty of Arts | 778 |
Faculty of Medicine | 743 |
Faculty of Law | 310 |
Faculty of Divinity | 66 |
| 1,897 |
Taking the average attendance at the Summer Course, deduced from the foregoing Table, the number of Students attending the University of Edinburgh during the Academical Year 18i4-75, may be set down as -
During the Winter Session (actual) | 1,897 |
During the Summer Session (estimate) | 126 |
| 2,023 |
55. The fees paid for the various subjects will be found given at length in Appendix III to this Report.
Museums and Collections
56. The Museums and Collections available for Members of this University are as follows:
1. An Anatomical Museum, the property of the University, maintained by a small grant from the general fund. This Museum is open to the Students and used by them and the Professors. It contains a valuable Collection (used for Teaching Purposes) illustrative of Comparative Anatomy.
2. A Museum of Materia Medica.
3. A Herbarium.
4. The Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, open to the University under an arrangement made at the time when the Natural History Museum of the University was transferred to the Science and Art Department. Specimens are also collected by the Geological Survey, but there is at present no means of arranging them in such a manner as to render them available for the Purposes of Instruction.
"The Geological Survey", Professor Geikie informs us, "has been prosecuted for about 16 years in Scotland, and every year during that time considerable Collections have been made to illustrate the Rocks, Fossils, and Minerals of the various districts which have been under examination by the Survey. These Collections have been to a very small extent exhibited in the Museum attached to the University; a large portion of them, all or nearly all the fossils, and a large mass of rock specimens and minerals, which would be of great value to the public if they were exhibited, to illustrate wide areas of the country, are at present stowed away in cellars for want of any space in which to exhibit them."
Deficiencies in respect to Buildings, Assistants, and Apparatus
57. We have received much Evidence with regard to the Wants of the University, and to the Difficulties under which Scientific Teaching within it appears to labour. These Difficulties are occasioned principally by deficiencies in the accommodation afforded by the present University Buildings, and in the supply of Assistants and Apparatus.
Buildings
58. There is a complete concurrence of testimony as to the insufficiency of the present building for the work of the University. It is now provided with 18 Lecture Rooms, in which no less than 40 distinct Courses of Instruction have to be conducted. Some of the rooms are used for the Lectures of three different Professors, and it is not matter for surprise, therefore, that this should occasion great inconvenience. The Professor of Pathology has, we are told, "to lecture in a room which is used only one hour before he enters it by the Professor of Moral Philosophy, and one hour after he leaves it by the Professor of Geology".
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59. The demand which has arisen in all the Departments of Scientific Education for Teaching of a more Practical Character than that with which the public was formerly satisfied, has given additional force to the plea unanimously put forward by the different Professors for accommodation more ample than that which the existing buildings afford. "Class rooms for practical instruction take up", we are reminded, "a large comparative amount of space, because you cannot pack up the Students as you do in a lecture room; they must have space to move about in."
60. The Professor of Chemistry represents to us that the accommodation at his disposal is not only inadequate, but most inconveniently arranged. The room which is used for the laboratory "was never intended for the purpose. It is dark and ill-ventilated, and altogether unsuitable". The Students in the Practical Classes of this Department have increased from 72 in the Academical year 1861-62 to 140 in the Academical year 1870-71. The University Laboratory is able to accommodate about 12 students only at a time, and, owing to this limitation of the space available, it has been found necessary to preclude all but the more advanced Students from Laboratory work.
61. The same want has been felt by the Professor of Natural Philosophy. He found it impossible to obtain space for a Laboratory till 1868, when he was provided with "a small class-room which had come to be disused, entirely unsuitable, or at least by no means very suitable for almost any class of experiments". The result of this is that when more than 8 or 10 students attend the Laboratory at once, some of them are obliged to work in the Class-room, and some among the Professor's Collection of apparatus. "The superintendence of groups of students scattered about, with stairs to ascend, and passages between them, is a matter of considerable difficulty, and adds materially to the labour of teaching."
62. We are informed by the Professor of Geology that his Lecture-Room is not adapted for the Purposes of a Natural History Lectureship. Diagrams and models cannot be properly displayed, and "the only table space for the exhibition of specimens is the desk which is used by the Professor of Moral Philosophy". For the storing of the specimens themselves there is no accommodation whatever in the lecture-room. A cellar in the S.E. part of the College Buildings has been used for this purpose, but it is inconvenient, owing to deficiency of light, distance from the lecture-room, and difficulty of access. The requirements for the effectual performance of the duties of this Chair are described by Professor Geikie in the following terms:
In order to the effectual performance of the duties of this Chair, I consider it essential, first of all, that the Professor should have a separate class room, with a suitable lecture table and wall space, as well us the other accommodation which is usual for illustration of lectures by means of diagrams, models specimens, and apparatus. In the second place, there is required a retiring room attached to the class room, with sufficient space for cabinets of specimens, diagrams, &c., and with proper light to admit of the examination of the specimens, and also with adequate provision of microscopes, lathes, blowpipes, and other testing apparatus for thorough practical instruction in the subjects of the Chair; for I consider that the duties of this Chair should consist not merely in lecturing, which is all that they can consist of at present, but in practical instruction by examination of specimens, and in the mineralogical part of the Chair by a series of carefully directed lessons in mineralogical research, and especially in research with the blowpipe and with the microscope. At present no provision exists for that practical department.
63. The University Authorities have, however, by no means limited themselves to barren complaints of their present situation. A Committee was formed for the purpose of formulating the requirements of the different Departments, and we have had before us a copy of their Report. It was proposed "to transplant the Medical School from the present University Buildings to a new site, so as to leave the present buildings for the other Departments of the University". The University was at this time in treaty "for the acquisition of a piece of ground excellently situated for the purpose, and hopes to acquire this ground without much delay". It was contemplated that in the New Buildings the Medical School would require about 60,000 superficial feet, made up as follows: Anatomy, 20,000 square feet; Chemistry, 12,000; Materia Medica, 5,616; Institutes of Medicine (that is, Physiology) 5,500; Pathology, 4,000; Medical Jurisprudence, Surgery, Practice of Medicine, and Midwifery, 3,000 each. The very large amount of space required for Anatomy, includes what is needed not only for Class Teaching purposes, but also for the Anatomical Museum belonging to the University. This Collection is at present very inadequately accommodated.
64. Such a scheme of extension as that indicated above could obviously not be carried out except at very considerable expense. From the account already given of the financial situation of the University, it will be evident that it has no capital of its own to apply for the purpose of erecting new buildings. "The University", we were told by Professor Turner, by whom the Report was laid before us, "has to ask for money, both for buying the ground and for building the necessary structures. We propose to go to the public and endeavour to raise what we can in the way of subscription. But I
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may state that the people of Edinburgh and of the surrounding district have, during the past four or five years, raised a sum of upwards of £70,000 for building a New Infirmary, so that the public pocket has been, we think, very materially drained for that purpose; and although we may raise, and I hope we shall raise, a considerable sum of money, yet we do not anticipate that we shall be able to collect all that will be needed, and we are desirous of obtaining aid in this respect from the Government. ... "
At a public meeting held in London on December 7, 1874, it was stated by his Royal HIghness the Duke of Edinburgh, who presided, that no less than £70,000 had already been subscribed towards the cost of the University Buildings. The necessity for increased accommodation was at the same meeting explained by the Earl of Derby, who stated that at the time when the existing buildings were erected -
The accommodation which it was thought necessary to provide was for a number not much exceeding 600, certainly not exceeding 700 students in all, the number of professors being then 21. At present, as you have heard from his Royal Highness, the number or students falls little short of 2,000, and the number of the professors is 35, and though I cannot actually prove it from figures or facts, I have very little doubt that the still further growth of the University has to some extent been checked by that very great want of space for which we desire to provide a remedy.
At the same meeting, the Right Hon. Lyon Playfair made use of words to the following effect:
As a Professor of lengthened experience, he might be allowed to testify that the Laboratories of Chemistry, Physics, Anatomy, Physiology, and Biology were altogether unworthy of such an important University.
65. We are informed by the Principal of the University that, since the date of the above proceedings, the subscriptions have increased up to a sum of over £75,000. The site for the new Medical School, and for the University Hall, in immediate proximity to the New Royal Infirmary at Edinburgh, has been purchased for a sum which, with law and other expenses, will reach about £34,000. It will, however, be impossible to complete the buildings, even in the plainest style, under a cost of £76,000, while the internal fittings are estimated at £20,000. A further sum of £20,000 will, it is contemplated, be required, in order to adapt the old Medical Class Rooms in the present College for the uses to which they will in future be put.
Assistants and Apparatus
66. The Scientific Professors are much embarrassed by the want of a sufficient number of Assistants. This also is attributable to the Inadequacy of the Resources of the University. Among the powers vested in the Commissioners appointed under the Universities (Scotland) Act, is that "of making Ordinances in order to found new Professorships where they are required, and to provide for the Appointment of Assistants to such Professors as from the nature and duties of their Professorships require assistance, and to provide for the remuneration of such Assistants." Under these powers, a certain number were appointed. The Commissioners state in their Report that they were strongly urged to provide Assistants for a greater number of Chairs, but that they found it impossible with the means at their disposal to do so. They were, therefore, compelled to select for such help those Professorships which appeared to them to stand most in need of assistance. The Professors are consequently still either without the necessary staff, or obliged to provide it at their own expense.
67. It is, however, requisite to bear in mind that, in the case of those Professors by whom a special fee is charged for admission to their Practical Classes, apart from that payable for attendance on the Course of Lectures, an increase in the number of pupils, while necessitating increased expense for the payment of Assistants, serves also to increase the emoluments of the Chair.
68. In the University of Edinburgh there are, it appears, three Classes of Assistants:
1st, Assistants allowed by an Ordinance of the University Commissioners, and associated by them with certain Chairs.
2nd. Assistants appointed by the Professors, whose appointments are confirmed by the Senatus. (Both these Classes receive their salaries from the general fund of the University, and discharge similar functions.)
3rd. Assistants appointed by the Professors on their own responsibility, and paid by the Professors themselves.
69. The number of Assistants and their emoluments are, as we have already said, often inadequate. The Professor of Physiology has only £100 a year allowed for his Assistant, whose time is entirely taken up, and who, during nine or ten months of the year, is
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working the greater part of the day. The Professor of Chemistry has four assistants, two of whom are paid at the rate of £100 a year, each, under the Ordinance, the Professor providing from his own resources for the payment of the other two. In addition to this he finds himself obliged to increase the salaries allowed under the Ordinance in order to obtain the services of properly qualified persons.
70. Several of the Assistants throughout the University receive the very small sum of £25 a year; a remuneration so inadequate for a man who has already been obliged to provide for his own professional training, that its amount can only be explained by the assumption that these appointments are sought for by Science Students on account of the opportunities for improvement which they afford, rather than for the emoluments attached to them.
71. It is of the highest importance that the Scientific Professors should be provided with Assistants qualified, at all events, to take charge, and to make use, of the apparatus and collections entrusted to them. One Assistant, at least, of those attached to each Chair should be competent to relieve the Professor of the routine work of his Practical Classes. These duties cannot be effectually discharged except by a person of some standing and attainments, who has by habit and acquaintance become familiar with the work of the Class and the methods adopted by the Professor in treating his subject. It is idle to expect such qualifications from an Assistant whose services are requited so slenderly as to render him anxious to transfer them as quickly as possible to some better remunerated employment.
72. It is fair to assume that the salaries allowed by the Commissioners of 1858 were fixed with reference to the limitation to which we have already referred in the amount of the Annual Grant. We desire to record our opinion, that, in the present day, they can be no longer expected to command or to retain the services of a properly qualified staff. The Professor of Natural Philosophy has given us the following Evidence on this question:
You are also very much inconvenienced, are you not, by the want of proper assistance? - That again is a source of excessively unnecessary labour to myself owing to the small amount of money which I receive for the payment of a mechanical assistant. I am not speaking of teaching assistance, but simply of assistance in keeping in order and setting up for experiment my apparatus. My difficulty in that respect is very great, but that again is merely a question of money. The mechanical assistant whom I have at the present moment is a man between 70 and 80 years old, who, I may mention, was in Sir John Leslie's service. He was doorkeeper when Sir John was Professor of Mathematics in the University of Edinburgh, and served him as mechanical assistant the whole time he was Professor of Natural Philosophy; and he served the whole of the principal part of his time with Principal Forbes in all his experiments, and he has served me since my appointment to the Chair. This is his 58th session in the University, and he is at present the sole mechanical assistant that I have, seeing that his son is temporarily disabled.
He is paid by the College, is he not? - Yes, he is paid out of the same fund us that from which I get £100 a year for class expenses.
Have you any teaching assistant? - I have a class assistant, and I have already alluded to his giving Tutorial Lectures. He helps me not only by giving those Tutorial Lectures, but also by superintending the Laboratory when I cannot be present myself; and besides that by relieving me of the excessively tedious work of looking over the answers to the examination papers. In the course of his looking over those answers to examination papers merely, he has, on the average, about 1,500 answers to examine once a fortnight. Then he spends the greater part of five hours each day in the Laboratory, in addition to what Tutorial Lectures he is giving for me at the time.
How is ho remunerated? - He gets £100 a year from the Exchequer. I may mention that when you contrast the amount of work which he has to do for me with the pay which he receives, it is not at all wonderful that during the short period that I have had such an Assistant, I have had almost every second or third year to train a new one, because the salary is utterly inadequate to the work expected of him.
Is it not a consequence of so much work falling upon the Professor that he has not sufficient leisure for original work? - When matters are at the best, I have very little leisure for nine months in each year; but at the present moment I may say that I have absolutely no leisure at all. ... I may say that it is hardly possible, without a large sum, to hire a really trained assistant; no improvised assistant would be capable of giving me the least help, and, therefore, during the temporary disablement of my own assistant I must simply do his work myself as well as my own. It would take at least two months or more of training before I could trust a man with the apparatus.
73. On pages 12-14, Appendix V, Vol. II, will be found a Recapitulation of the principal wants of the University in respect of Scientific Instruction and the Advancement of Science; and it will be observed that the want of increased and better paid assistance felt by the Professors to whose Evidence we have already referred, is experienced in almost every one of those Departments of the University in which Scientific Teaching is carried on. It will be evident from what has been already stated with regard to the finances of the University, that it has no funds out of which these requirements can be sufficiently complied with.
74. The Inadequacy of the Staff of Assistants causes an encroachment upon the time which the Professor might otherwise devote to original work. The poverty of the Laboratory accommodation is also a serious impediment. The Professor of Chemistry stated in Evidence: "Before I became Professor, while I was what we call an Extra Academical Lecturer (which corresponds to the privat docent in German Universities),
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at the Laboratory which I had at that time, I had more opportunity for carrying on original investigations than I have at present in the University; because our space is insufficient." The Evidence of the Professor of Natural Philosophy, already quoted, is to the same effect.
75. We shall deal in a separate Report with the subject of the Endowment of Scientific Research: in connexion with the present branch of our Inquiry, it will be sufficient for us to express our conviction that it is of the highest importance to these National Universities that the amount of work assigned to their Professors should not be such as to render Original Work on their part impossible from mere lack of time and physical strength. In the case of the University of Edinburgh, that time is often taken up, and that strength overtasked, by the performance of duties which a moderately paid assistant is competent to discharge. We have not overlooked the fact that the summer vacation of six months, allowed in this and other Scottish Universities, affords to some of the Professors a long period of continuous relief from the work of teaching. It does not, however, appear to us that this period is excessive, considering that the Lectures are given throughout the whole Session, and that the careful preparation which they require must, to a great extent, take place during vacation time. Others of the Professors are required to give, in addition to their Winter Courses, a Summer Course, and it is obvious that these can have but slender opportunities for Original Work, unless the aid which they receive from Assistants is sufficient to relieve them from a considerable portion of the routine work of their Classes.
76. The Apparatus possessed by the University is very far from being adequate to the Modern Requirements of Scientific Teaching. The Professor of Chemistry is supplied with only "a collection of old apparatus, mostly inapplicable to the purpose, which belongs to the University, the remains of old collections. There is also a collection of specimens for the illustration of lectures which was presented to the University by Professor Playfair when he retired from the chair. The remainder of the apparatus, both what is used in the laboratory for practical work, and what, is used for lecture purposes", belongs to the present Professor. He purchased what belonged to Professor Playfair, whose private property the apparatus was. The University grant of £100 a year for the purpose of keeping up and renewing the apparatus is insufficient. The same want is also expressed, in the Statement to which we have already referred, on behalf of the Chairs of Natural Philosophy, Practical Astronomy, Engineering, Physiology, Anatomy, Botany, Medicine, Pathology and Clinical Medicine.
77. The different wants which we have now noticed seriatim are thus recapitulated by the Professor of Anatomy in his Evidence:
"If we possessed proper buildings for teaching purposes, if we possessed proper appliances in the way of apparatus, and if we possessed sufficient funds to remunerate and retain about us a good staff of well-qualified assistants, I think that the University would be enabled to develop itself as a teaching body, in connexion with affording general scientific instruction, much more so than it has hitherto been able to do."
Conclusion and Recommendations
78. The Resources of the University of Edinburgh are comparatively small, and it would be unreasonable to expect from local sources contributions sufficient for the complete removal of the defects which we have noticed.
79. We are, therefore, of opinion that, considering the largely increased numbers of Students attending the University, and the demand now universally made in all the great centres of National Education for Scientific Instruction of a very complete and practical kind, the University of Edinburgh has established a claim to increased assistance from Government.
80. We Recommend that such Assistance should be given, both in the form of a Capital Sum in aid of a Scheme of Extension, such as that to which our attention has been specially directed; and of an Annual Grant sufficient to enable the University to increase the Number, and, in some cases, the Emoluments of Assistants; to make more ample provision of Apparatus for Teaching; and to revise the Salaries of the Scientific Professors, regard being had to the disparity of their endowments, and, to the income which they derive from fees.
81. We further Recommend, as we have already done in the case of Owens College Manchester, and the Metropolitan Colleges, that the Grant of the Capital Sum in aid of the Extension of the University should be contingent upon the receipt of substantial contributions from Private Sources; and that an account of the Expenditure of any Annual Grant be submitted to the Government, with a view to the exercise of Parliamentary control.
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GLASGOW
The Science Curriculum
82. There are Four Faculties in this University, and the Students are distinguished into Students of Arts, Theology, Law and Medicine, according to the nature of their principal studies. The position assigned to Science in the Arts Curriculum is governed, as in the other Universities, by the Provisions of Ordinance 14.
83. Since the date when we received Evidence from this University, the Senatus has instituted Degrees in Science with four alternative Courses of Study, viz., Law, Biological Science, Geological Science, and Engineering Science. No Faculty of Science has yet been instituted, but the Faculty of Medicine, and that of Arts are said "to contain between them in their provinces nearly all of what is commonly called Science".
84. The Degrees in Science were instituted in consequence, as we have been informed by Professor Allen Thomson, of a feeling that Science was too much neglected in the old Arts Degree, and "it was thought best to institute a separate Degree in Science, for which also facilities existed from the fact of its being recognised in the last Reform Act for Scotland as a qualification for the University franchise. The Representation of the People of Scotland Act recognises the Bachelorship of Science as a degree qualifying to vote. There is no mention of a degree in science in the University Act, nor in the Report of the Commission of 1858; but the Commissioners took evidence from the professors and others with respect to the question whether there was reason to modify the degree in Arts." Professor Thomson suggested "that the topics included in the Curriculum of Arts were too various and too extensive to enable any candidate to acquire a sufficiently good knowledge of them to appear for an examination", and "that the Degree in Arts should be modified, somewhat after a plan of divergence in four directions; that a curriculum of two years, which all should be required to go through, including, of course, languages and mathematics, should form a common foundation, and that then the degree might be given to the candidates who pursued their studies and passed Examinations in four different sections - classics, literature, and languages for one; philosophy, meaning mental philosophy, for another; mathematics, physical science, and natural philosophy, for a third; the fourth, which would probably require subdivision, being natural science or biology and geology."
On further consideration it was decided that candidates for the Degree of Master of Arts should be permitted to graduate in any of the four courses of study to which we have referred. The present arrangements have thus been described to us by the same Witness:
"In the Scheme which has been adopted by the Senatus, while the scientific branches are recognised separately, they are in each department combined with a part of the arts curriculum. Our degree in law has hitherto been only an honorary degree, and it was held to be desirable that we should have the means of giving a degree upon study, and law is accordingly one of the departments. A certificate in engineering had already been given, and it was considered desirable to raise that into the rank of a degree; that is the second department, viz., of engineering and mechanics; the third department is that of natural science, divided into two, the biological and the geological sections. In each of these three departments the branches of study which were considered most immediately necessary and specially connected with the department are made to constitute the curriculum; and then, in somewhat different proportions, the residuum is made up of a varying number of branches taken from the curriculum of arts at the choice of the candidates."
85. We extract from the Calendar of the University, for 1873-74, the following account of the Subjects required for Graduation in each of the Departments in Science:
IN LAW: 1. Scots Law. 2. Conveyancing. And any five of the Classes in the Arts Curriculum: provided always that in the event of a Student taking either Civil Law or Forensic Medicine, or, in conjunction with any University course, consisting of not less than 25 lectures, Political Economy or History, he shall be allowed to dispense with one of the Arts Classes.
IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE: Any four of these five: 1. Chemistry. 2. Anatomy. 3. Physiology. 4. Zoology (including Comparative Anatomy). 5. Botany. And any four of the Classes in the Arts Curriculum.
IN GEOLOGICAL SCIENCE: 1. Geology, 2. Chemistry, 3. Zoology (including Comparative Anatomy). 4. Higher Natural Philosophy. And any four of the Classes in the Arts Curriculum: provided always that in the event of a Student taking Geodesy in conjunction with any University Class of not less than 25 lectures, he shall be allowed to dispense with one of the Arts Classes.
IN ENGINEERING SCIENCE: 1. Mathematics (1 or 2). 2. Natural Philosophy (1 or 2). 3. Inorganic Chemistry (1). 4. Geology (1). 5. Civil Engineering (2). And any two of the Classes in the Arts Curriculum except Mathematics and Natural Philosophy: provided always that in the event of a Student taking Geodesy in conjunction with any University Class of not less than 25 lectures, he shall be allowed to dispense wish one of the Arts Classes.
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86. This classification is open to the apparent objection that the Student is expected to show, upon the occasion of a final examination for his Degree in Science, proficiency in a more or less numerous group of subjects unconnected with that which he has specially selected.
87. We have assumed throughout this and other Reports that there are certain kinds of knowledge and certain forms of intellectual discipline which constitute the essential elements of general Culture, and fall under the two heads of Literature and Science. We have further assumed that means should be taken to ensure the possession of this general culture by all persons who receive a University education, and that it is desirable to permit the Student who has given evidence of this general culture to devote his attention exclusively either to Literature or to Science, and to obtain his Degree by passing an Examination conducted in such a manner as to test the reality and extent of his acquaintance with the subject to which he has devoted himself.
88. We learn that in the University of Glasgow the Student who has attended the Lectures on any subjects for the requisite number of Sessions is permitted to present himself for examination in those subjects at the next examination for degrees, and is not again examined in the same subjects as a condition of his taking the Degree of Master of Arts. The regulation under which this privilege is accorded does not, however, ensure freedom from distraction, during the later part of his University Course, to the Student who desires to devote himself more particularly to some one branch of Study, inasmuch as there is nothing to prevent him from postponing, until the end, his preparation for passing an examination in those subjects in which he is content with showing a competent knowledge. Nor does it seem to contemplate, as the normal practice of the larger number of the Students, that bifurcation of which we have maintained the importance, and which we have already suggested in the 33rd paragraph of this Report. The documents printed in the Appendix show that the Regulations for granting Degrees in Science are now under revision; and we, therefore, take occasion to invite the attention of the University Authorities to the above observations.
Financial Statement
89. We have received from the Clerk of the Senate the following Statement of Sums applied to the Advancement of Science or to Scientific Instruction in the University of Glasgow, which are derived from Endowments or from Parliamentary Grants:
I. Endowments of Chairs
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II. Bursaries, Prizes, &c
Watt Prize of £10 annually for an Essay on a Scientific subject.
Walker Prizes in Civil Engineering and Mechanics; annual value, £15.
Cleland Gold Medal (£10 10s), awarded every second year to a Student of Natural Philosophy.
Brendalbane Scholarships (two, each or £50 annual value) in Mathematical and Natural Science.
Sir William Thomson Experimental Scholarships (three, each of £20 annual value).
Neil Arnott Prizes in Natural Philosophy, consisting of the free annual value proceeds of Dr. N. Arnott's gift to the University of £1,000.
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90. A Statement of the total Emoluments of the Professors, inclusive of Fees, will be found in the Appendix. It will be observed that there is a great disparity in the amounts received.
91. In addition to the Annual Grants, a statement of which has been given, very considerable assistance was afforded by the Government to the University at the time of its removal to the site which it now occupies. When this transfer was made, a sum of nearly £100,000 was contributed locally, chiefly in the city of Glasgow. The sale of the Old College and ground produced £100,000. A further sum of £17,500 represented the principal and interest of the compensation obtained by the University from the Monkland Junction Railway Company for the non-fulfilment of their agreement, In consideration of the importance of the work, and the public interest excited by it, the Government of the day announced their intention to ask Parliament for the sum of £120,000 in six annual instalments, on condition of a like amount being raised by subscription and expended on the buildings. This proposal was assented to by Parliament, and the sixth instalment of £20,000 was paid in 1873-74, the public subscription towards the combined extension, including the erection of a hospital, having then reached the large sum of £171,642.
Number of Students; Fees; and Bursaries
92. The number of the Matriculated Students attending the University Course in the past Session was 1,456 - distributed in the following manner between the different Faculties:
Faculty of Arts | 904 |
Faculty of Medicine | 839 |
Faculty of Law | 153 |
Faculty of Divinity | 60 |
Total | 1,456 |
93. Each Student attending the University pays annually a Matriculation fee of £1, and also a Class fee to each Professor whoso lectures he attends, the fee for each Course being £3 3s, with the following exceptions, viz., Natural Philosophy, Scots Law, Civil Law, Conveyancing, £4 4s each; Astronomy, £1 1s; Political Economy, £1 11s 6d; and higher Metaphysics, £1 11s 6d.
94. It appears from the Calendar that Bursaries, varying in value from £4 to £50 a year, are attached to this University. Of these eight only are, we observe, specially available as rewards for Proficiency in Science. A large majority of these prizes are restricted to inhabitants of particular localities, members of particular families, or they are otherwise strictly limited.
The Engineering School
95. The situation of the University of Glasgow, in one of the Industrial Centres of this Empire, and in the midst of a densely-inhabited district, upon the face and under the surface of which manufacturing and mining enterprise are widely spread, has tended to increase the attention paid in its course of Instruction to branches of Science admitting of Application to Commerce and Manufactures. It has, accordingly, become the seat of an important Engineering School. The Chair of Civil Engineering and Mechanics itself was instituted In 1840, and is endowed by a Parliamentary Grant. The present Department of Engineering Science was not, however, established until about 12 years ago. The functions of this Department are not limited to the preparation of Students for the Degree in Engineering Science. It was described to us by the late Professor Rankine as "consisting of a course of study in the various branches of Science that are applicable to Engineering, and followed by a System of Examinations, and the granting of what we call a Certificate of Proficiency."
Professor Rankine continues:
We had a reason for giving it that title of Engineering Science; because we do not profess to teach pure practice, but the art of applying scientific principles to practice; and we did not want our certificate to pass as a certificate that the holder of it was fit to practise the profession, but only as a certificate that he possessed the requisite scientific knowledge. As to the details of the course of study, there is, in the first place, Mathematics, which the student studies for one or two years, according to what his previous preparation seems to render necessary. If he has not passed through a preliminary examination, he has to study Mathematics for two years at least. There is a preliminary examination, by the passing of which the minimum time which he has to devote to Mathematics is reduced to one year. When I say a year, I mean the University session for one year. Secondly in Natural Philosophy or Physics, if he studies for the minimum period of one session, it may be increased to two, according to the proficiency
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which he shows. Thirdly, as to Inorganic Chemistry, he studies until he has attained a knowledge of the fundamental principles of Chemistry; of the Chemistry of the more ordinary metals used in engineering structures and machines, such as iron, zinc, tin, copper, and so on; of the chemistry of building materials, such, for example, as cementing materials and building stones; and of the chemistry of air and water, and such elementary matters as that. The fourth subject is Geology, and in Geology his studies are specially directed to what the writers of the present day call Lithology, a branch of Geology that relates to stone and the substances that are used as building materials; he also studies Petrology and Stratigraphy, which have a bearing upon the execution of earthwork. Those are the parts of Geology which are more especially applicable to engineering. Then the fifth branch of this department of study, which concludes the list of the compulsory branches, is civil engineering and mechanics, which is studied for two sessions. This branch relates to the art of applying the principles of the other branches of Science mentioned to practical purposes. There is a special mode of treating such principles where they are to be applied practically; for instance, to engineering field work, to engineering structures, and to machines; a special method different from a purely scientific treatment. I will mention one of the special characters of the application of scientific principles to practice. For any given practical purpose there is a certain degree of precision required inferior to the precision required for purely scientific purposes; and the student ought to be able to judge of the degree of precision that is wanted in applying Science to a particular practical purpose, in order that time and labour and expense may not be wasted on an unnecessary degree of precision. It is a very important and rather difficult subject, and I could exemplify it at great length, but I suppose it is not necessary to occupy the time of the Commission by giving detailed examples of it. Then, on passing a satisfactory examination in those five branches, a student receives a Certificate of Proficiency in Engineering Science.
96. Before the Certificate referred to in the foregoing Evidence can be obtained, the Student must show a proficiency in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy sufficient to qualify him for Second Class Honours in Arts. No Literary Subjects are, however, required for the Certificate, which denotes merely "Proficiency in Engineering Science", but not that the Student is qualified to execute or superintend works. Should he desire to obtain not only this Certificate but also a Degree, he must study any two additional subjects taken from the Curriculum of Arts, and of those two, one must be Literary or Philosophical. The Degree may be with or without Honours; the subjects prescribed for Graduation will be found in the Table extracted from the University Calendar, already given in para. 84. There is no Compulsory Entrance Examination in this Department; there is, however, a Voluntary Examination, by passing which a Student may, if he means to take the Arts Degree, shorten the duration of his attendance by about a year.
97. Professor Rankine stated that his pupils usually came to him fairly prepared in Mathematics. Preparatory study is, he considered, scarcely wanted in the remaining subjects, with the exception of Drawing, for the teaching of which there is no provision in the University. "There is evidently", the Professor remarked, "a deficiency of good instruction in Drawing throughout the country generally."
The same Witness has given us important Evidence with regard to the Association of Scientific Teaching with the Applications of Science:
The main point which has been impressed upon me by my experience is the advisability of carrying on scientific study and practical study as completely separate and independent departments. When I first became professor the lectures were attended to a considerable extent, and to some extent they are attended now, by young men who are actually engaged in business at the time, and who are working at some practical business as civil engineers or as mechanical engineers during one part of the day, and get leave of absence, or find leisure, somehow or another, to attend the lectures also. From my experience that does not answer. It is too great a strain for one thing upon the mental faculties, and then the states of mind required in practical operations and in scientific study are so different that a sudden change from the one state of mind to the other at different periods of the day is injurious to both. In the earliest years of my holding this professorship, I was induced to give evening lectures. In fact, my predecessor lectured in the evening, and I followed the same plan, in order that not only young civil engineers' assistants, but young men engaged in mechanical engineering works and in workshops might be able to attend, but I found those evening lectures were all but useless. The students were very attentive, but when I came to examine them I found that the instruction given to them had taken little hold upon their minds. I found, in fact, that from the state of bodily and mental fatigue in which they were, there was little or no permanent benefit gained.
98. Professor Rankine's experience led him to think that lectures given in the evening, or during the intervals between working hours, will not be practically useful to the students, and "that the best way to combine practical and scientific instruction is what we actually practise, indeed, to a great extent, or induce our students to practise as far as we can, that is, to devote the winter half of the year to scientific study, and the summer half to practical work." The following further definition of the limits within which Applied Science may be taught within a University was given us by the same Witness:
I think it useless to attempt to give instruction in practice proper in a University. If, for instance, we set up a mechanical workshop with machine tools in it in our University, or if we got, say a mile or two of railway, and set our students to superintend the works, this would be worse than useless. The difference between doing things on a small scale like that, and doing things on a great scale, as in actual practice, is so great that the students would only be led to fancy that they had more knowledge than they really did possess, and, therefore, I am for having the practical knowledge acquired at separate times and places by practice on a great scale. There is one rather apparent than real exception to that. I think that certain degree of
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instruction in mechanical manipulation would be useful in our University, or in any University indeed, but rather in connexion with experimental physics than with engineering: such instruction as would make a student, if he were engaged in scientific inquiry, able to make his own apparatus. That actually goes on in the University of Glasgow in the physical laboratory. A great deal of the apparatus used there is made by the students themselves, under the superintendence of the professor and his assistants. This would be useful to young engineers as well as to other students; but they should not be led to suppose that in practising mechanical manipulation on that scale they are at all qualifying themselves for the practice on the great scale that one meets with in engineering workshops, or in the execution of lines of railway or other engineering works.
The proper functions [of a University] are, first, to teach those branches of science proper that are applicable to engineering and mechanics, and, secondly, to teach the special art of applying scientific principles to practical purposes. ... The University having given the student this instruction, and having examined him to see that he is properly proficient in it, can then certify that he is a proficient in engineering science, but not that he is one qualified to execute or to superintend works. I think there is a limit to the function of a University, which is to impart and to certify the scientific knowledge, but not to certify the practical skill, of the candidate.
99. Engineering has now become a profession comparable in importance with reference to the wants of the present time to Law and Medicine. In the University of Glasgow, as well as in some other Universities, there is a tendency to claim for it recognition as a Faculty. When this claim is conceded, this new Faculty, with that of Medicine, will stand in the same relation to the Faculty of Science as that in which the Faculties of Theology and Law at present stand to that of Arts; and just as we should maintain that a Degree in Medicine ought to be preceded by an Examination in Science, and Degrees in Law or Theology by a General Examination in Arts, so, also, we should be of opinion that Candidates for a Degree in Engineering should be required to pass a Preliminary Examination of a general kind in Science.
100. The Certificates to which we have above referred are awarded to Candidates showing Proficiency in Engineering, unaccompanied by any evidence of General Culture, either Literary or Scientific; but the distinction between the "Certificate" and Degree is, we consider, sufficiently marked to justify the dispensation with such evidence in the case of the Certificate. We are, moreover, of opinion that by granting such Certificates to Students who may be unable to follow the complete course of study prescribed for Graduates, the University has been able to extend its benefits to a large class which might otherwise be excluded from them, and which, living as it does in the immediate neighbourhood of the University, should certainly be as far as possible brought into contact with its influences.
Museums, &c.
101. The University is fortunate in the possession of a good Museum, called the Hunterian Museum. This Museum contains a general collection bequeathed to the University in 1783 by Doctor Wm. Hunter, together with £8,000 for the erection of a building and the maintenance of the collection. The collection has been accommodated in the New University Buildings; it contains an important Anatomical Department, besides a Library of rare books and manuscripts, coins, and antiquities, pictures, and natural history specimens. The Museum is available for teaching purposes and maintained by the University at a cost of about £300 per annum, the whole of the original bequest having been expended. The University has also an Observatory with a considerable collection of instruments. The Professor of Anatomy has a collection of his own and another purchased by the University, the two together forming a large Illustrative Class Museum. Some of the other Professors possess small Class Collections. There are a Botanic Garden and Collections in the city of Glasgow to which the University has access.
102. We learn, however, that there is a total want of funds for the maintenance of the Museums, both public and private, and that the expense of supporting the private Museums has fallen entirely on the Professors.
The Chair of Natural History
103. Our attention has been called to the position of the Chair of Natural History, the occupier of which has represented to us "that, as the Chair is at present arranged, it is perfectly impossible for the holder of that Chair to do justice to the work that is expected of him; that in the first place he is required to teach Zoology to Medical Students; in the second place he is required to teach Geology to Students of Engineering; that those two offices are incompatible, since to discharge the one adequately he would require to spend his whole year in dissections and indoor study; and to do the work of the other, he would require to be the major part of the year in the field, making investigations in geology, and that the combination of the two duties renders
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it imperative upon the teacher to neglect, to some considerable extent, one or the other. In my own case", says Professor Young, "I have been obliged to surrender the Geological Section of my work to some extent, so as to attend more thoroughly to the Medical Students, the requirements of the General Medical Council making it imperative upon me that I should do my best for the very large number of Medical Students who attend my class."
This Chair receives £200 altogether from a Parliamentary Grant, and the fees amount to about £260. Sir Wm. Thomson expresses his opinion that it is, perhaps, the most insufficiently endowed of all the Professorships in the University. There is a complete concurrence of testimony with regard to the objectionable character of the arrangement under which this Professor has charge of the two subjects of Zoology and Geology, and as to the inadequacy of this Endowment. Dr. Allen Thomson, the Professor of Anatomy, is of opinion that there would be great advantage in separating the two subjects and assigning them to distinct Chairs.
104. In this opinion we entirely concur; and we Recommend that provision be made out of moneys voted by Parliament for the Endowment of an additional Chair between which and that to which we have just referred the subjects now dealt with by Professor Young should be divided in the manner most advantageous to the University.
Deficiencies as regards Assistants
105. In this University, as in that of Edinburgh, the want of sufficient and competent assistance to the Professor forms an obstacle in the way of the efficient Teaching and Study of Science. It appears from the table quoted on p. 16 that no provision is made either from Parliamentary Grants or from University Revenues for the payment of Assistants to the Professors of Civil Engineering, Natural History, or Botany.
106. The Natural History Professor states that -
But for the accident that I am Keeper of the Museum, I should be absolutely without assistance. There is an Assistant Keeper of the Museum, who receives a salary of £100 a year from the University; and in my own interest I pay him £25 a year out of my own pocket to secure his co-operation in the Geological Course. Other assistance I have none as regards the Chair. What assistance I have, therefore, comes entirely out of my own pocket, and no provision in the Universities Act admits of my receiving such assistance, because the terms of the Act go to forbid an increase of the emoluments of any Professor.
The same Professor complains that in his own department he suffers "from the want of some one who would undertake especially the Histological Course, requiring a great deal of time to be expended upon the preparation of the specimens, and upon the instruction of the students in the method of preparing those specimens. In Geology I am practically at a standstill, as regards the special training of Engineering Students, from want of some one who could undertake a sufficiently good course of instruction in Mining. For three years, at my own expense, I procured the assistance of a medical student who had come to the profession from the pit, who gave a course each year of 10 or 12 lectures upon Practical Mining. I paid him, and I supplied him with the necessary plant and all the expenses required for taking the party out to the field for practical instruction."
107. The Professor of Engineering makes the following statement:
In connexion with the teaching of the scientific principles of Naval Architecture, which I have mentioned as one of the subjects of my lectures, there should be an assistant, a lecturer, or a teacher of some kind, to teach a variety of details that are not properly the subject of lectures, but such details as are taught in the Royal School of Naval Architecture, namely, the preparation of the plans of a ship and the making of a set of routine calculations which in designing a ship are always required. This, in fact, can only be done by the help of some assistant or teacher for that purpose.
108. Sir William Thomson observes, "that it is absolutely necessary, for the efficiency of the teaching and for the position of the Professors in respect to the Advancement of Science, that there should be a sufficient number of assistants of the Tutorial Class".
109. The Professor of Anatomy states that, in conducting his practical or laboratory work, he has the aid of a Demonstrator and several Assistants, and that such employment is much desired by young men of merit.
110. The Professor of Chemistry has two Assistants under the Ordinances of the Commissioners; these are both Skilled Assistants and receive £100 a year each from a Parliamentary vote.
Conclusion and Recommendation
111. Upon a review of this Evidence we are of opinion that an increase in the payments on account of Assistants to the Scientific Professors is essential to the promotion of the Teaching of Science in this University; and we recommend that the Government Grant
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be augmented sufficiently to permit the University to make this increase, and to revise the Salaries of the Scientific Professors, regard being had to the disparity of their endowments, and to the income which they derive from fees; an account of the expenditure of this Annual Grant being submitted to the Government with a view to the exercise of Parliamentary control.
THE ANDERSONIAN INSTITUTION
112. Before leaving the subject of Scientific Instruction in Glasgow, we desire to refer briefly to the Evidence we have received as to an Institution in that City known as "Anderson's University". This Institution was founded under the will of John Anderson, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Glasgow, towards the close of the last century, with the object of affording a higher education to the working classes of Glasgow. It is governed by eighty-one Trustees, and by nine Managers elected by the Trustees. In the will of its Founder, it is designated a University, and has Departments which are termed Faculties of Arts, Medicine, Law, and Theology, but as it has neither a Charter nor the power of granting Degrees, it is not a University, nor has it Faculties, in the usual sense of those terms. The Faculty of Arts includes Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry. The Faculties of Law and Theology are both in abeyance.
It is stated in the Evidence that, "with the exception of philosophical apparatus and personal effects, there was little else than the formation of the system mentioned in the will wherewith to carry out the intentions of the Founder".
The Institution, of which the system was indicated in the will, has, we are told, "been maintained, up to the present day, in its present efficient condition, through the perseverance of the Trustees and the occasional gifts from time to time of the citizens of Glasgow". The Trustees have also, it would seem, at different times, made purchases of property which has been mortgaged to banks, the Institution paying the interest of the loan. More recently the Institution has received liberal gifts of £10,500 from Mr. Young "for the purpose of establishing a Chair of Technical Chemistry"; of £2,100 from Mr. Euing for building purposes; and of £5,000 from Mr. Freeland for the extinction of debt. No endowments have, however, been attached to any of the Faculties, and the Lecturers are dependant upon fees. Until lately they were obliged to pay rent for lecture-rooms.
113. The attendance on the Scientific Classes appears to be fairly numerous. In addition to these, Popular Classes have, from the first, been carried on in the evening, and the attendance at these appears to be increasing. £7,500 has been assigned by Mr. Freeland, and £3,000 by Mr. Euing of Glasgow, in support of these classes. The number of the Students attending the Institution in 1873-74 is shown by the Calendar to have been 2,499.
114. The fees payable are as follows:
Faculty of Arts:
Chemistry (lectures and demonstrations), £2 2s per course of six months.
Technical Chemistry, £18 per session of nine months, £7 for three months, or £2 10s for one month.
Faculty of Medicine:
Class fees for each course of lectures: First session £2 2s, second session £1 1s, afterwards free.
Anatomy class fees, for both courses (lectures and demonstrations): First session £4 4s; second series £4 4s; summer session, with dissection, &c., £1 1s.
Practical Anatomy: the Dissecting room is free for two Sessions to those who attend both courses of Anatomy; after the second year, the fee for Practical Anatomy is £1 1s per Session.
Ophthalmic Surgery: Attendance gratis by paying a Matriculation Fee of 5s.
The fees for all the Lectures and Hospital Practice required of Candidates for the Diplomas of Physician and Surgeon amount to £50.
The fee for attendance at the Evening Classes is 2s 6d or 3s, except in the case of one Course, that of Applied Mechanics, in which a fee of 10s 6d is charged; the payment of these fees entitles the Student to admission to a library of 6,000 volumes.
115. There does not appear to be any regular System of Examinations in connexion with the Evening Classes; the Students can, however, present themselves at the Examina-
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tions of the Science and Art Department. We have received from Mr. McClelland, one of the Trustees of the Institution, a table showing the occupations of over a thousand of the Students by whom these Evening Lectures are attended. This table proves that the working classes of Glasgow are in the habit of availing themselves extensively of them; the order of students, on the other hand, who attend the Faculties of Medicine and of Arts, is pretty much the same as that by which the Glasgow University is attended. We observe that Students attending these Classes are drawn from all parts of the United Kingdom.
116. It has been suggested to us that this Institution might, under certain circumstances, receive a Charter, in order to enable it to compete, on more equal terms, with the University of Glasgow. In this suggestion we are not able to concur; the proper function of the Institution is, we believe, to afford facilities for education to those classes whose means or opportunities do not permit them to follow a University course. The competition for students of the same class to which we have already referred is, perhaps, inevitable, but should not, at all events, be encouraged; nor do we believe that an increase in the number of Degree Giving Bodies in Scotland is desirable in the interests of the Higher Education of that Country.
It has also been suggested to us that the Institution might be used as a Central Establishment for the Training of Scientific Teachers, and that it might receive a Government Endowment for this purpose.
ST. ANDREW'S
The Colleges and Scientific Chairs
117. This University contains two Colleges, the United College of St. Salvator and St. Leonard, and St. Mary's College.
118. The Scientific Department of the University consists of five Chairs, comprising Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, a Chair of Civil History and Natural History, and of Medicine and Anatomy. A certain degree of acquaintance with the subjects taught by the Professors occupying the first three of these Chairs is required of all Students Graduating in Arts. The Theological Students are required to attend the lectures of the Mathematical and Natural Philosophy Professors.
119. The Professor of Mathematics "teaches in the junior class six books of Euclid, Algebra as far as Simple Equations, including ratio and proportion, and the Theory of Arithmetic. In the second class Algebra, Plane Trigonometry, the application of Algebra to Geometry, Trigonometry, and Conic Sections. In the third, or senior class, for three days a week he teaches Analytical Trigonometry, Analytical Conic Sections, and Differential find Integral Calculus."
120. The Professor of Natural Philosophy "teaches one class, lecturing seven hours a week. His subjects are the Properties of Matter and of Force, including Inertia, Gravitation, Molecular Forces, Laws of Motion, Conservation of Energy, &c., Dynamics or Mechanics, including Hydrostatics and Pneumatics, Sound, Heat, Light, Electricity, Astronomy, and Meteorology."
121. The Professor of Chemistry "teaches one class, lecturing an hour each of the teaching days, that is five days a week, and he has a practical class, lecturing three additional hours. The subjects taught are Chemical Physics, including the Chemical Relations of Cohesion, Adhesion, Heat, Light, and Electricity; Chemical Philosophy, including the Atomic Theory; the Non-Metallic and Metallic Elements and their Compounds, and Organic Chemistry."
122. Of the Chair of Civil and Natural History, which is in private patronage, we have received the following account from the Principal of the University:
It was originally the Chair of History, which was interpreted to mean Civil History. The University Commissioners gave it the name of the Chair of Civil and Natural History. The Chair does not belong to the curriculum and it has not been practically a useful Chair ever since I recollect, and my recollection extends to the period when I was a Student, as well as since I became officially connected with the University. Dr. Ferrie was the Professor when I was a Student, and he lectured occasionally upon General History. The class was attended for three or four lectures, and then it ceased. Dr. McDonald, the present Professor, has occasionally managed to get a class, but from many causes the class has not been regular.
Then you would say that the University at present gives no instruction in any branch of Natural History? - I cannot say that it does.
This condition of things was, however, described by another Witness as only temporary, and we learn that on the death of Dr. Macdonald, a Naturalist was appointed to this Chair.
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123. The Professor of Medicine and Anatomy has a class described to us by the Principal as a semi-popular one; the lecture being chiefly devoted to the hygienic aspects of the subject. No Examination is held in this Class, which generally numbers about 30 and is chiefly attended by the Senior Students.
Museum and Library
124. The University Museum is represented to us as fairly good; the collection is mainly a local one, but it is pretty complete in all the Departments of Natural History, and as a Teaching Museum it is in excellent condition.
The University Library is a very extensive one, consisting of about 110,000 volumes; but the buildings in which it is placed do not afford proper accommodation for the books. These buildings, like most of those in the Scottish Universities, are the property of the Nation, and the expediency of a grant for their extension has, we are informed, been under the consideration of different Governments during recent years.
Financial Statement
125. The Capital Fund of the University is about £21,000, and its annual income consists of the interest on this sum, and the Matriculation and Graduation Fees, amounting to £500 or £600 a year. A sum of £600 a year, received as commutation of the University's right to books from Stationers' Hall, is spent upon the Library. The total expenditure upon this, however, including salaries to librarians, exceeds this amount. The income of the Colleges may be taken at £2,670, but the appropriation of the whole of the College revenues is determined by Act of Parliament or by Ordinance of the Commissioners, so that there is no surplus revenue from College Funds available for other purposes. We have received from the Senior Principal the following Statement of the only sums which can, in his opinion, be considered as applied from Endowment, or from Votes by Parliament to the Advancement of Science or 'to Scientific Instruction in the University of St. Andrew's:
EMOLUMENTS of the following CHAIRS in the UNIVERSITY of ST. ANDREW'S (year 1870)
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*These sums represent the additions to the Emoluments of the Chairs recommended by the Commissioners of 1858.
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126. A similar return for the past year will be found in the Appendix. It will be seen that the emoluments of the Scientific Professors are uniformly low.
Number of Students, and amount of Fees
127. The number of Students attending the Classes in the Faculty of Arts during the Session 1874-75 was 118. The number attending the Faculty of Theology was 23, making a total of 141 Students, thus distributed among the Colleges:
Number of Matriculated Students at the United College | 118 |
Number of Matriculated Students at St. Mary's College | 23 |
128. Students attending the United College pay a Matriculation Fee of £1 on entering, and a fee of £3 3s for each Class they may attend during the Session. Should they attend three Classes, which is the average number, the annual payment made by each Student amounts to £10 9s. In the event of their proceeding to Graduation in Arts, a further fee of £1 1s is payable for each of the three Departments of Examination. Students of St. Mary's College pay a Matriculation Fee of £1, and a Fee of £2 2s for each of the Classes they attend, which is in general three in number.
Deficiency as regards Assistants and Apparatus
129. The Scientific Instruction given in the University of St. Andrew's suffers equally with that given in the other Scottish Universities from the want of Skilled Assistants.
130. With regard to Laboratories and Apparatus, we have it in Evidence that although the Professors of Chemistry and of Civil and Natural History, and of Medicine and Anatomy, have their respective apparatus, and receive annually from the University a grant for the purpose of adding to and restoring it, the apparatus is very inadequate and the sum allowed insufficient for the purpose for which it is intended. The Principal of the University expresses his conviction that the University requires additional apparatus and appliances for teaching, and states that the University has no funds available for the purpose.
131. The Professor of Chemistry receives from the University an annual grant of £52 10s for all the working expenses, including apparatus, chemicals, and Assistants. It is scarcely matter for surprise that the whole of this sum should not have sufficed to provide the two former items, and that the Professor has in consequence never had any assistance at all except that which one of the Senior Students has, from time to time, been, in his own interests, willing to afford. The Professor has given it as his opinion that, "in present circumstances, an assistant at a salary of not less than £80 is absolutely necessary; and it would require a sum of from £100 to £120 for the purposes of apparatus and chemicals, and waste of materials", that being the amount of the sum which he has voluntarily made up out of his own pocket, in order to keep the class in efficient working.
132. The Professor of Natural Philosophy receives also £52 10s for all expenses, and out of this sum £12 only is, he informs us, available for the payment of an assistant. When
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asked, "Do you feel the want of an assistant of a different kind from that which you are enabled to provide under the present arrangements?" the Professor replied:
I do very much indeed. Indeed, I am obliged every day that I give an experimental lecture to work for a great many hours, never less than four hours, doing a great deal of work which an assistant ought to do. Then on the other alternate days, by anticipation, I am also obliged to work in preparing experiments, so that a great deal of time is occupied in doing common work, which an assistant might do. Even our present stock of apparatus is valuable, and will, every year, become more so; and in the event of increased grants, we may expect to have a very valuable stock of apparatus in a few years. It is extremely desirable that some Curator of such a collection of apparatus should be provided, able to take care of it. Such an assistant as I have, at £12 a year, although he is an extremely intelligent and perfectly honest man, has not knowledge enough to be entrusted with such a collection. It would need a man specially educated to take charge of such a collection.
133. The Scottish Universities Commissioners, who, in consequence of the inadequacy of the resources at their command, provided very insufficiently for the appointment of Assistants to the Scientific Staff of the other Universities, did not recommend a grant for this purpose to the University of St. Andrew's, which has accordingly been obliged to fall back upon its own slender resources.
134. It is our opinion that the Teaching of Science should be encouraged in this, as in every other University, as a part of the groundwork of a Complete System of Education, and that the Staff of the University, and the Appliances at its disposal, should be sufficient to secure this end. We are not, however, disposed to suggest any steps which might have the effect of erecting at St. Andrew's Technical or Medical Schools such as those of Glasgow or Edinburgh.
Proposed Connection with Dundee
135. The University of St. Andrew's is distant 11 or 12 miles in a direct line from the town of Dundee, from which, moreover, it has been hitherto effectually separated by the intervening Firth of Tay. The completion of the bridge now under construction will, however, render the town and the University much more accessible to each other, and it has been suggested that advantage should be taken of their vicinity in order to connect them for purposes of education.
136. We have received Evidence with regard to the expediency of establishing Classes, taught by the University Staff, for artisans in the town of Dundee, and of founding in Dundee a School of Science affiliated to, and in close relations with, the University. A large building known as the Albert Hall, and containing a Public Library, has been designated as suitable for some such purpose. Whatever may be the decision ultimately arrived at, it must be obvious that no such instruction could be given in Dundee by the University Staff, unless that staff were very considerably increased. The Professors have already as much work as they are able to undertake. We have pointed out that they are far from being adequately provided with skilled assistance, and it would, we think, be unreasonable to expect that they should, in addition to their present lectures and practical classes, travel backwards and forwards between St. Andrew's and Dundee in order to lecture to working men in the evening, or to attend to such Students as might be unable or unwilling to make the short journey between the two places.
137. A certain number of the Students are natives of Dundee, and we may expect that the number will increase. Many of these Students would, in the event of effect being given to such a scheme as that which has been indicated to us, probably cease to reside at St. Andrew's, and would lose thereby the opportunities offered them for acquiring the groundwork of a sound general education. It is further to be observed that the Establishment of a separate Science School in Dundee would necessitate, not only an increase in the University Staff, but also additional Laboratories, and of other appliances which could not be provided except at a very large increase of expense; while, as we have already stated, there are no funds at present available for these purposes. Such an arrangement could only be justified on the grounds of its absolute necessity, and of this we are by no means satisfied, taking into consideration, on the one hand, the ease with which a student who is able to devote the greater part of the day to his studies will be able to attend the St. Andrew's Courses, and, on the other hand, the partial and limited character of the Instruction which artisans, or other persons most of whose time is engaged in professional or commercial pursuits are likely to derive from attendance at Evening Classes.
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138. We desire, also, to express our disapprobation of the suggestion which has, it would appear, been made to the University, that the Scientific Chairs of St. Andrew's University should be transferred bodily to Dundee, and that a separate Faculty of Science should be created in that town. It seems to us almost needless to insist on the hardship which such an arrangement would involve to those Students who now undergo, while in residence at St. Andrew's, a course of combined Literary and Scientific Instruction, and who might be called upon to attend possibly during the same day classes in each of the two towns. We should object to the Scheme on this ground alone, but we do so still more from our conviction that it is undesirable to decentralise and separate the different Faculties of the same Universities. Such a System tends in the direction of narrow and specialised education, widely different from that general and broadly grounded culture which it is the true province of a University to promote.
139. Since the date at which our Evidence was received, we have been made aware of the existence of a Scheme which has met with considerable encouragement in the town of Dundee, and of which the intention is to found in that town "a College in which might be acquired the highest attainments in Literature, Science, and Art". Such a College might, it was suggested, be affiliated to the neighbouring University, the connection implying "that the Teaching of the College is recognized by the University as sufficient to authorize the Students in that College to compete for Degrees conferred by the University". The cost of giving effect to such a scheme is estimated by its promoters at a sum of not less than £225,000. We have no Evidence of the probability of a sum of this magnitude being raised by local or other contributions, and we do not, therefore, feel called upon to express any opinion with regard to the merits of the Scheme, of which the outline only has been before us. We cannot, however, believe that a University so ancient and so distinguished as that of St. Andrew's, possessing a complete University Organization, and a Town of the wealth and enterprise of Dundee, are likely to remain long dissociated; or that the citizens of Dundee, in the event of the establishment of easier and more rapid communication with St. Andrew's, will be slow to avail themselves of the advantages afforded by the proximity of the University.
If, in consequence of such an association, the University were required greatly to extend its establishments for the Teaching of Science, we should not hesitate to recommend that local efforts to meet the necessary expenditure should be supported by a further contribution from Public Funds.
Conclusion and Recommendations
140. The University of St. Andrew's enjoys and admirable situation, and it is supported by the traditions and associations of a long and interesting history; it needs, we believe, in order to the full development of its usefulness for the purposes of Scientific Instruction, only such assistance as will enable the Professors to give efficiently that education which, with the limited means at their disposal, they are now endeavouring to provide.
141. We Recommend that such assistance should be afforded by an increase of the Government Grant sufficient to enable the University to provide the Professors with an adequate Staff and with the proper appliances for Instruction in Science, and to revise the salaries of the Scientific Professors, regard being had to the disparity of their endowments, and to the income which they derive from fees; an account of the Annual Grant being submitted to the Government, with a view to the exercise of Parliamentary control.
142. If this be done, we see no reason why the University should not be able, without dismemberment or removal, to enlarge considerably the area to which its benefits extend.
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ABERDEEN
143. It will be observed, on reference to the Correspondence printed in the Appendix to this Report, that the University of Aberdeen has declined to avail itself of the opportunities offered to it of tendering Evidence before this Commission.
144. We have, however, received from the Principal, the following Statement of the sums (derived from Endowments or from Parliamentary Grants) which are available for Scientific Instruction in the University:
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145. The Arts Curriculum in this University does not appear to differ materially, in so far as the Scientific Subjects which form a part of it are concerned, from that of the other Scottish Universities, with the exception that, under Ordinance 18, it has required all Candidates for Graduation to attend the Lectures of one of the Professors in the Department of Natural Science.
146. No Degree is given in Science, but Candidates for Graduation with Honours in Arts may offer themselves for examination in the Department of Natural Science, which includes, as in the other Universities, Geology, Zoology, Chemistry, and Botany. The Regulations for Graduation appear to us to be judicious, and in accordance with the principles which we have advocated should be adopted elsewhere.
147. The University contains a Medical School, and we learn from the Calendar that there is a Museum of Natural History containing collections of Zoological, Geological and Mineralogical Specimens, and that there are other Collections used for purposes of illustration in connection with the different Classes of the Medical School.
148. The number of Students attending the University Courses in the University of Aberdeen during the past Session (1874-75) was as follows:
Faculty of Arts | 336 |
Faculty of Divinity | 36 |
Faculty of Law | 14 |
Faculty of Medicine | 227 |
| 613 |
Students in both Arts and Medicine (8); Students in both Divinity and Medicine (2) | 10 |
Total number of Students | 603 |
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149. The average amount of the fees payable by the Students per annum is as follows:
| £ s d |
Faculty of Arts | 7 12 0 |
Faculty of Divinity | 5 13 4 |
Faculty of Law | 5 4 0 |
Faculty of Medicine | 12 0 6 |
150. As in the other Scottish Universities, a large number of bursaries, or scholarships, are annually distributed among the Students. These bursaries are, we are informed, 240 in number, and worth about £4,000 a year. With the exception of those referred to in the above table, we do not learn that any of these are specially available as rewards for Proficiency in Science. We are, however, reminded by Professor Bain, in a letter printed in the Appendix, that "the effect of these bursaries is to educate and assist in maintaining upwards of 200 young men while pursuing a mixed Curriculum of Literature and the Sciences, the Literature consisting of the three languages, English, Latin, and Greek; the Sciences being Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Natural History, Logic, and Moral Philosophy." The bursaries vary in value from about £10 to about £35 a year, and average about £17, while the cost of education is under £10 a year. We are glad to learn from Professor Bain that - "Nearly two thirds of the bursaries are given by public competition, the collective annual value of these being about £2,500, but the subjects of competition were in former days confined to Classical Literature. For several years one fourth of the marks has been given for Mathematics, and by a Scheme, coming into operation next year, Chemistry and Zoology are admitted into the list of subjects. The obvious tendency of such a competition is to make the bursaries instrumental in stimulating the study of Science in the Schools preparatory to the University."
Summary of Recommendations with regard to the Universities of Scotland
151. In conclusion of our Inquiry into the Universities of Scotland, we beg leave to submit the following Summary of the Recommendations which we have had occasion to make in the course of the above Report:
With regard to The University of Edinburgh we have Recommended:
I. That increased assistance be given, both in the form of a Capital Sum in aid of a well-considered Scheme of Extension, and in that of an Annual Grant sufficient to enable the University - (1) To increase the number, and, in some cases, the emoluments of Assistants; (2) To make more ample provision of Apparatus for Teaching; and (3) To revise the Salaries of the Scientific Professors, regard being had to the disparity of their endowments, and to the income which they derive from fees.
II. That the Grant of any Capital Sum in aid of the Extension of the University be contingent upon the receipt of substantial contributions from private sources.
With regard to The University of Glasgow, we have Recommended:
I. That the Chair of Natural History be divided in the manner most advantageous to the University; and that provision be made out of moneys voted by Parliament for endowing a new Professorship.
II. That the Government Grant be augmented sufficiently to enable the University to make an increase in the Payments on account of Assistants to the Scientific Professors, and to revise the Salaries of the Scientific Professors; regard being had to the disparity of their endowments, and to the income which they derive from fees.
With regard to The University of St. Andrew's, we have Recommended:
I. That assistance be afforded by an increase of the Government Grant sufficient to enable the University to provide the Professors with an adequate Staff and with proper Appliances for Instruction in Science; and to revise the Salaries of the Scientific Professors, regard being had to the disparity of their endowments, and to the income which they derive from fees.
We have also Recommended generally:
I. That an account of the Expenditure of any Annual Grant made to the Universities above referred to, be submitted to the Government, with a view to the exercise of Parliamentary control.
II. That for the future two Classes be recognized in the Natural Science Honours List.
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III. The University of Dublin and Trinity College
152. The University of Dublin contains only a single College, Trinity College, which was founded by Queen Elizabeth in 1591, and created a Corporate Body, consisting originally of a Provost, three Fellows, and three Scholars. The Foundation has been enlarged from time to time, and there are now 7 Senior and 26 Junior Fellowships, and 70 Foundation Scholarships.
153. The principal subjects referred to in the Evidence which we have taken with regard to the University of Dublin and Trinity College, are the following:
I. The Courses of Study and the Examinations.
II. The Exhibitions, Scholarships, and Studentships.
III. The Provostship and the Fellowships.
IV. The Professoriate.
V. Museums and other Scientific Institutions.
VI. The Council.
I. THE COURSES OF STUDY AND THE EXAMINATIONS
154. For admission into the University, a Student has to pass an Entrance Examination, which includes Classical and other Literary Subjects, together with Arithmetic and the elementary parts of Algebra. At the Entrance Examination there is a further Examination for Honours which is confined to Classical and other Literary Subjects.
155. Sizarships, tenable for four years, may be obtained at Entrance. They are awarded by the result of a Competitive Examination, which, however, is open only to Students of limited means. One Sizarship is awarded annually for proficiency in Mathematics.
156. As regards the mode of obtaining a Bachelor of Arts Degree, the University of Dublin occupies a position intermediate between the older English Universities, on the one hand, and the University of London, on the other. At Dublin, as at Oxford and Cambridge, a certain number of Terms must be kept before the Degree can be obtained, and provision is made for the Instruction and Discipline of Resident Students; but a Non-resident Student is accounted as having kept a Term if he passes an Examination held at the beginning of the following Term. There are thus two distinct ways in which a Term may be kept: (1) by actual residence, combined with attendance at the prescribed Courses of Lectures; (2) by passing the Term Examination.
157. There are three Terms in each year - the Michaelmas, Hilary, and Trinity Terms - and the Undergraduate Course extends over four years. It is not, however, essential that the Student should keep all these twelve Terms. He must pass in succession through the four Classes of Junior Freshman, Senior Freshman, Junior Sophister, and Senior Sophister, Classes which are designed to consist of Students of the first, second, third, and fourth years respectively. To pass from Junior to Senior Freshman, the Student must have kept at least one Term by examination in his first year. To rise to Junior Sophister, he must have kept at least three Terms in all, of which one at least (which may be kept in either way) must be kept in the Senior Freshman's year, and he must further pass an Examination at the beginning of the third year. The Final Examination for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts is held in the Michaelmas Term of the Senior Sophister year, and before admission to it the Student must have kept one term by Examination as Junior Sophister, one Term either way as Senior Sophister, and a third Term either way in either year.
158. Thus, a Student, before presenting himself for the Final Examination for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts, must have kept at least six Terms, properly distributed, of which two at least must have been kept by Examination, and he must have passed one Examination besides the Entrance Examination and those by which Terms are kept.
159. The natural operation of these rules would be that Resident Students would, as a rule, keep many more Terms than the minimum required, for the sake of profiting by the Lectures, while Non-Residents would content themselves with passing the Examinations absolutely required, with perhaps, such additional days of examination as are given to Candidates for Honours. Thus, as regards Residents, although only six Terms, of which two must be kept by Examination, are nominally required in the whole of the four years, the system practically agrees with that which prevails at Oxford and Cambridge; while, as regards Non-Residents, although a larger number of examinations are required to be passed than at the University of London, the position of the University towards the Student is in principle the same, and the University acts merely as an Examining Board.
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160. It is stated by Mr. Jellett, that it is the general opinion at Trinity College that this substitution of attendance on Lectures for a part of the Examinations which would otherwise be required for Degrees works satisfactorily; and that it is generally thought that attendance at a Course of Lectures, which are, in a large degree, catechetical, is a more satisfactory test, and communicates to the Student a greater amount of knowledge than a simple preparation for an examination, no matter how good the examination, may be. It is found in practice that Candidates for Honours almost universally attend Courses of Lectures.
161. The obligatory Subjects of Study in the several years are as follows: In the first year Mathematics and some Classics; in the second, Logic, a certain amount of Metaphysics, and again Classics; in the third, Mathematical Physics, namely Mechanics and Astronomy, and either Classics or Experimental or Natural Science, in the fourth, Astronomy and Ethics, and two out of the four branches - Classics, Experimental Physics, Mathematical Physics, Natural Science.
162. In the designation of these Courses, it should be observed that the term "Natural Science", being distinguished from "Experimental Science", is used in a restricted sense. The subjects embraced in it are Zoology, Botany, Geology, and (in the case of Moderatorships). Physiology and Comparative Anatomy.
163. A Student is free to devote himself to Science alone from the end of his second year; and as the first year is allowed to be counted by passing an Entrance Examination held near the end of the third Term, and one First-year Examination held at the beginning of the first Term of the following academical year, a Science Student may be free from the obligation to study Classics after little more than a year from entrance; and, supposing he takes his Degree of Bachelor of Arts at the usual time, he has then two years left of his Undergraduate Course, which he may devote to) the Study of Science.
164. At each Term-Examination, there are Examinations for those Students who are qualified to become Candidates for Honours in the several Departments of Undergraduate Studies in that class. The Honours Courses are as follows: (1) Junior Freshmen: Mathematics; Classics. (2) Senior Freshmen: Mathematics; Classics; Logic. (3) Junior Sophisters: Mathematical Physics; Classics; Metaphysics; Experimental Science; Natural Science; Modern History; Modern Literature. (4) Senior Sophisters: Mathematical Physics; Classics.; Ethics; Experimental Science; Natural Science; History and Political Science; Modern Literature.
165. At the Examination for the Bachelor of Arts Degree, which is held in the Michaelmas Term of the fourth year, examinations are held for Special Honours called Moderatorships. There are seven Courses in which Moderatorships may be obtained; namely, 1, Mathematics and Mathematical Physics; 2, Classics; 3, Mental and Moral Philosophy; 4, Experimental Science; 5, Natural Science;. 6, History and Political Science; 7, Modern Literature. In each subject the Moderatorships are arranged. in two Divisions, Senior and Junior, according to merit.
166. There are four Professorial Schools recognized by the University; namely, Divinity, Law, Medicine and Surgery; and Engineering. Degrees are granted in those several Faculties, but only after the Preliminary Degree of Bachelor of Arts has been obtained. Professional Students follow the usual Arts Course for the first two years, after which they are at liberty to commence their Professional Studies. If they do so, they are excused a portion of the Arts Courses for which they may substitute more strictly Professional Studies. The Professional Studies occupy two years at the least.
THE EXHIBITIONS, SCHOLARSHIPS, AND STUDENTSHIPS
167. It has been already mentioned that Sizarships are obtainable at entrance. These, however, being designed to assist the poorer class of Students, and being restricted to those whose parents or guardians are of limited means, do not fall under the head of emoluments awarded pureIy according to merit.
168. In 1870 it was resolved by the Board that 20 Exhibitions of the value of £25 a year each, and tenable for two years, should be awarded annually, provided sufficient merit were shown by the Candidates. Of these Exhibitions 12, which are called Junior Exhibitions, are offered for competition to Students of the first year, and the remaining 8, which are called Senior Exhibitions, are obtainable at the close of the second year.
169. The Junior Exhibitions are awarded according to the result of an Examination held in Classics and other Literary Subjects, and in Mathematics as far as Elementary Trigonometry.
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170. The Senior Exhibitions are awarded according to the marks obtained partly in a Special Examination in subjects similar to the above, and in Logic and Locke; partly in the Prize Examinations in Mathematics, Classics, Logics, and English Literature and Composition.
171. There are 70 Foundation Scholarships, tenable from the time of election till the holder is of M.A. standing. The Scholars are of two classes, elected for Scientific and for Classical Merit respectively. Candidates for Science Scholarships are examined in Pure and Applied Mathematics, together with a certain amount of Logic and Metaphysics. The value attached to the several branches in the Examination is expressed by the following numbers: Pure Mathematics, 250; Applied Mathematics, 250; Logic and Metaphysics, 100. Candidates for these Scholarships are at liberty to substitute the course in Experimental Physics of the Junior Sophister year for the course in Logic.
172. There are also seven Scholarships, of Private Foundation, for subjects not connected with Science, and 30 Scholarships founded by the Commissioners of Education in Ireland for Students from the Royal Schools of Armagh, Dungannon, Enniskillen, or Cavan. These latter are awarded for general proficiency in a course comprising Classics, English Language and Literature, Modern Languages, and Science. The number of marks assigned to Scientific Subjects is 100 out of 450. The principal Scientific Subject is Pure Mathematics as far as Plane Trigonometry. The Examination includes, however, Physical, as well as Descriptive Geography.
173. By a Royal Statute of 22 Victoria, 14 Studentships were founded in Trinity College open to candidates of all religious denominations, to be tenable for a period not exceeding seven years, with a salary to be fixed by the Provost and Senior Fellows, not exceeding £100 a year. Two Students are elected every year according to the results of the Moderatorship Examinations. The award is decided by the aggregate merit in two Courses, one Primary and one Secondary, which bear credit as 3 to 2. The Primary Course must be one of the two - Mathematics and Physics, or Classics. The Secondary Course may he either the remaining one of those two, or any other of the Moderatorship Courses.
THE PROVOSTSHIP AND THE FELLOWSHIPS
174. The Provost, who is the Resident Head of the College, is appointed by the Crown. Besides presiding over the whole College, he is, in common with the Senior Fellows, responsible for the Examinations which devolve on the Board.
175. There are 33 Fellowships, which are tenable for life, irrespective of the restriction of celibacy, and are now open to all without distinction of creed. These are divided into 7 Senior and 26 Junior. The Senior Fellowships are filled by co-optation from the Junior; the Junior by an annual election in case there be a vacancy. The average number of vacancies has latterly been hardly more than one per annum.
176. The Fellowships are awarded in accordance with the results of a Special Examination extending over a wide range of subjects comprised in four principal courses, the relative importance of which is approximately determined by numbers representing the maximum obtainable by the highest possible answering in the several courses. These numbers are as follows:
Mathematics, Pure and Applied | | 1,000 |
Experimental Science | | 300 |
Classics | 800) | 900 |
Hebrew and Cognate Languages | 100) |
Mental and Moral Science | | 500 |
177. It will be seen that Classics and Mathematics rank considerably above any other course. Mr. Jellett says in his evidence, "If a student's object is to obtain a Fellowship, he must, practically speaking, be either a good mathematician or a good classical scholar. I think that a man who is neither a good mathematician nor a good classical scholar would have a very slight chance indeed of obtaining a Fellowship."
178. The award being made strictly in accordance with the result of an examination, there is no provision for taking account of Original Research in the estimate of the merit of a candidate. Mr. Jellett observes on this point: "The thing I know has been talked of several times, but we never could see a practical way of carrying out such a thing."
179. It is understood that the emoluments of a Senior Fellowship in Trinity College, Dublin are much greater than at Oxford or Cambridge. As regards the Junior Fellows, their income is, to a great extent, dependent upon their being all engaged in College work. Mr. Jellett says, "All our Fellows are engaged in teaching. We have no Fellowships of the nature that they have at Oxford and Cambridge; they are more
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of the nature of prizes. We take a man's life, and we require him to give his life to it."
180. Formerly, there was a certain number of Non-Tutorial Junior Fellowships, but now all the Junior Fellows have to give lectures, whether they be Professors or not. As the staff is large, and the lectures of the Fellows naturally harmonise with their own pursuits they, or, at least, many of them, have a good deal of leisure, and have, therefore, an opportunity of engaging in Original Research, which is by no means neglected.
181. A Junior Fellow may look forward to succeeding in time to the seniority. The Senior Fellows are exempt from the duty of lecturing, but, with the Provost, form a Board to which, within the limits prescribed by the Statutes, or by any Regulation made by the Senate at large, is entrusted the General Management of the University. On this Board devolves also the Duty of Examining for Fellowships, Scholarships, and Sizarships; but it is at liberty to avail itself of the aid of Assistant Examiners chosen from among the Professors or Junior Fellows. Such, at least, were the rules prior to the Establishment of the New Council.
THE PROFESSORIATE
182. Most of the Professorships in the University of Dublin, which are of ancient foundation, were established to promote the study of Divinity or Literature, but several have of recent years been founded in various brunches of Science, and the University possesses the power of establishing additional Professorships as they may seem to be required. The following is a list of the Scientific Professorships at present existing, including therein those which refer to Professional Studies of a Scientific Nature:
Designation of Professor - Foundation of Professorship
Regius Professor of Physic 1761
Lord Donegal's Lecturer in Mathematics,* about 1660
Astronomer Royal of Ireland 1791
Erasmus Smith's Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy 1791
Erasmus Smith's Professor of Mathematics 1762
University Professor of Natural Philosophy 1847
Regius Professor of Surgery 1852
Professor of Anatomy and Surgery 1785
Professor of Chemistry 1785
Professor of Botany 1735
Professor of Surgery 1849
University Anatomist 1873
Professor of Comparative Anatomy 1872
These Professors are appointed by Trinity College, but belong to "the School of Physic in Ireland", which is a Medical School formed by an amalgamation of the Schools of Trinity College and of the College of Physicians. It was constituted by the Statute of 10th Geo. III. c. 84. and brought into its present form by the Statute of 30th Vict. c. 9.
Professor of Zoology 1871
Professor Extraordinary of Civil Engineering 1842
Professor of Geology 1844
Professor of Applied Chemistry 18~144
Professor of Mineralogy 1845
Professor of Civil Engineering 1852
THE COUNCIL
183. Prior to the issue of Letters Patent, dated the 4th of November 1874, the Board, formed of the Provost and Senior Fellows, was the sole Governing Body of the College, and, practically, to a considerable extent, of the University. To it was committed the regulation of the Studies, Lectures, and Examinations preliminary to obtaining Degrees in
*This Lectureship is now held by the Assistant to Erasmus Smith's Professor of Mathematics.
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Arts or Faculties in the University, and the appointment and election of Professors. But by the Letters above mentioned, a Council has been established to co-operate and have a share in the Regulation of the Studies, Lectures, and Examinations of the College, and in the Appointment and Election of Professors, and the Regulation of the tenure of office and of the duties of such Professors.
184. The Council consists of seventeen members, the Provost (or in his absence the Vice-Provost) being ex officio Member and Chairman, and the remaining sixteen being elected out of the Members of the Senate, or Public Congregation of the University, four by the Senior Fellows, four by the Junior Fellows, four by the Professors who are not Fellows, and four by those Members of the Senate who have not voted, nor been entitled to vote, at the last Election of any existing Member of the Council, either as Senior Fellows, as Junior Fellows, or as Professors.
185. The Council has the nomination to all Bursarships, except those, the nomination to which is provided for by Act of Parliament, or by the Directions of Private Founders.
186. The nomination of the Council is subject to the approval of the Board, except in the case of Bursarships in the School of Divinity. If the Board should refuse to approve a nomination of the Council, the decision rests with the Chancellor.
187. It is also provided, with certain exceptions, that any new Rules or Regulations, and any alterations in existing Regulations respecting Studies, Lectures, and Examinations, or respecting the qualifications, duties, and tenure of office of any Professor, shall require the approval both of the Board and of the Council.
MUSEUMS AND OTHER SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS
188. The following Museums are used for the purposes of Practical Instruction in Trinity College: the Museum of Natural Philosophy; the Museum of Zoology and Archæology; the Museum of Geology and Mineralogy; the Museum of Engineering Models; the Museum of Anatomy, Materia Medica, and Midwifery; the Museum of Botany. In connexion with the last must be mentioned the College Botanic Garden, which is situated about a mile from the College, and contains eight acres of ground.
189. About 20 years ago the College erected a handsome and commodious building in the College Park to contain their collections, and to provide working rooms for the Students.
Trinity College has three Chemical Laboratories. The first of these is intended for the use of the Professor and for Original Research. The second, or Student's Laboratory, is entirely devoted to Students who are learning Chemistry as a Practical Science. It is capable of accommodating 56 Students. The third Laboratory is attached to the Lecture Theatre in Applied Chemistry, and belongs more especially to the Engineering School.
190. The University possesses an Astronomical Observatory, which is available for the Instruction of Students. The Professor of Astronomy has charge of the Observatory, and is the Royal Astronomer of Ireland. This Office was founded in 1783, and since that date has been held by such distinguished men as Dr. Brinkley, Sir William Rowan Hamilton, and Dr. Brünnow.
Professor Jellett informs us that "The Astronomical Observatory has lately received large additions and improvements. The large object glass presented to Trinity College by Sir James South has been mounted as an Equatorial in an Observatory specially constructed to receive it, and a new Meridian Circle, with all the modern improvements, and carrying a telescope of six inches aperture and eight feet focal length, has been ordered from Messrs. Pistor and Martin, of Berlin, and is expected to be completed in the course of the next month."
There is also an Observatory, "erected for the special purpose of Observations in Meteorology and Terrestrial Magnetism. In this Observatory an elaborate series of Observations at stated hours has been carried on during a lengthened period; and the Results of these Observations for the first eleven years have been recently published in two quarto volumes."
191. There is at present no Laboratory specially appropriated to Physics. The University Authorities appear to be fully conscious of this defect in their Scientific Arrangements, and the erection of a Physical Laboratory on an extended scale is in contemplation.
GENERAL REMARKS
192. In Trinity College, Dublin, as in the old English Universities, the prospect of obtaining a Fellowship furnishes the highest class of Students with a powerful motive
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for exertion, and the studies for proficiency in which Fellowships are usually awarded accordingly attract special attention. The proportion of Students who are directly influenced by such considerations must, however, be considerably smaller at Trinity College, Dublin, than at Oxford or Cambridge. For not only are the Fellowships much less numerous, in proportion to the number of Students, than at the English Universities, but, inasmuch as they are tenable for life, irrespective of marriage, the succession is slower; nor could this state of things be changed without an entire remodelling of the System of Fellowships, which we do not think desirable. The great mass of Students, and even of the more promising Students, must, therefore, soon perceive that they have no chance of obtaining a Fellowship.
193. Accordingly, any alteration in the studies which have a predominant influence in the award of Fellowships would, at least in its direct influence, affect only a much smaller number of Students than at Oxford or Cambridge. Indirectly, no doubt, such change would not be without influence, for the fact that the most powerful minds are turned towards particular studies by preference, must tend to commend those studies to the great mass of the Students.
194. The rarity of vacancies renders it exceedingly difficult to reward by election to a Fellowship proficiency in any one of a variety of branches of study. There is probably but one Fellowship to be bestowed in a year, and if one or two great branches of study are selected as exercising a predominant influence, highly qualified candidates are sure to present themselves; and it would be a matter of extreme difficulty to compare first-rate claims in three or four different great branches of study.
195. We think, however, that it would be very desirable that in the election to Fellowships important Original Research should be regarded as a substantial Element of Merit; and we believe that if this were done, it would be possible, without lowering the standard of the Examination, to enlarge the Range of the Scientific Subjects included in it. We have already mentioned that the subject has not been overlooked by the University Authorities, though hitherto no practical method of dealing with it has presented itself.
196. From their Tenure and the Conditions of their Award, one object for which the Studentships are designed would seem to be, to assist those who are reading for Fellowships. The subjects, therefore, for which they are chiefly awarded naturally agree with those which enter into the Examination for Fellowships.
197. The number of Foundation Scholarships, however, annually awarded is much greater, and there appears to be no reason why they should all follow in the line of the Fellowship Examination, and be either mainly for Pure and Applied Mathematics, or else mainly for Classics. We think that some Foundation Scholarships might well be assigned as a reward for eminent proficiency in Physical or Biological Science.
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IV. The Queen's University in Ireland
FOUNDATION AND ADMINISTRATION
198. The Queen's University in Ireland was founded by Royal Charter, dated the 3rd of September, 1850. A Supplementary Charter was granted on the 17th of July, 1851; but, subsequently, both these Charters were revoked, and a New Charter was granted on the 8th of October, 1864, under which the University is at present constituted.
199. The circumstances which led to the Foundation of the Queen's University are well known, and need not be referred to here. They are sufficiently indicated by the Provisions which prohibit the University from imposing any Religious Test, from Granting any Distinction whatever or any Degree in Theology, or even from admitting any person to a Theological Examination.
200. The General Legislation, Government, and Administration of the University under the Charter, and in cases not provided for by it, are vested in the Senate of the University. The Senate consists of nineteen persons nominated, in the first instance, by the Crown, and holding their offices at the will and pleasure of the Crown. As vacancies arise, the Charter provides that every alternate vacancy shall be filled by the Convocation of the University until six places in all have been so filled up. The Senators elected by Convocation are to be elected from the Members of Convocation not holding office in any of the Colleges of the University, and each Senator so elected holds office for three years from the date of his election, or during the will and pleasure of the Crown. Outgoing Senators may be re-elected.
201. The Convocation of the University consists of the Chancellor, Senators, Secretary, Professors, and Registered Graduates of the University for the time being; all Graduates of two years' standing being entitled to register. The Powers of Convocation, besides that, already referred to, of appointing six Senators, are extremely limited. They have, however, the right of discussing any matter whatsoever relating to the University, and of declaring the opinion of Convocation thereon; due notice being given, a week previously, of any such discussion. But it is expressly provided that Convocation shall not be entitled to interfere in, or to have any control over, the affairs of the University.
202. The principal duty of the Senate is to make Byelaws and Regulations touching the Examinations and Qualifications for Degrees, and other University Distinctions; such Byelaws have, however, to be submitted to the Lord-Lieutenant, and to be approved of by him.
203. The three Queen's Colleges at Belfast, Cork and Galway were founded at the same time as the Queen's University, and are declared in its Charter to be Colleges of the University. The Presidents of the three Colleges are, ex officio, Members of the Senate. Each of the Colleges has a Charter of its own, and, in all matters of internal government; is independent of the others, and of the University. The Governing Body of each College consists of a President, and of a Council composed of six Professors elected by the Professors of the College.
COURSE OF STUDY AND THE EXAMINATIONS
204. In its general outlines the Course of Study in the Colleges is regulated by the Byelaws of the Senate, which determine the character of the University Examinations, but the manner in which the Students are to be prepared for these Examinations is left entirely to be arranged by each College. The Degrees of the University are granted only to Students who have resided and have gone through a Course of Instruction in one of the three Colleges. The Medical Degrees form, to a certain extent, an exception, as only one year of study in a Queen's College is required from a Candidate for a Medical Degree, and the remainder of his instruction may be obtained in any other Medical School. The Professors in the three Colleges have, by Charter, the status of Professors of the Queen's University, and conduct the University Examinations in that capacity; although they lecture only in their capacity as College Professors. Thus, the Examinations are under the immediate control of the University, but the Teaching in the Colleges is so only indirectly. Nevertheless, Sir Robert Kane contends that the Queen's University "may be regarded quite as much as the University of Edinburgh, or the
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University of Oxford or of Cambridge, to be strictly and properly a Teaching University." "We attach", he adds, "some importance to that question ... The Colleges are Colleges of the University, not, as in the London University, where the Degrees are given to any person who presents himself, and who chooses to pass through certain Examinations, without reference to whether he has ever gone through any really Educational Course in a Collegiate Institution or not."
205. The Queen's University grants Degrees in Arts, in Law, in Medicine, and, besides, the Degree of Bachelor in Engineering. For the Degree of Bachelor in Arts, the Student has to pass two University Examinations, called, respectively, the First University Examination in Arts and the Degree Examination in Arts. The Pass Examination in the First University Examination in Arts includes Greek, Latin, a Modern Continental Language, and Mathematics and Mathematical Physics. For the Degree Examination in Arts, the Student has to select a certain number of subjects from a list prescribed by the Senate. The Degree of Bachelor of Arts is attainable without any knowledge of Science beyond that included in the Course of Mathematical Physics, which comprises Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Optics, and Elementary Astronomy, as treated in very elementary works.
206. In addition to these Examinations, each College imposes a Matriculation or Entrance Examination, and Sessional or Class Examinations. No Student who does not pass the Matriculation Examination is admitted to the College, and no Student who does not pass the Sessional Examination or a Supplemental Examination, which is held to provide for cases of failure in the Sessional Examination, is allowed to count his Session, but is obliged to go through the course of study of that year over again. It is stated, in the Evidence, that the Sessional Examinations for promotion are conducted very strictly, so that, for example, in the Examination held in Cork at the close of the Session of 1870-1, "in the Faculty of Arts, out of a total of 50 Students, 23 were promoted and 27 were not promoted ... In the Faculty of Law there were nine Students, of whom five were promoted and four were not promoted. In the Faculty of Engineering, out of 30 Students, 14 were promoted and 16 were not promoted; so that of 89 Students, 42 were promoted and 47 were not promoted; but a large number of that 47 would get in in October, by means of the Supplemental Examination."
The University Examinations are all held in Dublin. Formerly they used to be conducted in the Colleges, although by the University Professors, and on papers sent down from the University; but it has been now arranged by the Senate that even at the First University Examination all the Students must be examined in Dublin. This, it is stated, has been found more conducive to the proper conduct of the Examinations, and to the convenience of the Students themselves. The Standard of the University Examinations is said to be fully as high as the Standard in Trinity College, Dublin.
207. So far as the Degrees in Arts, Law, and Engineering are concerned, the Examining Body is entirely composed of the Professors, acting not as College Professors, but as University Professors. "The three Professors in each branch of Science or Letters, for instance, the three Professors of Chemistry, or the three Professors of Mathematics, form a Board of Examiners, and the Examination Papers are prepared in common, a portion of the papers being prepared by each Professor. Then the Students are examined on those papers, and the value of the answers is judged by the Professors conjointly acting together." With regard to the Medical Degrees, those parts of the Examination which refer to Practical Medical Subjects are conducted by outsiders. "The University Senate reserve to themselves the power of appointing any Examiners that they wish, and, generally speaking, they appoint some of the most eminent Dublin men from the Dublin Medical Schools to examine. They consider that they probably get a somewhat higher class of Medical Practitioners from Dublin than they could get from merely provincial towns, and also remove the suspicion of partiality in the Professors examining their own pupils."
SCHOLARSHIPS
208. In each of the Colleges there are forty-six Junior Scholarships - thirty of the value of £24 each, for Students pursuing the Course prescribed for the Degree of A.B.; eight of the value of £25, for Students pursuing the Course prescribed for the Degree of M.D.; three of the value of £20, for Students in Law; and five of £20, for Students of Civil Engineering. The Junior Scholarships are awarded annually, by a General Examination, and are tenable for one year only, with the exception of those awarded to Students in Arts of the second year, which are tenable for two years. The Scholars of any year are not disqualified from being candidates for Scholarships the succeeding year. There are also in each College eight Senior Scholarships, of the value of £40 a year, of which
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one is given each year to Greek and Latin, one to Modern Languages and Modern History, one to Mathematics, one to Natural Philosophy, one to Metaphysical and Economical Sciences, one to Chemistry, one to Natural History, and one to Law. Ail Graduates in Arts of the Queen's University are eligible to the Senior Scholarships; these Scholarships are awarded by examination, and are tenable for one year only, the Scholar not being re-eligible. Certain duties are imposed both upon the Junior and the Senior Scholars, the Senior Scholars in particular being required to assist the Professors in the Matriculation and Class Examinations, and in conducting the business of the special Departments of Literature and Science to which their Scholarships severally belong. They are also required to pursue, under the superintendence of a Professor, an Advanced Course of Study in one or more of the branches in which they have been examined for the Scholarship. If no candidate of sufficient merit presents himself, the Scholarship (whether Senior or Junior) is not filled up. During the five years, from 1866-67 to 1871-72, "in the Faculty of Arts the total number of Scholarships available was 185, that is, including both Senior and Junior Scholarships taken altogether, and the number awarded was 129, or 69½ per cent. In the Faculty of Arts there were, thus, only seven-tenths of the Scholarships conferred. In the Faculty of Medicine, out of 40 Scholarships available, in the five years, there were 35 conferred. In the Faculty of Engineering, out of 25 available, 22 were conferred; and in the Faculty of Law, out of 20 that were available, 19 were conferred; and the total result was, out of 270 Scholarships, 205 were given, or it may be taken as 76 per cent of the Scholarships. Those 270 Scholarships, in the five years, were competed for by 1,190 Students, which gives an average of about five Students competing for each Scholarship." It is unquestionable that young men of ability are attracted to the Queen's Colleges by the probability of obtaining these Scholarships, and we may infer from the Evidence that the Standard of Instruction in the Colleges would be much lower if it were not for the presence of this class of Scholars. Thus, Professor Purser states, "My principal difficulty arises from the widely different degrees of progress Students have made before they enter College. We grant, in Queen's College, Belfast, Scholarships to Students at entrance, and half of them are given for attainments in Pure Mathematics. These are very eagerly competed for, and consequently we find a contingent of the Students come up well prepared. On the other hand, the greater number of the Students in Arts know but the first elements of Mathematics."
209. Besides the Junior and Senior Scholarships, to which reference has just been made, a certain number of Exhibitions and of Prizes has been established in the Queen's University with funds raised by a public subscription originated by Sir Robert Peel in 1861. In the Faculty of Arts there have thus been provided three Exhibitions of £20, three of £15, and two of £10, all tenable for three years. In the Faculty of Medicine, and also in the School of Engineering, there are each year two exhibitions, one of the total value of £40, the other of £30. All. these Exhibitions are given away, in accordance with the Results of the University Examinations, to Students who satisfy certain conditions as to standing, &c. Some of the Exhibitions are assigned in equal proportions to the three Colleges; the remainder are competed for by Students in any one of the three. They have not been established in perpetuity, but only for a period of 10 years. A fund, however, amounting, at present, to £3,408 is being raised with a view to the future continuance of the endowment.
NUMBER OF STUDENTS
210. The Number and Distribution of Students under Instruction in the Queen's Colleges in Ireland in the Session 1873-74, was as follows:
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211. The Number of Students in the Session 1874-75, was as follows:
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212. At the Queen's College, Belfast, the number of Arts Students showed a tendency to diminish during the eight or ten years preceding 1872-73. Two causes are assigned for this falling off by Professor Purser: (1) "that the number of Candidates for the Presbyterian Ministry has of late years diminished", whereas such Candidates usually took the Arts Course in the Queen's College before entering the Presbyterian Theological College; and (2) "that during a period of commercial prosperity, there is an inducement to prepare young men for trade and business rather than for a profession. A decided increase is shown by the Returns for 1873-74, and 1874-75.
THE SCIENTIFIC CHAIRS
213. The following are the professorships of Science in each of the Queen's Colleges: Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Natural History, Civil Engineering, Geology and Mineralogy, Anatomy and Physiology. In Belfast, there is a Professor of Agriculture, and, on the other hand, the Professorship of Natural History is united with the Professorship of Geology and Mineralogy.
214. The stipends of the Professors are partly derived from a fixed salary and partly from the fees of the Students. The fixed salaries vary from £150, in the case of the Medical Professors, to £330 in the case of the Professors of subjects included in the Arts Course.
APPLIANCES FOR TEACHING
215. With regard to the appliances for teaching, the Evidence tends to show that they are in some respects insufficient. Each College receives £7,000 a year from the Consolidated Fund, but this amount is entirely appropriated to the payment of the stipends of the Professors and of the other Officers of the College. In addition to this, there is an annual Parliamentary Grant of £1,000 a year to each of the Colleges at Cork and Galway, and of £1,374 to the College of Belfast, out of which the whole of the establishment expenses of the Colleges, and any augmentations of the Museums, Libraries, or Collections of Apparatus have to be provided. The annual grant was originally £1,600 a year, but it was reduced to the present amount about ten years ago, when the inadequacy of the Professorial Salaries was brought under the notice of the Government. The salaries were augmented, but the funds required for the augmentation were obtained by trenching on the only resources available for the supply of apparatus and books.
216. With regard to Belfast, it is stated that the apparatus in the Laboratory of the Professor of Chemistry, if fully maintained, would be sufficient for the Practical Instruction of the Students, but that to maintain it properly with the present funds of the College is hardly possible. It may be mentioned that at Belfast a fee of £3 is charged to those Medical Students who attend a Summer Course in Practical Chemistry. But the Students who go through a more extensive Course of training in the Chemical Laboratory are elected by Examination, and are admitted gratuitously by Professor Andrews, who not only himself pays the salaries of the Assistants, but also provides gratuitous instruction to such Laboratory Students. The apparatus at the disposal of the Professor of Natural Philosophy is described as decidedly inadequate. Professor Cunningham, who holds the united Professorships of Natural History and Geology and Mineralogy, says that there is "a museum in which the Geology and the Zoology are best represented, upon the whole, but we have a very fair Herbarium of British Plants, and there is the Botanical Garden belonging to the town, which allows us specimens of plants during my course, on payment of a certain sum by the College to the Garden." The Professor has no Assistant, and his share of the annual grant of £1,000 is about £50 or £60. The Senior Scholars who are required to assist the Professors are not found to supply adequately the place of regular Assistants. Professor Cunningham says, "I have a Senior Scholar, who is appointed annually in my Department, and he is supposed to
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give me some help when I call upon him to do so in connexion with other duties. If he is a very good man, I may occasionally get a little help from him in the Museum, but nothing very essential." And Professor Purser states that it is "exceedingly difficult for the Professor to teach all [the Mathematical Students] at the same time. I and my predecessors have endeavoured to meet this difficulty, to a certain extent, by making use of the Senior Mathematical Scholar, a Graduate who has been elected to a Scholarship for one year after taking his Degree. I have derived in this way much valuable aid from the Senior Scholars, but such aid is quite insufficient, and a regular and permanent Assistant to my chair is most urgently needed, to render the training in the Mathematical School thoroughly efficient." Nor are the services of the Senior Scholars always really at the disposal of the Professor. "In many cases the Senior Scholars are studying for a Profession or some Civil Service Appointment, and it becomes very irksome to them to have their time drawn upon to any large extent, and the College feel a difficulty in doing so."
217. In Cork similar deficiencies exist. Sir Robert Kane states that of the grant of £1,000 annually voted by the House of Commons (to which must be added about £100 derived from fees paid by the Students to the College), no less than £550 were absorbed by the Establishment and Administration Expenses of the College in the year ending the 31st of March 1872, leaving for the whole of the Scientific and Literary Departments only about £500. This is a sum which must be regarded as totally insufficient, when it is considered that there are four Literary Departments to be conducted, and Collections of Books to be kept up in a satisfactory state, besides the several Scientific Departments. Sir Robert Kane adds, "we have done our best with the funds that were at our disposal for providing apparatus and illustrations of all kinds, but we have been obliged to do it with such parsimony, I may say, that we are possessed only of the material that is absolutely indispensable for anything like proper teaching. ... We have no means whatever at our disposal for advancing Science. All that by any possibility we can pretend to do, is, so far as our means allow, to represent to the Students the actual condition of Science, but we have no means whatsoever by which we could pretend to advance it." At Cork, however, the Departments of the Natural History Museum are described, with one exception, as being in a tolerably satisfactory condition. There has been formed in the grounds of the College "a small garden containing such plants as are useful in illustrating Lectures on Botany and on Materia Medica in the Medical School, as will grow in the open air in these countries, but we have no conservatories. We have had no funds available for the purpose, and the Government has never conceded to us the means of erecting a stove house, in which we could have a collection of such Tropical or Sub-Tropical Forms as would render our illustrations of living plants more complete. ... That is, I think, almost the only point in which our means of illustration in Natural History, or at least in Botany, is defective."
218. In Galway the Chemical Laboratory is described as adequate, and the Museum of Natural History is tolerably well supplied with Zoological and Botanical Specimens, and with Diagrams. "The Geological Museum is well supplied with fossils, which are ranged stratigraphically; there is a very good supply of rocks, both native and foreign, and of course Irish; and there is a very good supply of models of crystals, along with diagrams and. geological maps and sections, that are used for lecturing purposes." There is no Practical Instruction in Physics.
Conclusion and Recommendations with regard to the Queen's University in Ireland
219. In Founding the Queen's Colleges, the State did not adopt the Principle of Assisting and Stimulating Local Efforts, and if we except the Exhibitions and Prizes, to which reference has been already made, as having been provided by public subscription, and a few other Exhibitions which have been founded at Belfast, no voluntary contributions have been received by them. They are Institutions for which the State has made itself responsible, and in which, as part of a University System, a complete Scientific Training is implied.
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220. As we think it of great importance that the sanction of the State should not be given to the Teaching of Science on a scale inadequate to ensure its efficiency, we recommend;
I. That an increased Annual Grant be made to the Queen's Colleges for the purpose of providing Assistants, Apparatus, and the other necessary Appliances of Practical Scientific Teaching.
We further recommend:
II. That the Professorship of Natural History in the Queen's College, Belfast, be separated from that of Geology and Mineralogy.
All of which we humbly beg leave to submit for Your Majesty's gracious consideration.
DEVONSHIRE.
LANSDOWNE.
JOHN LUBBOCK.
JAMES P. KAY-SHUTTLEWORTH.
BERNHARD SAMUELSON.
W. SHARPEY.
THOMAS H. HUXLEY.
G. G. STOKES.
HENRY J. S. SMITH.
J. NORMAN LOCKYER, Secretary.
June 18th, 1875.
[title page]
EIGHTH REPORT
OF THE
ROYAL COMMISSION
ON
SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION AND THE
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
Presented to Parliament by Command of Her Majesty
LONDON:
PRINTED BY GEORGE EDWARD EYRE AND WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE,
PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
FOR HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE.
1875
[C.-1298.] Price 7d.
[page ii]
CONTENTS
| PAGE |
COMMISSIONS | iii |
REPORT | 1 |
APPENDICES | 40 |
[page iii]
ROYAL COMMISSION ON SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION AND THE
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
VICTORIA R.
VICTORIA, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, To Our Right Trusty and Right Entirely Beloved Cousin William Duke of Devonshire, Knight of Our Most Noble Order of the Garter, - Our Right Trusty and Entirely Beloved Cousin Henry Charles Keith Marquess of Lansdowne, - Our Trusty and Wellbeloved Sir John Lubbock, Baronet, - Our Trusty and Wellbeloved Sir James Phillips Kay-Shuttleworth, Baronet, - Our Trusty and Wellbeloved Bernhard Samuelson, Esquire, - Our Trusty and Wellbeloved William Sharpey, Esquire, Doctor of Medicine, - Our Trusty and Wellbeloved Thomas Henry Huxley, Esquire, Professor of Natural History in the Royal School of Mines, - Our Trusty and Wellbeloved William Allen Miller, Esquire, Doctor of Medicine, Professor of Chemistry in Kings College, London, - and Our Trusty and Wellbeloved George Gabriel Stokes, Esquire, Master of Arts, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in the University of Cambridge, Greeting:
Whereas We have deemed it expedient for divers good causes and considerations that a Commission should forthwith issue to make Inquiry with regard to Scientific Instruction and the Advancement of Science and to Inquire what aid thereto is derived from Grants voted by Parliament or from Endowments belonging to the several Universities in Great Britain and Ireland and the Colleges thereof and whether such aid could be rendered in a manner more effectual for the purpose.
Now Know Ye that We reposing great Trust and Confidence in your Ability and Discretion have nominated constituted and appointed and do by these Presents nominate constitute and appoint you the said William, Duke of Devonshire - Henry Charles Keith, Marquess of Lansdowne - Sir John Lubbock - Sir James Phillips Kay-Shuttleworth - Bernhard Samuelson - William Sharpey - Thomas Henry Huxley - William Allen Miller - and George Gabriel Stokes - to be Our Commissioners for the purposes of the said Inquiry.
And for the better enabling you to carry Our Royal Intentions into effect We do by these Presents authorize and empower you or any three or more of you to call before you or any three or more of you such persons as you may judge necessary by whom you may be the better informed of the matters herein submitted for your consideration and also to call for and examine all such Books Documents Papers or Records as you shall judge likely to afford you the fullest information on the subject of this Our Commission and to Inquire of and concerning the Premises by all other lawful ways and means whatsoever.
And our further Will and Pleasure is that you or any three or more of you do Report to Us under your Hands and Seals (with as little delay as may be consistent with a due discharge of the Duties hereby imposed upon you) your opinion on the several matters herein submitted for your consideration, with power to certify unto Us from time to time your several proceedings in respect of any of the matters aforesaid, if it may seem expedient for you so to do.
And We do further Will and Command and by these Presents ordain that this Our Commission shall continue in full force and virtue and that you Our said Commissioners or any three or more of you shall and may from time to time proceed in the
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execution thereof and of every matter and thing therein contained although the same be not continued from time to time by adjournment.
And for your assistance in the execution of these Presents We do hereby authorize and empower you to appoint a Secretary to this Our Commission to attend you whose services and assistance we require you to use from time to time as occasion may require.
Given at Our Court at Saint James's, the Eighteenth day of May 1870, in the Thirty-third year of Our Reign.
By Her Majesty's Command,
H. A. BRUCE.
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ROYAL COMMISSION ON SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION AND THE
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
VICTORIA R.
VICTORIA, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, To Our Trusty and Well-beloved Henry John Stephen Smith, Esquire, Master of Arts, Savilian Professor of Geometry in Our University of Oxford, Greeting:
Whereas We did by Warrant, under Our Royal Sign Manual, bearing date the Eighteenth Day of May, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seventy, appoint Our Right Trusty and Right Entirely Beloved Cousin, William, Duke of Devonshire, Knight of Our Most Noble Order of the Garter, Our Right Trusty and Entirely Beloved Cousin, Henry Charles Keith, Marquess of Lansdowne, together with the several Gentlemen therein named, to be Our Commissioners to make Inquiry with regard to Scientific Instruction and the Advancement of Science, and to inquire what aid thereto is derived from Grants voted by Parliament, or from Endowments belonging to the several Universities in Great Britain and Ireland, and the Colleges thereof, and whether such aid could be rendered in a manner more effectual for the purpose: And whereas since the issue of the said Warrant William Allen Miller, Doctor of Medicine, one of the Commissioners thereby appointed, hath deceased:
Now Know Ye, that We, reposing great Trust and Confidence in Your Zeal, Discretion, and Integrity, have authorized and appointed, and do by these Presents authorize and appoint you the said Henry John Stephen Smith to be a Commissioner for the purpose aforesaid, in addition to, and together with, the Commissioners now acting under the above-mentioned Royal Warrant.
Given at Our Court at Saint James's the First Day of December 1870, in the Thirty-Fourth Year of Our Reign.
By Her Majesty's Command,
H. A. BRUCE.
Professor Henry John Stephen Smith, M.A.,
To be a Commissioner for inquiring into
Scientific Instruction and the Advancement of Science.
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EIGHTH REPORT
TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY,
WE, the Commissioners appointed by Your Majesty to make Inquiry with regard to Scientific Instruction and the Advancement of Science, humbly beg leave to present to Your Majesty, in conclusion of the Inquiry entrusted to us, the following Report on the Advancement of Science and on the Relations of Government to Science.
In the course of our Investigations into the Proceedings and Management of the Universities, Colleges, Museums, and other Institutions, which exist wholly or in part for Scientific Purposes, considerations bearing on the Relations of the Government to Science, and on the Advancement of Scientific Research, necessarily came under our notice to a certain extent; they were, consequently, referred to in an incidental manner in the Reports already submitted to Your Majesty, which, however, were mainly concerned with Scientific Instruction. The present Report will address itself directly to the Relations of Government to Science, and to the Advancement of Scientific Research; and our Inquiry divides itself into the following branches:
(1) The Scientific Work carried on by Departments of the Government.
(2) The Assistance at present given by the State towards the promotion of Scientific Research.
(3) The Assistance which it is desirable the State should give towards that object.
(4) The Central Organization which is best calculated to enable the Government to determine its action in all questions affecting Science.
I. The Scientific Work carried on by Departments of the Government
The principal branches of Scientific Work conducted by Officers of the Imperial Government, and the Departments by which they are administered, are as follows:
Topographical Survey [Treasury (Office of Works)].
Hydrographical Survey [Admiralty].
Geological Survey [Privy Council].
Astronomical Observations:
Greenwich and the Cape of Good Hope [Admiralty].
Edinburgh [Treasury (Office of Works)].
Meteorological Observations:
Greenwich [Admiralty].
Edinburgh [Treasury (Office of Works)].
The Meteorological Office.
[The Meteorological Office is not administered by any Public Department, but is directed by a Committee, which, although appointed by the Royal Society, is independent of that body.]
Botany - Royal Gardens, Kew; Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Botanic Gardens, Dublin [Treasury (Office of Works)].
The Chemical Department of the War Office.
The Standards Department of the Board of Trade.
Analogous work is carried on in some of the Colonies and Foreign Possessions by Departments of their respective Governments.
In one case, that of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the work is examined into and reported on to the Admiralty by a Board of Visitors composed of men of Science.
Some branches of the work dealt with, from the accident of their origin and from other causes, are less entirely devoted to the direct necessities of the State than others; whilst it will be seen that there are certain lines of investigation of no less importance to the State than those for which provision has already been made, which the State has not as yet undertaken.
The Imperial Investigations enumerated, with the exception of the very special work of
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the Chemical Department of the War Office and the Standards Department of the Board of Trade, generally extend over large areas or long periods of time, and consequently are of such a nature that the State could not safely intrust them to the action of Individuals or Societies, even if these were willing to undertake them.
When Scientific questions arise on which the Departments are not supposed to possess the requisite theoretical or practical information, Special Committees are appointed or the advice of individuals presumed to be specially qualified is obtained, either directly or through the Royal, the Geographical, or some other Learned Society.
The following is a Statement showing the annual charges borne by Imperial Funds, at the present time, to defray the expenses of such of these various investigations as appear separately In the Estimates for the year 1874-75.
| £ |
Topographical Survey (excluding Military pay of men employed) | 132,000 |
Hydrographical Survey | 121,055 |
Geological Survey | 22,920 |
Astronomy | 9,703 |
Meteorology | 12,082 |
Botany, including the maintenance of Botanical Gardens as places of Public Recreation | 21,470 |
Standards Department of the Board of Trade | 2,063 |
In addition to these recurring charges, sums are voted from time to time for various Expeditions and for Experiments incidental to the Services of the various Departments, such as the Investigations concerning the Causes and Processes of Disease carried, on under the Direction of the Lords of the Privy Council, and the various Experimental Researches carried on for the Army and Navy.
We have not considered it necessary to take Evidence regarding the detailed work of the Public Departments, but have thought it sufficient to collect the general opinion of those who are connected with, or well-informed concerning, the Scientific Work carried on by those Departments.
In the case of the Meteorological Office, however, both on account of its recent establishment and the circumstance that it is not directly responsible to any Public Department, we have felt it our duty to take Evidence at some length, both as regards its Scientific and Financial Administration.
Evidence as to the Insufficiency of the present Organization
The Evidence which we have taken as to the sufficiency or insufficiency of the work done for the Advancement of Science, including that of the Government Departments, is very copious. A large portion of it is contained in the volumes already published, and it will have been seen that there is a general concurrence of opinion, that, even in the interests of the Departments themselves, more ought to be done by the Government in the way of Investigation, particularly in respect of those Sciences the Practical Application of which has been developed, or the scope of which has been enlarged by Discovery, within recent years.
These opinions are entertained alike by persons engaged in Scientific Work under the various Departments of the Government, and by Scientific Men having no official connexion with the State.
The following are extracts from the Evidence on this branch of the subject.
Sir Henry Rawlinson, a member of the Indian Council, states that in that Council they perpetually have references before them which they are unable to deal with. He adds:
... We have, for instance, Sir William Baker upon the Council, and General Strachey and Colonel Strange both attached to the Office; yet, notwithstanding their valuable aid, there are many subjects referred to us with which we are quite incompetent to deal.
He then refers to the following subjects among others: The Manufacture of Iron and Steel in India; the Efflorescence of Soda on Irrigated Land; the Fermentation of Beer, "which may involve a loss of £200,000 or £300,000 a year to the British Government"; the question of Drought arising from the Destruction of Forests; the Construction of Harbours and of other Hydraulic Works; the Founding of Brass Guns; Tidal Observations; the Publication of Works on the Flora and Fauna of India; Geological and Trigonometrical Surveys; Sea Dredging; and Observatories.
He points out that many of these questions are practical and economical; but that still there is a scientific element in almost all of them, and he adds -
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References on all these subjects are constantly coming home, and we have no means of answering them in our own body, while it is very unsatisfactory to be obliged to send out for gratuitous information. We do sometimes, it is true, apply to individuals and sometimes to societies, but in very many cases, I am afraid, the questions are shelved, because there is no competent and authoritative body to refer to.
Captain Douglas Galton, of the Office of Your Majesty's Works and Public Buildings, thinks that, as a rule:
... Our statesmen do not appreciate properly the value of scientific advice or scientific inquiry, and that they are very much fonder of experiments made upon a large scale with no defined system, than they are of experiments which have been brought out as the result of a carefully studied previous inquiry. I think that an enormous amount of money was wasted in the case of the inquiry into armour plates, both for ships and forts. In that case the Government appointed a partly scientific committee, but it was mixed up with other persons who were not scientific; and instead of commencing a series of experiments upon a small and clearly defined scale, from which they could have drawn conclusions for making their larger experiments, they began by firing at any plates that were offered to them which had no relation one to another, either in their relations to the guns or to the form of backing, or in any other way, and consequently it was difficult to draw useful calculations from them.
Mr. Froude, who was a prominent member of the late Committee on Naval Designs, and who is now devoting his whole time without remuneration to the investigation of the proper forms of ships of war, states that if, at an earlier time, a laboratory had existed, and proper experiments had been made, enormous sums would have been saved which have been expended in the actual construction of ships, or, as he terms it, in "experiments on the scale of 12 inches to a foot"; and that definite results would have been arrived at with less loss of time.
I think any experiment almost on the sailing or rolling properties of a big ship, when tried in a big ship to begin with, is a waste of money. The cost of construction of a big ship as an Instrument of investigation is enormous; and if it is tried with a view to the application of a new principle, there must be the risk that the experiment will be to some extent wasted. Being an experiment, the very fact that it is an experiment implies that it may not turn out as it is expected, and a failure in so costly a piece of apparatus as a new complete ship is inevitably a very costly failure. So far as it is possible to arrive at a proper understanding of such subjects by small-scale trials, it is of the utmost importance, economically, that that method should be adopted, and I think that that has not been sufficiently adopted.
It will be seen from the Evidence of General Strachey, which we quote in a subsequent part of this Report, that he also disapproves of the mode in which Government is at present advised on questions of Science, especially on the ground of the absence of scientific training in the political and official classes of this country.
Sir Wm. Thomson has given us the following Evidence:
... With a vast amount of mechanical work which is necessarily undertaken by the Government, and which is continually in hand, questions involving scientific difficulties of a novel character frequently occur; questions requiring accurate knowledge of scientific truth hitherto undeveloped are occurring every day. In both respects the Government is at present insufficiently advised, and the result is undoubtedly that mechanical works are sometimes not done as well as they might be done, that great mistakes are sometimes made; and, again, a very serious and perhaps even a more serious evil of the present system, in which there is not sufficient scientific advice for the Government, is the undertaking of works which ought never to be undertaken.
Are you able to point out any instances which you have in your mind of mistakes which you think have occurred from the want of good advice on the part of the Government? - One great mistake undoubtedly was the construction of the "Captain", and I believe that a permanent scientific council advising the Government would have made it impossible to commit such a mistake. They would, in the very beginning, have relieved the Government from all that pressure of ignorant public opinion which the Government could not possibly, in the present state of things, withstand.
The present system of Special Committees is objected to by Sir William Thomson, and by other competent Witnesses.
Sir William Thomson thinks "that a single body would be better than a number of small Committees for advising the Government on the great variety of questions which from time to time would be likely to arise."
Admiral Richards, late Hydrographer of the Admiralty, is of opinion that:
The members of such committees must be selected more or less to fulfil certain political conditions, and that, as a rule, they would come new to the subject that they were going to consider, and I do not believe that the Commission which sat on the Naval Designs the other day was a very successful one. I do not know that any great advantages have arisen or are likely to arise from it.
Mr. Fronde, in reply to the remark: "You do not consider Committees of that kind to be a very satisfactory way of proceeding?" thus states his objection to the present system:
I do not think so, because they have to find out the dream and the interpretation both, which is always a difficulty. They have to feel their way to a locus standi, which would already be possessed by a Council habitually operating with reference to the subject.
Additional examples of these defects are given, not only by these Witnesses, but also by others, whom we shall quote in that part of our Report which deals with the proposed remedies.
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Evidence as to the insufficiency of the present Appliances for Investigation
Our attention has been especially directed to the want of Laboratories for the use of the officials charged with Scientific Investigations urgently required for the economical management of the Public Departments.
Mr. Anderson, the Superintendent of Machinery at Woolwich, who has been responsible for the expenditure of "very nearly £3,000,000 of public money", points out that there are no means at the disposal of State servants to enable them to investigate questions on which large expenditure depends. With special regard to his own Department, he states:
There is a very great deal which I should like to see taken in hand systematically. ... There is much that we are in the dark about; we are groping in the dark in almost everything at present. ...
Although we know a very great deal with regard to iron, cast, wrought, and in the condition of steel, there is yet very much which we do not know, and I am persuaded that if we could with certainty treat ordinary cast iron in the way that we sometimes do, nearly by chance, we would do away with three-fourths, or a very large proportion of the wrought iron which is now used in this country, and we should use cast iron. A great deal of the cast iron of commerce is not much above five tons per square inch in tenacity, but we can, by trying, get it up to 15 tons, although some of the reasons that determine that high character are obscure and it is very difficult to see what they arc. I should like that the subject of cast iron should be thoroughly exhausted, and at the same time I should like to see the physical properties of iron thoroughly exhausted ...
He next refers to another question of great importance to almost all the Public Departments:
... There is another very important subject which I might mention to the Commission. Some 20 years ago we were using 10 or 12 pounds of coal per horse-power per hour, and the majority of engines still require six pounds, but by the improvements that have taken place we are now down to two pounds. There is a little engine at work now in the London district which is working at 1¾ pounds. There is a great gulf yet between getting steam-engines that will work at 1¾ pounds per horse-power per hour, and the point where we are now; I mean getting that done practically; but I believe that if the right man, or two men, were told off to thoroughly investigate this subject, and not to stop working until they had brought it to a practical shape, we could in 10 years from this time get down to one pound per horse-power per hour. I see that there are very many leakages or loss in steam-engines in the very best way that we make them at present. The knowledge that was gained by Joule's experiments a few years ago seems to me to have been of immense value. Those experiments that he carried out for himself were the sort of thing which I think the Government should have done for the sake of the country. He did more to make engineers thoroughly dissatisfied with their present knowledge with regard in what they can do with steam than anything which had been done before. I believe that, what Mr, Joule did will do more for this country than even what James Watt did. The part that James Watt took was very great, and the world gives him full credit for it, but the world is scarcely willing to give credit to Joule for what he will do; but he has made all engineers dissatisfied. They know that the best steam engine is not doing one-sixth of the work which it ought to do and can do. That is a sad state of matters to be in when we know that we are so far wrong, but yet no one will go to the trouble of going to the end of the question so as to improve the steam engine as it might be done; in fact, it will cost a great deal of trouble and a great deal of expense, I have no doubt.
With regard to the question whether it is "desirable that the Government should establish any Laboratories for carrying on those investigations", he thus stated his opinion:
I should like to see a grand laboratory fitted with everything that would go towards the investigation of such matters, and at the same time a testing apparatus for getting at the physical facts us well. To get up the proper plant would be very expensive, but still I should like the nation to have it, so that any public department could go to this same laboratory and ask them for assistance to investigate any doubtful point. ... In the Government service everybody who gets any work to do worth mentioning is overpowered with work - either they get too much or too little to do - and the investigator should not be bothered with such miscellaneous work. For example, take my own case, I may have 50 subjects in a day many times. Yesterday I had well on to 50 subjects to take up, and go into them all as well as I could, and I did not get over my work to write the paper which now lies before Your Grace until 9 o'clock last night. A man is not in a position to pursue investigations when he is overworked in that way.
Mr. Anderson's Evidence finds a parallel in that given by Mr. E. J. Reed, M.P., late Chief Constructor of the Navy.
I think that there are many branches of science remaining undeveloped at present, the development of which would be of great advantage to the country. I base that opinion partly upon the experience which I acquired at the Admiralty, in which I continually found that great and important questions were undeveloped for the want of organisation and of the means of developing them. ...
Mr. Froude in his evidence before this Commission stated that he had in hand a series of experiments for the Admiralty, having for their primary object the determination of the relations between form, speed, and resistance in ships, and, as he justly observed, this inquiry collaterally raises some other questions; but there is one subject related to that which Mr. Froude has under consideration, but which has not been developed at all yet, and it is one upon which very important financial questions hang; I refer to the dependence of the form of ships upon the weight of the materials composing their hulls. It will be obvious to the Commission that if you are going to build a ship for high speed of the thinnest steel, you can afford to prolong the ends of the vessel at either end, and give them extreme fineness in a manner and to a degree which would be preposterous, and I may even say monstrous, in the case of a ship which had to be built with very thickly-armoured sides. In this country the earlier ironclads were made of a form involving very long and fine lines, in fact a form analogous to that of mercantile steamships, and the consequence was that although in the 'Minotour' type of ship armour and backing equivalent only to that used in the first instance in the
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'Warrior' was employed, yet we got a ship 400 feet long, costing nearly half a million sterling. The impropriety of that course impressed itself upon my mind, and I believe it was more for that reason than for any other that I ventured to propose to the Admiralty a great change in that respect, and placed before them the design for the 'Bellerophon' as an example of a vessel which should be as fast as those long ships, and more effectually armoured, and much more handy, carrying at least as efficient an armament, and yet should cost about £100,000 less. That policy was sanctioned by his Grace the Duke of Somerset , the 'Bellerophon' was built, and I believe long before she was finished the principle obtained so much favour that the idea of building another of the extremely long vessels never entered anybody's mind, and it was stated by the late First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Childers, in Parliament, officially, that by adopting that modification of form at least a million sterling had been saved to the county in the course of a very short time. But I wish to impress upon the Commission, if I may be allowed to do so, that that economy resulted from a mere tentative and limited application of a scientific principle, which has never been developed, and which the organisation of the Admiralty furnishes no means for developing. I indicated the nature of this investigation in a paper laid before the Royal Society some two or three years ago, but as the solution of it involves high mathematics on the one hand, and elaborate experimental investigations upon the other, it has never been taken up and dealt with in any sufficient way.
A second illustration which I should like to give is this: the present condition of the marine steam-engine and boiler is very unsatisfactory. It is unsatisfactory to such an extent that I believe if the manufacture of iron and steel were improved with reference to its use in the construction of engines and boilers, and if improved material were applied by improved methods, a saving of one half of the present weight would be attained, and when I say one half I know that I am speaking greatly within the limits which some persons who have thought very much about this question would be prepared to express. Of course, if that be so, if we are carrying about in our mercantile and other steamships twice the weight which is essential for the production of the power, that is so much taken off either from the further power and speed which might be obtained, or from the freightage and commercial value of the vessel. I may mention that in the manufacture of shafts, for instance, of the marine engine and of stern posts, and other large forgings for ships, the method of production is comparatively rude, and it very much needs development. I for one feel the necessity of great improvement in these respects, because I know that at the present moment the successful production of those enormous forgings rests a great deal more upon the skill of a workman than upon the application of any science whatever to them. So much has the subject been neglected, that, at this moment, I have the responsibility of seeing some very large forgings indeed made for certain ships, and the most effectual manner in which I can give effect to my responsibility is that of selecting the very best working smith that I can find, and putting him into the manufactory where those things are being made, for him to do the best that his experience enables him to do, in order to see them properly constructed. I believe that if a regular independent scientific investigation were applied to a manufacture of that nature, enormous advantage would at once result.
The Standards Department of the Board of Trade is another Department requiring advice in varied scientific subjects. The Warden of the Standards (Mr. Chisholm) states:
There is no scientific authority to which I am entitled to appeal. It happens at the present time that I have the advantage of appealing to my former colleagues in the Standards Commission, to the Astronomer Royal and to Professor Miller, and I get a great deal of assistance from them in that way, especially from Professor Miller. In fact I could hardly have executed the scientific duties of my department without having assistance of that kind, but such aid has been obtained merely in consequence of my relations with them as a colleague. I am in no wise authorised to call upon them or upon any other scientific authority for information or assistance. I may here particularly refer to one subject which is mentioned in my paper, the preparation of new standard trial plates for coin. I actually required scientific information upon that point, and I could only apply to the Astronomer Royal; but his time was taken up so much that after some time he declined interfering in the matter, so that I have been obliged to act in the matter without having any scientific authority to aid me, although it is a very responsible duty cast upon me by law.
Sir William Thomson, in reference to the subject of Standards, says:
The conservancy of weights and measures is a subject involving questions of the most extreme scientific nicety. Faraday made statements showing how completely unknown at present are the properties of matter upon which we depend for a permanent standard of length. One of the very first objects that should be undertaken in connexion with the conservancy of the standards of weight and length is secular experiments, on the dimensions of metals and solids of other classes under various conditions of stress, temperature, and atmosphere. Those would involve scientific experiments of an extremely difficult character, and also operations extending from year to year. There ought to be just now a set of experimental specimens of solids laid up which should be examined every year, or every 10 years, or every 50 years, or every 100 years, the times when observations are to be made from age to age being regulated by the experience of the previous observations. It would be necessary to begin observing every month, then when constancy is attained within the degrees of observable minuteness to observe every year, then every 10 years, then perhaps every 50 years, and then it might be sufficient to look at them every 500 years, and examine whether this copper standard and that brass standard have retained precisely the same length. This would not be a very difficult or expensive thing to institute in such a way as eventually to obtain good results, but it would be an operation of a secular character, which could only be carried out by the Government.
Dr. Frankland thus refers to the various requirements of Government involving Chemical Investigations:
... The State requires many important investigations to be carried on. Such investigations are being continually conducted in buildings often very ill-adapted for the purpose, and which are fitted up for the purpose at a great cost.The laboratory of the Rivers Commission, for instance, which we have occupied for four years, was constructed in a house in Victoria Street; a rent of £200 a year is paid for it, and it is literally nothing more than a moderate sized room, and two smaller ones, very ill-adapted for the purpose. Consequently, this laboratory is not so efficient as a building erected for the express purpose of conducting such investigations would be.
In the Evidence which we have taken with regard to Astronomical Physics and Meteorology, the expressions of opinion as to the insufficiency of the means of investigation are so interspersed with suggestions as to the remedies to be applied, that we think it more convenient to refer more particularly these subjects in the Third Part of this Report.
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II. The Assistance given by the State towards the Promotion of Scientific Research
It may be convenient, for the purposes of this Report, to consider the Assistance given by the state towards Scientific Research as being either Permanent or Occasional.
Our great National Museums (upon which we have already reported) come under the first of these descriptions, and it will have been seen that for the purposes of the Student of the Biological and Geological Sciences, Collections are provided on an extensive scale, so that the Student of these branches of Science has advantages similar to those provided for the Student of Art or Literature.
On the other hand, the Student of the Physical Sciences has no such facilities; there are, at the best, for some of these branches of study, Collections of Instruments of a very inadequate kind, and relating for the most part to Applied as distinguished from Theoretical Science.
We have also reported to Your Majesty that the National Collections, so far as they illustrate the Biological and Geological Sciences, are rendered easily accessible to the Students of those Sciences. But the few instruments illustrative of Physical Science in any National Collection are so placed that they can scarcely be used even in the study of the History of Science. Moreover, as a mere collection of instruments, however complete, without working laboratories, is of little use to the Student of the Experimental Sciences, and as there are no Public Laboratories available for the Researches of Private Investigators, it may be said that in many branches of Experimental Science the State affords no permanent material to aid to such Investigators.
Assistance of a Permanent Description is also afforded to certain Learned Societies, by providing them with apartments free of rent, or with annual grants of money in lieu of such accommodation: the sum of £500 granted annually to the Royal Geographical Society under certain conditions is an instance of such a grant.
We may regard as a Permanent Aid to Science the grant of £1,000 for Researches carried on by Private Individuals, which is annually voted by Parliament, and administered by a Committee of the Royal Society.
This Grant has rendered such great services to Science, that we desire to give the following Outline of its History.
The first proposal for such a grant was contained in a letter (dated October 24th, 1849), from Earl Russell (then Lord John Russell) to the then President of the Royal Society (the Earl of Rosse), and was to the following effect:
As there are from time to time scientific discoveries and researches which cost money and assistance the students of science can often but ill afford, I am induced to consult your Lordship, as President of the Royal Society, on the following suggestion:
I propose that at the close of the year the President and Council should point out to the First Lord of the Treasury a limited number of persons to whom the grant of a reward, or of a sum to defray the cost of experiments, might be of essential service. The whole sum which I could recommend the Crown to grant in the present year is £1,000, nor can I be certain that my successor would follow the same course; but I should wish to learn whether, in your Lordship's opinion and that of your colleagues, the cause of science would be promoted by such grants.
Lord Rosse, in his reply to the proposal made by Lord John Russell, expressed his personal opinion that the judicious employment of grants in the way proposed "would very materially promote the Advancement of Science"; and of the two alternatives, namely, expending the £1,000 in rewards or appropriating it to the payment of the expenses of experiments, he preferred the latter, indicating his reasons as follows:
There are often details to be worked out before it is possible to employ usefully newly discovered principles. In many of the sciences reductions are required before observations can be made use of. Both in Science and Art facts technically called constants are the materials of discovery; to determine them accurately is of great importance. Now in all these cases, and in many others, the work to be done is laborious and expensive, and as it adds but little comparatively to the fame of the individual, it especially requires encouragement.
On this correspondence being communicated to the Council of the Royal Society, a Committee was appointed "to consider and report respecting the application of the proposed grant". This Committee agreed to the following Recommendations:
First and chiefly - That the grant be awarded in aid of private individual scientific investigation.
Secondly. In aid of the calculation and scientific reduction of masses of accumulated observations.
Thirdly. In aid of astronomical, meteorological, and other observations, which might be assisted by the purchase and employment of new instruments.
Fourthly, and, subordinately to the purposes above named, in aid of such other scientific objects as may from time to time appear to be of sufficient interest, although not coming under any of the foregoing heads.
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It was further added -
That a Committee be appointed, consisting of the whole Council for the time being, ex officio, together with an equal number of Fellows of the Society, chosen by the Council amongst the members most conversant with the business of the Royal Society, or with one or more of the leading departments of Science, or officially connected with the principal scientific bodies of the kingdom; such additional members to be named for a period of three years, subject to the annual revision of the Council, and provision being made for filling up the vacancy occasioned by such additional member becoming a member of Council during his term of service on the said Committee, should such occur.
With regard to this Government Grant, Sir Edward Sabine, in his Evidence, says:
I suppose that the £1,000 in one year was designed as an experiment to try the matter in the first instance. I always understood that Lord Russell contemplated that the sum would be augmented if the plan were found to work well.
Neither the amount of the Grant, nor the conditions of its administration, have been varied from the time of its commencement. For full details as to its application in successive years, we refer to the Statement presented by Sir E. Sabine, and printed in the Appendix to Vol. II., at pp. 41 to 47. In a later part of this Report, we shall refer to the proposals which have been made to us for increasing the amount and usefulness of the Grant.
The most important instances of the Occasional Assistance given by the State, are Expeditions for Special Researches, and Outfits of Ships, and Apparatus and Grants of Money for such Researches. These contributions are of great value, but they do not appear to be granted or refused on any sufficiently well defined principle.
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III. The Assistance which it is desirable the State should give towards Scientific Research
We have received strong Evidence that it is the interest and within the proper function of the State to give efficient aid to the Advancement of Knowledge, even in those cases where such knowledge is not directly required for State purposes, and, we may remark, that some of the most decided expressions of opinion to this effect are those of Statesmen, whose views, owing to their official experience and their intimate knowledge of the exigencies of Parliamentary Government, are entitled to great weight on points involving increased grants of public money.
The Evidence of Lord Salisbury is emphatic:
Do you hold that the State may legitimately interfere in giving aid to the advancement of science? - I certainly do. It is a very orthodox doctrine to hold, and one which could be supported if necessary by quotations out of Adam Smith, the essence of the doctrine being, that the State is perfectly justified in stimulating that kind of industry which will not find its reward from the preference of individuals, but which is useful to the community at large.
The State has already, to a considerable extent, recognized, has it not, that duty; and there are a considerable number of scientific institutions supported more or less by the State? - No doubt the State, in the money that it gives, and has given in past times, to the best Universities, has recognized that duty.
There are the Observatory at Greenwich, the British Museum, and Kew Gardens; you would consider those as instances in which the State aids the promotion of science? - They would be all instances in point; and do not apprehend that as to the abstract doctrine itself there has ever been any serious contest.
Lord Derby's Evidence in favour of State Aid to Science is all the more weighty from the limitations by which he guards it:
I think there has been a very general consent amongst a large number of men of science who have been examined before this Commission that in the present state of science there are many branches as to which there is no probability of their being advanced to the degree to which they are capable of being advanced by private effort, and without the assistance of State funds in some shape; what is your Lordship's opinion upon that subject? - I am, as a general rule, very strongly in favour of private effort, and very decidedly against the application of State funds to any purpose that can be accomplished without them; but I think that if there is any exception to that which I venture to call a sound and wholesome rule, it is in the case of scientific research, because the results are not immediate, they are not popular in their character, and they bring absolutely no pecuniary advantage to the person engaged in working them out. A great mathematical or a great astronomical discovery is a benefit to the whole community, and in a certain sense to mankind in general; but it is productive of absolutely no benefit, in a pecuniary point of view, to the person who has given his labour to it.
Sir Stafford Northcote thus states his opinion on the point:
... The State should do what it can both to promote scientific education and also to assist in the prosecution of scientific experiments and inquiries when they can be best prosecuted by the aid of the State.
On the proposition that it is the duty of the State to encourage Original Research, we might multiply our extracts from the Evidence indefinitely. Dr. Frankland, Sir W. Thomson, Dr. Joule, Mr. Gore, Dr. Carpenter, Professor A. W. Williamson, Mr. Reed, Sir E. Sabine, Dr. Siemens, Dr. Sclater, Mr. Farrer, Admiral Richards, and numerous others, show that the Aid of Government to Scientific Research has been beneficial, so far as it has gone, but that it has been insufficient and should be increased.
We have selected the Evidence of Dr. Frankland and Sir W. Thomson from amongst that given by men of Science.
Dr. Frankland's Evidence is to the following effect:
Setting aside the interests of science, what would be your expectation under equal circumstances otherwise, in reference to two countries, in one of which scientific research was neglected, whilst in the other it was pursued with considerable vigour, with regard to the progress of the arts and of manufactures?
In my opinion there could not be any doubt but that the nation which neglected science must suffer in the end, because although it could buy scientific inventions from the other country, yet still it would always be behind, as it were, in the market; it would have to follow the lead of the other country, which I imagine would be a commercial disadvantage.
Might it not also be the case that the appreciation of the commercial value of scientific inventions would be very much more uncertain in the one country than in the other?
Yes. It is also much more difficult to establish manufactures upon new inventions in a country which neglects science, because you cannot have either workpeople or managers competent to conduct those processes which depend upon scientific principles.
People might pay large sums for what was worthless, and neglect that which was of great value?
They might.
Sir W. Thomson emphatically asserts that, in his opinion, it is of the most immediate consequence to the honour and welfare of the country that men should be enabled to
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live on Scientific Research, and that a definite and secured position should be given to Scientific Workers.
In another part of his Evidence he states:
... There are many investigations which can only be done by the nation as a whole; and viewing the Government in one sense as acting for the nation, as it were a committee of the whole nation, there are very many investigations not merely of importance with reference to promoting the material prosperity of the nation, but valuable to the nation as promoting scientific discoveries, in which the whole nation takes a pleasure, and from which the whole nation derives as great benefit as anything material can possibly produce. Investigations for which a large expenditure of money is necessary, and which must be continued through long periods of years, cannot be undertaken by private individuals. Generally speaking, I believe that if the Government is well advised in respect to science, it will be for the good of the nation that the Government should make it part of its functions to promote experimental investigations in science.
As representing the opinions of public servants occupying high official positions in Government Departments, we may refer to the Evidence of Admiral Richards, late Hydrographer of the Admiralty, and to that of Mr. Farrer, Secretary to the Board of Trade, the latter of whom, in answer to the question - "Have you formed any opinion as to whether further grants ought to be given by the Government for Scientific Research?" says:
I can only give an opinion which is of very little value; but I think there can be no doubt whatever that there are numerous subjects, and always will be numerous subjects, in which private observers are unable to do what is wanted. For the older sciences yon have had observatories established at the Government expense, for astronomy, and now, recently, for meteorology; and those cannot be the only sciences to which assistance ought to be given on the same principle.
Evidence relating to the Establishment of Laboratories
We proceed to give extracts from the Evidence placed before us in reference to the need of Laboratories for conducting alike Chemical, Physical, Metallurgical, and Physiological Inquiries, both for Departmental Work, and for the Researches of Private Individuals. Where the Evidence is of a general character, and includes proposals regarding Observatories also, we give it here, although we shall deal with the special question of Physical Observatories separately.
Amongst the witnesses who are in favour of the erection of new Laboratories for Research is Colonel Strange, whose view of the National Requirements in these respects is thus given:
Will you be so good as to enumerate the institutions which you think should be under the State? - (1) an observatory for physics of astronomy; (2) an observatory for terrestrial physics, namely, meteorology, magnetism, &c.; (3) a physical laboratory; (4) an extension of the Standards Office; (5) a metallurgical laboratory; (6) a chemical laboratory; (7) an extension of collections of natural history, and an able staff of naturalists; (8) a physiological laboratory; (9) a museum of machines, scientific instruments, &c. I believe that under one or other of those and existing institutions every requisite investigation will range itself. I have not stopped to inquire whether one or another is more or less important. My aim in the spirit of my postulate No. 2 has been completeness. It may be necessary for a manufacturer to prosecute only such particular investigations as promise direct and speedy profit. A great nation must not act in that commercial spirit. All the operations of nature are so intimately interwoven, that it is impossible to say beforehand that a given line of research apparently unproductive may not throw light in unsuspected directions, and so lead to untold and undreamt of treasures. ...
Sir W. Thomson's Evidence is as follows:
Are you of opinion that any national institutions supported by the Government are required for the advancement of science? - I think that there ought to be institutions for pure research supported by the Government, and not connected with the Universities. The only suitable place at present for such institutions would be London, or the neighbourhood of London; in that situation, I believe, very great things could be done by institutions for pure research, at which work of a very great immediate money value would be produced at an extremely moderate cost, and I believe that discoveries redounding to the honour, and credit, and pleasure of this country would infallibly be made.
Are you able to give any idea as to how many such institutions would be required? - There should be five. One at present exists, namely, the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. Another in my opinion is very much wanted, an observatory for astronomical physics, then again a physical laboratory, and a laboratory for chemical research, and a physiological laboratory are necessary. ...
Would such a physical laboratory differ in any essential respects from a physical laboratory attached to a University? - Yes; it would be adapted solely for research, with no provision for pupils except what may be called apprentices, or pupils for research; no provision for teaching the mere elements of manipulation, but provision for researches directly adapted to increase knowledge, and for making pattern researches for the sake of training research pupils who had already gained experience and proved ability in institutions of instruction.
Would you leave the researches to be carried on at such a laboratory mainly to the discretion of the person who had charge of it, or would you place it in any degree under the control of the council of which you have been speaking? - I would leave it to the discretion of the person who has charge of it.
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And that the Government should also be able to command investigation on the advice of the council? - Yes.
Of course the director would report? - Yes, the director would report on everything, both researches undertaken at his own instigation, and investigations undertaken for the council, or for the Government.
And your view of what should be done in the chemical and physiological laboratories would, I presume, be something of the same nature? - Yes, something of the same kind, mutatis mutandis.
With respect to the apparatus, and the annual supply of apparatus, it is probable, is it not, that the physical laboratories would be the most costly? - Yes, the most costly in apparatus.
Some very fine instruments of a costly kind are now required in physiological inquiries, and large pieces of apparatus are sometimes employed, such as the respiration apparatus at Munich, which was put up on the recommendation of Professor Pettenkofer? - Yes, it would be in my opinion necessary not to limit to a fixed endowment the expenditure of any one of those institutions, but to let it be determined (if I may use the expression once more) by natural selection; applications for money to be made to the council to be duly weighed, and the council to apply to the Treasury. That would be much more economical than giving a fixed sum which, being to be spent, might be spent without due regard to economy, or which, on the other hand, might prove to be insufficient for valuable researches, causing the institution thereby to be crippled and to lose efficiency.
You would not think it indispensable, would you, that such institutions, if the Government thought fit to establish them, should be in the heart of London, or in any very central situation? - No; it would be much better that they should be in the country in positions conveniently accessible to London. For a physical laboratory quietness of the ground is of immense importance. It would be impossible to make a great deal of the most important scientific investigations in a physical laboratory within 100 yards of any of the great thoroughfares of London, and a much greater distance than 100 yards is quite necessary for many such investigations.
You would not institute any regular provision for teaching in those laboratories? - No.
But you would allow young men or students who wished to carry out original research to avail themselves of them under the direction of the persons who were in charge of them? - Yes under the direction, and to some degree under the instruction of the persons in charge; but the instruction should be limited to methods for advancing science. The director of such an institution must not be occupied with lecturing in any other institution, or with lecturing at all. He ought indeed to be prohibited from lecturing, except one or two occasional lectures in the course of a year.
You think that the object for which you recommend the establishment of those laboratories could not be accomplished by any other means - not by investigations carried on in other laboratories in the country? - Certainly not by any other means.
Dr. Frankland thus refers to the double function which such Laboratories might perform, and states his view in reference to their management:
Can you make any suggestions as to stimulating original research in this country? - ... We have in this country a considerable body of investigators who are not engaged in teaching at all, and I think that this is a peculiarly hopeful feature of our case. It shows that the English have not only a taste for research, but that they have a natural talent for it. We have numerous men like Mr. Gassiot, Sir W. Grove, Dr. De La Rue, Mr. Spottiswoode, Mr. Huggins, Mr, Duppa, Mr. Buckton, Mr. Joule, Mr. Lockyer, Mr. Perkin, Mr. Schunck, Colonel Yorke, and others whom I could name, who are not in any way engaged in teaching, and never have been, but who have made important original researches, and have spent a good deal of their time in the working out of new discoveries. Now that method of stimulating research, which I have mentioned in my former examination, would not of course apply to them. Men of this class are really peculiar to England, for I have never known any such instance in Germany or in France, of men altogether disconnected with teaching taking up research in the way it is done in England, I think that for such men the establishment of national institutions such us those which are recommended by Colonel Strange would be peculiarly useful. In fact, I have heard several of these gentlemen express strong opinions us to the great advantage it would be to them if they could go to some institution of that kind to conduct research, where expensive instruments, which are often required for their experiments, were provided for a number of such investigators, and where appropriate rooms for carrying on these researches could be had. It is exceedingly difficult to carry on chemical research in one's own house, because of the want of proper contrivances for dealing with corrosive gases and vapours; and hence appropriate buildings ought to be provided for carrying on such investigations. I think, therefore, that it would afford a great stimulus to research of this kind if such institutions were provided, and furnished with such instruments us would be generally useful in research, leaving the more special instruments and materials adapted to the particular researches themselves, to be provided by each operator. ... I have reason to believe that no inconsiderable number of men, more especially of those educated in some of the science schools, would undertake researches if such facilities were afforded them.
Would you consider the chief use of such institutions as laboratories to be to enable private inquirers to carry on their researches, or would you propose that any investigations should be carried on there on behalf of the State? - I think that both things might be provided for. The State requires many important investigations to be carried on. ... That might well form one part of the objects of such a building, but I should think that so far as abstract research, of which we are more especially speaking now, is concerned, the other portion of those objects, namely, the encouragement of original investigation in the case of amateurs would be more important, because the investigations made for the Government are essentially practical investigations; they are not usually of that character which lead to discoveries or to the advancement of science.
Would you place those laboratories under a permanent official? - They must of necessity be under the direct and constant superintendence of some one thoroughly conversant with the operations going on in them; and, so far as the conducting of the separate original researches is concerned, I think that it would be very desirable that the admission into such institutions should be granted through some such body as the Research Fund Committee, for instance, of the Council of the Royal Society, or some body of that kind, who would make intelligent and impartial inquiry into the qualifications of the men applying for accommodation.
You would not throw upon the director the sole responsibility of deciding who should be admitted and who should not? - I think that would not be desirable.
And I understood you to say that you would not think it desirable that the Government should direct any specific original research to be carried on, except with reference to some practical purpose? - Except with regard to subjects about which the Government wished for information, I think it is much better for each
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man to devise his own research; he takes much more interest in it, and is much more likely to pursue it with vigour than if it is prescribed for him.
And do you think it would be requisite that those institutions should be on a large scale? - I think that they ought to be on a fairly large scale even to begin with, because it is always a costly process to rebuild such institutions; and I am inclined to think that they would be rapidly filled. A tolerably large institution of that kind would probably in a very few years be filled with workers.
You would not recommend, in the first instance, at least, more than the establishment of one for each department of science? - I think not more than that.
And should it be in London? - Yes, I suppose they must be commenced here, but eventually it would be desirable that the important centres in the provinces should also be furnished with such places.
Colonel Strange recommended the establishment of four laboratories; should you be disposed to agree with him in that view? - Yes, I think that those would be necessary; perhaps the least essential of them would be the metallurgical one, but certainly the others would be quite essential.
Could that be combined with the chemical laboratory? - I think the metallurgical one, in the first instance, might be combined with the chemical laboratory, as the processes are similar. There would be the chemical laboratory, the physical laboratory, the physico-astronomical, as we may term it, and the biological. It would be necessary, in the connexion with the physico-astronomical observatory, to have the means of performing various chemical experiments and making physical observations. Of course the chemical operations would be quite subsidiary to the cosmical observations there.
Mr. De La Rue expresses himself as follows:
Are you of opinion that any new institutions in the way of laboratories should be established by the State? - I hold it to be so important that Chemistry should be extensively cultivated in England, that I would strongly advocate that there should be a State laboratory. That State laboratory should undertake all the chemical work which the Government might require, but at the same time, according to the views which I hold, it ought to be such an establishment as could afford facilities to men who have completed their scientific education, and who might be desirous of continuing original investigations, in which space for working and instruments should be afforded them, and, moreover, if men were not in a position of fortune to continue their researches, in some cases materials and even money might be granted to them on the recommendation of the council. I may state that of my own knowledge I know that chemical science at present is not progressing in England in a satisfactory manner, that we do not make so many original researches as our continental neighbours, particularly the Germans, do. In Germany, very great patronage is given to science, magnificent laboratories have been built, and the students, who, after they are sufficiently advanced, are encouraged to make original investigations, contribute at present most largely to scientific Chemistry.
Do you think that the establishment of those Government laboratories would be likely to give rise to complaints from any existing institutions? - I think not, if those Government establishments were not educational establishments. There would be a natural jealousy on the part of educational establishments if the Government were to undertake to educate students without charge; but what I contemplate is merely that facilities would be given to men who have already been educated, and not to interfere at all with the functions of educational establishments.
... I think that some good might be done by aiding educational establishments; but I believe that the more advantageous course would be for the State to afford facilities in the laboratory which it might require for other purposes.
Do you think that any other laboratories would be needed? - I attach the greatest importance to a chemical laboratory, because I believe that Chemistry is destined to play a very important part in the advancement of the arts in all civilised countries, but there also ought to be a physical laboratory, very much on the same footing as the chemical laboratory, and in which facilities should be afforded for conducting physical investigations.
You would give admission to those laboratories on the same principle as to the chemical laboratories? - Yes, to men who could show that they were qualified to make a beneficial use of them.
You think that any investigations required by the State should also be conducted there? - Yes, they should be conducted in either the chemical or physical laboratory, according to the nature of the investigations. For example, there were a great number of investigations carried on at Woolwich relating to the strength of different allows whose chemical composition was determined by analysis. Such investigations would be very well conducted in the chemical laboratories.
Would you transfer the work now done at Woolwich to such a laboratory? - Part of the work, but I would except such special work as could be better done at each of the Government establishments. Special investigations would fall within the duties of the central government laboratory. The testing of the purity of the products to be used in the department, and routine work, would be better conducted in those establishments.
With respect to the other purpose of the laboratory, do you think that there would be a sufficient number of independent inquirers to occupy an establishment like that? - I think that there would be a great number of men who would be very glad to avail themselves os such opportunities as a laboratory of that kind would afford, and their doing so would not add materially to the cost of the establishment.
Mr. Gore also recommends the establishment of Laboratories:
Are there any measures that you can suggest to the Commission which you wish to see adopted in order more effectually to promote this object than is the case at present? - I propose that national laboratories should be established, in which abstract scientific investigation alone should be carried on. I propose that in those laboratories scientific investigators would be wholly employed upon abstract original investigation, and be paid for their labour and be supplied with the necessary means in their respective sciences, leaving each investigator to choose his special subjects of research.
Perhaps you could explain to the Commission rather more fully what should be the general character of those laboratories? - For making original scientific investigations in the subjects of chemical physics and chemistry. I speak only within the subjects with which I am familiar.
Do you refer, in this recommendation, to the establishment of a physical laboratory? - If you mean by a physical laboratory one in which the sciences of heat, light, electricity, and magnetism would be investigated, I should mean a physical laboratory.
And you think that that ought to be distinct from a laboratory for chemical physics and chemistry? - Yes, I think distinct from the laboratory for chemistry only.
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I understand you to recommend that this should be a Government institution supported entirely by Government funds? - Yes, I do recommend that.
We next proceed to refer to the Evidence in which other views are expressed. It will be seen that it is rather in favour of the utilization and extension of existing, than of the establishment of new Laboratories. We shall confine ourselves to extracts from the Evidence of Dr. A. W. Williamson, Dr. Siemens, Dr. Burdon Sanderson, and Lord Salisbury.
Dr. A. W. Williamson -
A good deal of evidence has been offered to the Commission in favour of establishing and maintaining laboratories of research at the expense of the State, in order to give opportunities to original inquirers to carry on investigations. Have you formed any opinion of the expediency of such arrangements? - I think that to establish a laboratory for research only would be beginning at the club end, and would be decidedly inadvisable. I think that the main thing for research is to give to schools, and especially to the higher schools proper facilities for it, and to develop them greatly. At the same time, it is quite possible that, in exceptional cases, research might with advantage be carried on in separate places; but I should always view with regret, as a waste of resources, the separation of that higher work of research from the more humble work of teaching, which naturally belongs to it. They help one another, and I think that each would lose from being separated from the other; still, in some cases, it might possibly be advisable.
Dr. Siemens -
What is your opinion as to the establishment of laboratories at the Government expense? - I would recommend the establishment of observatories but not of laboratories, for the same reason, that in laboratories unconnected with teaching, as have been proposed, using the public conveniences, and public money, there would be a necessity for results which would lead to a certain extent to something approaching charlatanism in the enunciation of those results; and, moreover, I consider that it might lead to disappointment in many, who would believe that they had an equal right with others to take advantage of such establishments.
Do you consider that laboratories are required in greater numbers, and better equipped than they are at present? - I think so, decidedly.
But still you would not remedy that defect by establishing Government laboratories? - Not by establishing Government laboratories, but by granting Government aid towards the establishment of laboratories, and chiefly by the endowment of chairs.
Do you think that laboratories should chiefly exist in connexion with universities or other teaching institutions? - I think so, because we should always look to the coming generation, upon which the future depends chiefly; and a well appointed academical laboratory presents great opportunities for a student, under a great leader, to attain to eminence himself.
With reference to national physical laboratories, it has been suggested to the Commission by several witnesses that such laboratories might be of use, not so much for the researches to be carried on officially in them, but as giving opportunities to private individuals for carrying on researches in them; has it occurred to you whether, in that point of view, they might be useful or not? - They might be useful in certain cases; but if the Government takes in hand such a thing, there must always be favouritism. It would be impossible to grant such facilities to all applicants, and it would be very difficult for the Government to use such discrimination. Any university or society could do so by granting facilities to men who had given promises or success by reading papers, or by fully explaining their objects in view; but for the Government to use such discretion would be impracticable, I think.
Then you think that there should be such laboratories that should be available to persons who could not afford, for instance, to have a physical laboratory of their own, but you do not think that such laboratories should be under the control of the Government, or should be Government institutions? - They should be exceptional cases altogether. If, in any existing laboratory whether Government or otherwise, an instrument existed necessary for certain research, I think that facilities might be given occasionally to an applicant, but I am of opinion that it would not be desirable to establish what might be termed a national workshop of science.
Is there any such institution in Germany as a physical or other laboratory (apart from astronomical observatories), Independent of a university or an educational establishment? - I believe not. There are laboratories connected with Polytechnic or Mining schools, but still they are connected with teaching.
Has any difficulty been found in affording facilities in those laboratories to original inquirers who may not belong to the school? - It would not be difficult for anyone to get access, for instance, to the laboratory of a University. If he entered his name, he would be allowed to go into the laboratory, and, under certain restrictions, imposed by the Professor, carry on his researches.
Are those laboratories, as established in Germany in connection with the universities and other educational institutions, quite sufficient for all the wants of science and of original investigation in science? - Whether more might be done by increasing their number I am not prepared to say, but still there seems to be no expressed want for additional laboratories.
At any rate you would not propose to establish laboratories on a different footing? - No.
Dr. Burdon Sanderson -
Will you proceed to state in what way you consider that money might be applied for the promotion of physiology? - I consider that it might be available for three purposes; namely, for the improvement of laboratories, for the providing of instruments and materials for research, and for the remuneration of workers. I will speak first or the spending of money upon the improvement of laboratories. I do not myself see at the present moment that we are in a position to require the expenditure of large sums of money upon the building of large laboratories, for this reason, that if such laboratories were built we should not have workers to work in them; at present we have not men to work in the laboratories that we actually possess. We have men of a certain class, but we have not men of that trained class which we require. I am of opinion that a physiological laboratory to be of any use at all must be in connexion with the great schools of medicine. A physiological laboratory at a distance from such schools would fail for want of people to work in it. Physiology will never flourish, therefore, excepting in connexion with the two arts which are dependent upon it. Just as vegetable physiology will flourish best in connexion with agriculture, so also animal physiology will flourish best in connexion with medicine. I think that grants might be very advan-
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tageously given for the improvement of the laboratories now existing. Of course, in the administration of such grants, one would go upon the principle 'to him that hath shall be given'; that is to say, wherever a good laboratory exists, or wherever men are to be found to work a laboratory, and where there are likely to be students to work in it, money should be given to carry out improvements. I would further notice that in physiological researches, the expenditure for materials is usually much greater than for instruments, and consequently money is more wanted for current than initial expenses; for this reason large sums ought not to be expended in the purchase of collections of costly instruments, for if such sums were spent they would probably not be used. It is much better to provide money to assist to meet those heavy expenses which are required for material. To show this it would merely be necessary to refer to some of the physiological researches which are now being carried out, in which a great expenditure is required for material, but no tremendous expense for instruments. Of course I do not mean to say that it is not necessary to spend money on instruments, but any expenditure on a large scale for this object would be very likely wasted. On the whole I believe that money can be more economically spent in sums paid for work done than in any other way, i.e., either in the way of periodical payment to men of acknowledged competency, for the purpose of carrying out inquiries of long duration, or in the form of separate grants for special researches, or in the form of grants for skilled assistants. ... Of course in Germany men who do this work are not paid, and it is very necessary to bear this in mind, but the difference there is that such men have something to look forward to. There are in Germany numerous teaching appointments to which a man can look forward with the certainty that if he works industriously for a certain time, he is sure to get an appointment of some kind afterwards, which will enable him to take the position of a professor. This state of things does not exist in England, and therefore it is more necessary in England to encourage the younger men to engage in research by pecuniary aids than it is in Germany.
Lord Salisbury -
In speaking of the establishment of laboratories by the State, your Lordship appeared to me rather to refer to chemical laboratories; but it has not escaped your attention, I am sure, that the cost of physical apparatus is so very great as to put physical inquiries really out of the reach of a very large number or persons who probably might be capable of conducting such researches; and in consequence of there being no such assistance assigned to such persons as a State laboratory, in which they could obtain the use of apparatus, and of a really fitting building, constructed with sufficient solidity for the purposes of research, a great many persons are prevented from entering upon researches of that kind by the want of means; and it has been contended that by providing laboratories, at the expense of the State, you would be doing no more for such persons than has been done for learned men by providing them with great public libraries, as you would be only providing them with the opportunities of research, which otherwise they could not have? - My fear would be that there would be a difficulty in providing laboratories in sufficient numbers to satisfy all, as you can provide hooks at the British Museum to satisfy all, and that the result would be that very often those who are least fitted to obtain any useful result would engross the instruments. For the purpose of really first-rate workers, I think that the Government might very advantageously be liberal; but such liberality I think would best take the form of an increased grant to the Royal Society. But I should be doubtful whether it was possible by any moderate expenditure of funds to provide an expensive class of scientific instruments of all kinds for all the persons who might be inclined to use them.
Evidence relating to the Establishment of Physical Observatories
On the general question of the Establishment and Maintenance of Physical Observatories, Lord Salisbury agrees that:
... Some of these institutions which have been alluded to in your Grace's question, especially observatories, clearly fall within the duties of the Government; and certainly, from all that one hears, it is probable that their duty in that respect is inadequately performed, and that observatories for a much larger range of observations might with great advantage be multiplied. ...
Sir George Airy thus states his view on the subject:
When I began to be an astronomer, such questions as those of the constitution of the sun and the like were not entertained. ...
Are you prepared to express an opinion as to whether it is an object which would be a proper one for the Government to take up as a State establishment? - The Government are already pushed very hard in their estimates. The screw is always put upon them, 'Cannot you reduce the estimates a little more?' And then it would always come to a question of extensive feeling in the House of Commons, and of popular feeling out of the House of Commons; and I am confident from what I have seen that those two bodies would not in every case support an extension. ...
Should you say that it is an object which is not very likely to be prosecuted with sufficient vigour unless taken up by the Government? - I do not see how it could go on except it were taken up by the Government. I do not believe that it could go on in any other way.
It is not likely, you think, to be prosecuted by private individuals, or by other public bodies such as the Universities? - No, I think that their funds are almost all required for other objects, and the difficulty even of getting the business into shape is extremely great. ...
Then such observations, in all probability, will either not be made at all or must be taken up by the Government? - That is my view. ...
Mr. De La Rue's opinion is thus given in reply to question 13,066:
I think that the time for the State providing means for reducing observations has now come: when the State should take up, besides mathematical astronomy (which deals with the places of the stars and planets, and the moon especially), physical observations, more particularly observations of the sun, which appear to me to bear directly upon meteorological phenomena. ...
He says further, in regard to observations of this nature, that they necessitate "a certain staff of assistants, and require continuous superintendence, hence it is necessary that an amateur astronomer who undertakes such work should have leisure during
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the day, and that he should be able to pay for duly qualified assistants, and such men have to be highly paid."
Sir W. Thomson points out the importance of multiplying such Observatories:
... In respect to the observatories, it might be necessary to have several observatories for astronomical physics in this country, if it were only to secure observations of interesting conjunctures, notwithstanding the varieties of the weather, that there may be in different parts of the country; and, again, observatories for astronomical physics ought most certainly to be founded in other parts of the British dominions than England, Ireland, and Scotland; in other latitudes and on the other side of the world.
Dr. Siemens expresses the same view in the following Evidence:
... An observatory or several observatories should be established for carrying on physical research, research to obtain information on general subjects, such as solar observations, magnetic observations, and other subjects that might be thought desirable to obtain continually information upon. ...
I think that almost the only new establishments which you recommend are certain physical observatories? - Yes.
What would be the principal object of such observatories? - For the purpose of magnetic observations, solar observations, and other general inquiries into physical phenomena.
Do you contemplate the establishment of more than one such observatory? - Probably more than one would be desirable.
Do you contemplate the establishment of any such observatories in any of the colonial possessions of the country? - Yes, I think so.
Speaking generally, would they be costly establishments to found? - Not very costly, not so costly as astronomical observatories.
Dr. Frankland has also given Evidence on the importance of promoting the study of Astronomical Physics, pointing out that "It would be necessary, in connexion with the Physico-Astronomical Observatory, to have the means of performing various, chemical experiments and making physical observations. Of course the chemical operations would be quite subsidiary to the cosmical observations there."
Mr. De La Rue, in reference to locality and organization, in answer to the question whether provision for carrying out Observations of this character should be in connexion with the Greenwich Observatory, says:
In connexion with the Greenwich Observatory, yes, but at the Greenwich Observatory I should say not. I do not think, in the first place, that there is space enough at Greenwich, and the duties of the staff are already so very onerous that it would require a separate establishment for such special work; besides other new buildings it would entail a chemical laboratory, and there is hardly space for those at Greenwich. I believe also that it would cause too divided attention on the part of the Astronomer Royal, if he were called upon to personally superintend investigations in the physics of astronomy, although I think it would be very desirable that any new establishments, if they are to exist, should be affiliated to Greenwich."
Being asked whether the new establishment should be in the neighbourhood of Greenwich? he replies:
Not at all necessarily so. In fact Greenwich would not be at all desirable for some class of observations, it is much too near London.
And in answer to the question "Would you place the proposed new observatory for those purposes in any respect under the control of the Astronomer Royal?" -
It would be desirable that the State should have to deal only with one astronomer. Possibly by the increase of the claims upon his attention it might be desirable for the Astronomer Royal to have directors under him, so that he should not have to devote so much time to details even of the Greenwich Observatory, but I do not think that the State ought to have to deal with a great number of astronomers, indeed there might be some difficulty in its doing so.
He says further, "In order to obtain a daily record, I would advise that one or possibly two observatories should be established in India, and one at the Cape of Good Hope. ... At the Kew Observatory it was frequently cloudy for several consecutive days."
Admiral Richards says:
If you are going permanently to establish physical observatories, I should prefer to see separate ones. l think that the physical work probably would be better separated from the Royal Observatory.
You think that the two classes of observations are so distinct in character as to render that desirable? - Of course there is a certain amount of meteorology that must be observed at the astronomical observatory; but it need not be of any extended character.
Mr. Spottiswoode's Evidence is as follows:
The Observatories which you recommend could, in your opinion, be attached to existing Observatories; an Observatory for Solar Physics, for instance? - This might be met by an extension of the existing Observatories.
Do you think that it would be as useful, if attached to Greenwich, as if a special observatory were established for the purpose? - I have no doubt that if an independent observatory were adapted to that purpose and furnished with adequate instruments, and manned by such a staff as one could wish, more would be done in such an independent Observatory, so manned, than by a branch of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, but, at the same time, that would involve such a much larger expense, that I thought that the question of expense would perhaps outweigh the scientific advantages to be gained by it.
Do you think that a great deal might be done by making some additions to the present Observatories?
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A great deal, because in a large observatory there are, not unfrequently, instruments only partially employed. For example, at Greenwich there is a large and very fine instrument suited to the investigation of solar physics, which is, at all events, largely disposable for such observations.
It will be seen that most of the Witnesses dealing with Physico-Astronomical Observations recommend that, whether or not they be placed under the control of the Astronomer Royal, they should certainly be conducted by Special Directors, and be placed by preference in localities which the Witnesses deem to be better adapted to the purpose than Greenwich.
Such is not the opinion of the Astronomer Royal himself. Sir George Airy thus deals with the question specially referring to the difficulty as to space at Greenwich, and the mode of management:
Do you think it would be practicable to adopt any measures at the present observatory at Greenwich to make observations of that character? - I think it is possible that it might be done, but I am not prepared with a plan at present, and I am very much inclined to think that the difficulties in these matters will be rather in detail than anything else. There is always a difficulty in keeping an observatory of rather an indefinite character in such a state that it will satisfy the public demands. ...
... It has been found necessary within the last three or four years to extend our grounds at Greenwich. ... Judging from what occurred in our case, I do not think that there would be any difficulty in further extension; where it would be in sufficient proximity to the Royal Observatory to be under the same general control.
If a department of that kind were instituted, do you see any objection to its being placed under the Astronomer Royal, or would it give him too much to do? - It would give him much to do, but a great deal may be effected by organisation, especially with the license to have officers of good position under him; to have lieutenants of a good class.
A Resolution in general accordance with the views expressed by Sir George Airy was transmitted to us in July 1872, by the President and Council of the Royal Astronomical Society. This Resolution is in favour of the extension of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and other existing Astronomical Observatories, and does not recommend the Establishment of an independent Government Observatory for the cultivation of Astronomical Physics in England.
In connexion with some points on which differences of opinion have been expressed in this Evidence, we give the following extracts from a Paper handed in by Colonel Strange, consisting of questions addressed by him to Professor Sir W. Thomson, Professor Hilgard, the Secretary of the American National Academy of Sciences, and Professor Balfour Stewart, and to Mr. Faye, the President of the French Academy of Science; and their replies thereto.
Colonel Strange's questions, and the replies to them, were as follows:
(1) Is the systematic study of the solar constitution likely to throw light on subjects of Terrestrial Physics, such as Meteorology and Magnetism?
(2) What means, at present known to Science, are available for studying the sun?
(3) Do you consider that Photography (one of the assumed menus) will suffice for the purpose?
(4) Do you consider that the class of observations (defined in your answer to my question 2) are such as can be efficiently made in an observatory maintained by the Slate, or that any of them would be bettor left to the zeal of volunteer astronomers?
[Addressed to Mr. Faye only.] (5) Do you consider that it would be advantageous to carry on Physico-Astronomical researches on an extensive scale, and Meridional observations, in one and the same observatory, under a single director?
Sir W. Thomson:
The subject of investigation in any observatory for Astronomical Physics is so very different from that for which the great Astronomical observatories at present existing were founded, that I believe generally it would not be good economy of resources to attempt to adapt the old observatories to the new investigations. The instruments adapted for accurately determining the positions of the heavenly bodies, which constitute the most important part of the great observatories hitherto established, are scarcely adapted to give any contribution towards Astronomical Physics. Now instruments designed for the work of the spectroscope, and new buildings to contain them, are necessary. A chemical laboratory, and an extensive system of galvanic batteries, and electro-magnetic apparatus are required for the new kind of Astronomical observatory. I doubt very much whether one man could act effectively as executive chief of an observatory of Astronomical Physics, and at the same time of an observatory of the old kind.
Professor Hilgard:
(1) That the systematic study of the sun's constitution is likely to throw light on subjects of terrestrial physics, I would unhesitatingly affirm; yet without expressing the belief that the minor meteoric or magnetic variations are dependent on changes taking place in the sun.
(2) The available means for studying the sun at present known to science are, in my apprehension, in addition to observations made with the eye, solar photography, photometric and calorimetric observations, and spectroscopic observations, combined with laboratory experiments necessary for the interpretation of the latter.
(3) I do not think that photography alone will suffice for the purpose indicated, since it will give little else than a registration of solar spots, the study of which by means of the spectroscope appears to be also of prime importance.
(4) I perceive no difficulty in organizing the several classes of observations above mentioned systematically, so as to be efficiently made in an observatory maintained by the State. Similar considerations to those upon which the maintenance of meteorological and magnetical observations is based, would warrant a provision for systematic observation of the sun.
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The value of the latter, as of the former classes of observations, largely depends upon their regular continuity, which cannot be expected from the zeal of volunteer observers, who must look for their reward to results of immediate interest.
Dr. Balfour Stewart:
In reply to your first question, I cannot help thinking that a study of the solar constitution is likely to throw light on the subjects of Terrestrial Physics, such as Meteorology and Magnetism. My reasons are:
(1) That I consider the fact of a connexion between sun spot activity and disturbances of the earth's magnetism to be very well proved, although we are ignorant of the nature of the connexion.
(2) The recent researches of Mr. Baxendell, Mr. Stone, Professor C. P. Smyth, and others, render it extremely probable that there is likewise a connexion between the period of solar activity and the meteorology of our globe.
(3) The recent researches of Messrs. Warren De La Rue, Stewart, and Loewy, as well as those of Professor Wolf, render it very probable that there is a connexion between the positions of the chief planets and the behaviour of sun spots.
(4) The recent observations of Messrs. Browning and others render probable a connexion between the appearance of the planet Jupiter and the state of the solar disc.
I think that all these, taken together, can leave us in little doubt of our duty with regard to solar observations. If we were not only perfectly sure of a connexion, but likewise know all about the nature of this connexion, the necessity of studying the sun would yet be as strong as that of recording the positions of the various planets with the view of verifying the law of gravitation. But inasmuch as here the nature of the connexion is unknown, it is of imperious necessity to study the sun with the view of accumulating a sufficient number of good observations which may ultimately enable us to determine the nature of this unknown connexion.
We ought to remember how greatly the accurate observations of Tyeho Brahe contributed to the generalizations of Kepler. ...
In reply to your second question, I would enumerate the following means of observation of the sun:
(1) Eye observations through a telescope.
(2) Photography.
(3) Spectroscopic observations.
(4) Actinic observations.
In reply to your third question, I do not consider Photography sufficient for the purpose. I think that eye observations, more particularly when combined with the spectroscope, are essential to enable us to know what is going on in the sun from minute to minute, and unless we know this, I do not well see that we are ever likely to arrive at a true theory of solar disturbances, or of the connexion between these and the disturbances of the meteorology and magnetism of the earth. Could we ever have ascertained the velocity of the solar currents without the aid of the spectroscope?
As a self-recording instrument for registering the actinic effect of the solar rays has been perfected by Dr. Roscoe, and as it is a point of importance to study the influence of the solar rays upon vegetation, I think that whenever the sun's surface is regularly studied, actinic observations ought, from this cause as well as from their physical importance, to be included among the duties of the observatory.
In reply to your fourth question, believing that a long continued and systematic series of observations is beyond the means of volunteers, I think that the four kinds of observation of the solar surface which I have specified ought to be made in an observatory maintained by the State. Indeed, for some of them more than one observatory would be requisite, for I think it an object of great importance to obtain a daily record not only of the position but of the area of every group of spots which appears on the surface of the sun. But to obtain this more than one observatory would be necessary, for we must be independent of the influence of weather; and to be so we must have stations so distributed that when it rained at one station it might reasonably be expected to be fair at another. ...
I think that the study of the sun ought to be systematically conducted in an institution for the purpose working under Government, and connected with a number or stations sufficient to ensure a good record of what takes place on the solar surface, independent of the influence of weather.
It appears to me also that such an institution should have a laboratory as well as a workshop connected with it.
M. Faye:
1. L'Étude de la constitution physique du soleil ne me parait pas appelée à répandre de grande lumière sur la Physique Terrestre, c'est-à-dir sur la Météorologie et Magnétisme. L'action solaire est actuellement caractérisé par une constance bien remarquable, sauf de petites variations accidentelles ou périodiques de peu d'importance. L'étude directe de ces divers sujets de Physique Terrestre suffit amplement. Mais il en est autrement des âges géologiques dont l'histoire me paraît liée intimement à des changements progressifs d'ont on reconnait la possibilité dans l'activité interne du soleil.
Toutefois on ne peut nier que les recherches nouvelles qui ont eu pour but de rattacher certaines périodes dans les phénomènes magnétiques aux phénomènes également périodiques du soleil ne méritent intérêt et considération.
2. Les moyens dont nous disposons aujourd'hui pour l'étude du soleil sont au nombre de huit:
1. Étude des mouvements de la photosphère par les taches et les facules. (Carrington.)
2. Étude de la constitution chimique de la photosphère et de la chromosphère. Variations, plus ou moins rapides, de cette constitution. Analyse chimique continuelle de la superficie solaire.
3. Étude des mouvements de la chromosphère, éruptions, protuberances, etc. Distribution de ces phénomènes selon la latitude.
4. Étude des variations périodiques de la surface, par les précédes de Schwabe et ceux de l'Observatoire de Kew.
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5. Étude des éclipses totales, auréole, couronne, etc., au moyen d'expéditions Iointalnes.
6. Étude des changements séculaires de l'activité solaire au moyen des données de la géologie.
7. Étude analogique du soleil au moyen de l'observatlon des étoiles variables ou nouvelles.
8. Application de la mécanique moderne à l'étude des mouvements internes qu'on peut supposer dans la masse solaire.
3. Le moyen le meilleur d'étudier les mouvements des taches et des facules est incontestablement la photographie. C'est surtout par là qu'on peut espérer de rencontrer des phénomènes auxquels s'appliqueront tôt ou tard Ies lois de la mécanique. Mais ce n'est là qu'une face de la question. La spectroscopie n'est pas moin indispensable. C'est par elle que la physique et la chimie pouvent s'appliquer aux études solaires auss bien que la mécunique. Réduire cette étude à la photographie ce serait se condamner à ne voir qu'une face de la question. Je ne veux pas que cette opinion puisse être sérieusement soutenue.
4. Il sufflt d'envisager l'importance du but des études solaires et la variété au moyen d'action que la science moderne nous présente pour penser que le moment est venu de confier les études à un ou plusieurs établissements pourvu de grandes ressources, et pouvant fonctionner avec continuité pendant un laps de temps illimité.
Sans doute ou devra compter sur le concours puissant des volontaires de la science. Mais le concours se présente toujours avec des restrictions quant aux ressources, à la continuité, et à la durée, lesquelles me paraîssent peu compatibles avec les résultats à obtenir.
5. Je suis d'avis que les études doivent être poursuivies dans des établissements spéciaux; que leur introduction dans les observatoires astronomiques serait nuisible à l'astronomie proprement dite, saus pouvoir donner tous les résultats que procurerait une division bien nette du travail. L'expérience que nous en avons en France me paraît décisive.
Evidence relating to Meteorology
For the reasons which have already been stated, we have taken a considerable amount of Evidence with reference to the Meteorological Observations at present carried on in the United Kingdom, whether at the cost of the Government, or of Societies or Private Observers. To some points in this Evidence we think it necessary to call attention: of these the most important are those which relate to the Meteorological Office.
This Office is under the Management of the Meteorological Committee of the Royal Society, the Functions of which are thus described in the Report annually presented to Parliament:
The Meteorological Committee consists of Fellows of the Royal Society who were nominated by its President and Council, at the request of the Board of Trade, for the purpose of superintending the Meteorological duties formerly undertaken by a Government Department, under the charge of Admiral Fitzroy.
The Committee are credited with a sum of £10,000 voted annually in the Estimates, for the administration of which they are wholly responsible, and over which they are given the entire control.
The Meetings of the Committee are held once a fortnight, or oftener when necessary, when every subject on which action has to be taken by their executive officers receives their careful consideration. The duties of the Committee are onerous, and ,i.entirely gratuitous; they were accepted, and are very willingly performed by the members, on account of the earnest desire they severally feel for the improvement of Meteorological Science.
The position of the Committee is anomalous. In the words of the Director of the Meteorological Office -
The Government distinctly disclaims all connexion with us, whilst the Royal Society equally disclaims all control over us, except merely the nomination of the members of the Committee.
As a matter of fact, all that the Royal Society does is to nominate the members of the Committee? - That is all.
Having so done, it ceases to have any control whatever, does it not? - Entirely.
What is the precise relation between the Office and the Government? - That the Government gives a vote of £10,000 every year, and that it calls for no account of this money, excepting the account annually presented to Parliament.
Who audits the accounts? - The members of the Committee. There is no formal audit, because, as the Government would not recognize any audit excepting its own, the Committee considered that it was not worth while paying an auditor if such audit would not be recognized, and, as a matter of fact, two of the members take the trouble of auditing the accounts every year.
What, in your opinion, are the chief advantages and disadvantages of such an arrangement as compared with those of the direct management of the Office by the Government? - The chief advantage is the perfect freedom from political management. The risk in being connected with the Government is that if a new President of the Board of Trade comes, he may reverse the action of the preceding one. The existence of a scientific supervision for the Office is exceedingly important; it acts as an intermediate party between the public and the Office. I may mention a decided disadvantage which results from the Office not being connected with the Government, namely, the loss of prestige. Tile difficulty is, that if we are sending instruments by sea or by railroad, if we do not call them Government instruments we cannot get as much attention paid to them, and it is my opinion that we should get more co-operation from the merchant navy if we were an office of the Board of Trade. We should have more prestige as acting directly from the Government.
The following very clear account of the objects which the Meteorological Committee propose to themselves is taken from the Evidence of Major-General Strachey, one of the Members:
I would, then, state generally what I understand to be the objects which the Meteorological Committee
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has to superintend. These are, first, the collection of meteorological data from ships' logs, with a view to the preparation of maps for the use of sailors, showing the probable, or it may be termed the average, meteorological elements all over the ocean, on the chief line of trade routes, for the several months in the year. Included with these is the investigation of the ocean currents. This branch of duties is carried on under Captain Toynbee. The second branch of the business is the collection and daily publication of meteorological observations made on the British Isles and neighbouring coasts, extending from the coasts of Scandinavia to France, and partly to Spain. Although at the outset of the issue of warnings as to probable bad weather was not contemplated, yet after the Committee had been in operation for a few months it was considered desirable again to undertake this, and in the first year of the Committee's existence the issue of warnings of anticipated stormy weather was resumed. I daresay Mr. Scott has told the Commissioners, that within the last few months there has been a little more detail given in the warnings. Originally they were mere warnings that stormy weather was likely to occur. Now there is a statement also given of the probable direction from which the wind is to come, and whether it will be of extreme force. The third of the objects is the recording at certain specially organised observatories, seven in number, maintained under the direction of the Committee, of the principal meteorological elements, with self-recording instruments; with the intention of obtaining a continuous record with as great accuracy and precision as possible, and thus of procuring accurate data for the scientific study of meteorology by all persons who are interested in that science. I should add that the Committee has, within the last month or two, from the commencement of this year in fact, begun to print and to issue monthly the detailed observations made at these seven observatories. The Committee also publishes quarterly reports, which contain diagrams embodying the observations at the seven observatories, and an analysis of the weather over the British Isles, of which the details are furnished in the daily reports. There is no doubt that the publication of those quarterly reports is a useful addition to the daily reports, which are extremely voluminous, and not very easy for persons to follow who do not devote themselves to the subject. The last of the specific duties of the Committee is the supply of meteorological instruments for the Royal Navy and Mercantile Marine. Besides various miscellaneous references come from the Board of Trade, to which, of course, the Committee gives such answers as it is capable of doing.
It is admitted that the objects thus described do not exhaust the whole of Meteorology, and that the Committee in their selection of these objects have been, to a great extent, guided by the proceedings of the Meteorological Department of the Board of Trade, which existed prior to, and which has been superseded by the Committee. Thus Major-General Strachey says:
The Committee is now in reality doing no more than continuing the exercise of certain functions which had, in the course of time, been thrown upon the Board of Trade by the position which that Department occupies in connexion with the public administration.
Has the consequence been that the action of the Committee has been from the outset rather in a practical direction than in one of original research or scientific observation, properly so called? - I think distinctly that such is the case, and that it has necessarily followed from the position in which the Committee was placed. If a reference is made to the earlier papers, and to the Report of the gentlemen on whose suggestions the present arrangements originated, there perhaps is an indication that they anticipated something more in the way of scientific research than has actually occurred; but the turn that things have taken seems to me the necessary result of the sort of duties that were put upon the Committee under the essential condition that it had but a limited sum of money to spend.
Have any results of scientific importance in your opinion been obtained by the action of the Committee? - In the direction of what one may call investigation of an absolutely scientific character, I should say none at all. Of course the observations that are made at the special observatories are valuable scientific information, and so far one has no right to say that scientific results have not been produced; but I do not think that these can properly be referred to as specific results of anything that the Committee has done, to the best of my belief there has been nothing undertaken in the way of original investigation into the specific physical causes of any of the phenomena which are recorded, nor any original research, properly so called, in relation to any of the several branches of meteorology. The Committee hardly has appliances at its command for any such investigations, and, the funds at its disposal being limited, it was hardly possible that it should attempt them. It is also no doubt quite true that the observations which are made at the seven observatories do not include any matters which are of great importance in physical science, and which would properly come within the range of meteorology.
Are the funds at the disposal of the Committee in your opinion insufficient for doing anything more than has been actually done at present? - I should say distinctly that this is the case. The Committee has always considered that it is bound to attend primarily to the special objects before referred to, which were in a specific manner made over to it, and it finds that after this has been done there is no money left for other things.
Again, the same Witness expresses a decided opinion that the State should do more for the promotion of Meteorological Science than it does at present, but entertains some doubt whether any increased duties could advantageously be allowed to devolve upon a body such as the Meteorological Committee:
Can you state the directions in which you think the State should intervene? - This seems to me an extremely difficult question to answer. The fact is that the form in which the State might in a satisfactory way intervene must depend upon the extent to which it is disposed to intervene. If one knew that the Government really desired to assist in the development of scientific meteorology, it would be possible to make a scheme, but I do not see how anybody could make what I may call an abstract plan which should have any real utility in it. My own impression is that so long as there is no greater interest taken in this sort of matter than at present probably the best thing to do is to leave the expenditure of what money the Government choose to give for the purpose under the control of some such body as our Committee; but I should further say that if the Government is seriously in earnest in taking the matter up, it would then be the proper thing to have a public department that should manage the business. Then again, if there were a public department, it must be a part of an organised system; and in order to secure an efficient public department to supervise such matters, it seems to me that it would be necessary to have some officer connected directly
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with the Government, an Under-Secretary of State, or some such person, who should be responsible that the executive scientific staff properly carried out the whole of the operations of their several departments.
Are you disposed to think that the Meteorological Committee might in any way extend its sphere of action with advantage? - As matters are now I should think it is extremely doubtful. I look upon the Meteorological Committee as being mainly a controlling body to supervise the expenditure of a definite sum of money in a definite way. At all events that practically has been their position. There has been no virtual change from the time that they were started up to the present time.
Do you think that that money would be spent better in some other way; that is to say, supposing the thing had to be started afresh, are those objects which the Committee at present have to carry out exactly those that you would have given them to carry out? - I should say in general terms that the whole of the objects which the Committee has charge of are reasonable objects; I do not think that there is any one of them that it is not desirable to attend to. As to whether the precise method of dealing with them is the best possible will be a matter of opinion, but I do not think that I could very usefully go into that.
Does it occur to you that there is anything else which should be added to the functions of the Committee? - My general impression, as I implied before, is that the Committee is a quasi-financial body having certain scientific knowledge. Its duty is not strictly speaking to direct scientific research or scientific operations, but it is to see that a certain sum of money which the Government thinks may reasonably be applied to collecting and publishing meteorological observations, and doing certain other matters, is not unreasonably applied. It exercises a check upon the persons who have actually to carry out those duties, as I understand it; and I do not think myself that, with a body constituted as the Meteorological Committee is, you can expect more from it than that.
Do you think it would be desirable that the Committee should be entrusted with money to enable it to have any observations collected, scientifically discussed, and turned to scientific use? - l think it would be much better if any such fund were not given to a body like the Committee. If some individual were selected, and the entire responsibility put upon him, I think it would be a much better plan.
You want to do away with the Committee altogether? - I think so, certainly; supposing always that I am at liberty to replace it according to my own conceptions of what is best.
The same view is expressed by Professor Balfour Stewart -
Would you organize the Meteorological Committee in any really different form to that which at present obtains? - I should be inclined to dispense with the Meteorological Committee altogether, and substitute a Meteorologist Royal, or whatever his appellation might be, a single official who should be responsible to the Government in the same way as the Astronomer Royal is responsible for his department. I do not see why the one department should be on one footing and the other department on a different footing. I think that there are grave disadvantages with a department administered by an unpaid committee.
Would you appoint a Meteorologist Royal corresponding with the Astronomer Royal? - Yes, whatever the name might be; I should appoint an official very much corresponding to the Astronomer Royal and responsible to the same extent. A board of visitors would not be objectionable, but the direction of an unpaid committee appears to me to be very objectionable.
The same Witness considers that the subject of Meteorology naturally divides itself into two heads, (1) Physical Meteorology, of which "the object would be to ascertain the Physics of the earth's atmosphere, and perhaps of the earth's ocean", and which must consequently be regarded as a branch of Terrestrial Physics; and (2) Local or Climatic Meteorology, involving a number of Inquiries having special relation to Health, Agriculture, and various Human Interests. The distinction is one which perhaps does not admit of being very closely pressed. For example, it is not clear to which of the two heads the Observations upon Rainfall should be referred; not to mention that any series of Meteorological Observations, with whatever object undertaken, must have a special value with reference to the Locality at which they are made. Professor Stewart is further of opinion that while Physical Meteorology should receive even larger support from Government than it does at present, Climatic Meteorology might in the main be left to voluntary and local exertions.
Would you leave the other branch of the subject, climatic meteorology, to individual and local effort? - Yes, I think so, possibly supported to some extent by funds from the Government, but I should not put such branches under the superintendence of a central board at the present moment.
And again -
Would you leave climatic meteorology altogether to societies and to individual effort? - At the present moment it appears to me to be a matter that might best be left in that position, and that a central authority would do no good in a question of this kind, but rather do harm; in fact, rather tend to depress than to encourage these local efforts. I have no doubt that a great deal might be done by the zeal of local individuals, but if the thing were undertaken in its present state by a central board, which would do little but register a number of observations, I do not think that any good would at the present moment be done.
Such aid as Government might give to Climatic Meteorology, should, in the opinion of the Professor, rather take the form of Grants to Societies, than of any extension, in this direction, of the Functions of the Meteorological Office, for the double reason that it would be undesirable to discourage local efforts, and to dissipate the energies of the Meteorological Office by diverting them from Physical Meteorology.
As far as the money is concerned, I consider that a mere matter of detail, but I should be very strongly against the Meteorological Committee undertaking anything but Physical Meteorology; I think that they
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ought to confine their labours to that. If they at present undertake all those branches of meteorology bearing upon the various individual human interests, it appears to me that you will leave them no energy to attack the problems of physical meteorology. I think the great point is to put physical meteorology somewhat more into the position of a branch of physical science; at the present moment it appears to me to occupy a very low position indeed.
It appears that within the last two or three years the Meteorological Committee have made great efforts to extend their work in such directions as might be most likely to help in the promotion of Scientific Meteorology. Thus, they have commenced publishing the individual values derived from their self-recording instruments; and they have undertaken regular Observations upon Atmospheric Electricity. But the efforts of the Committee to extend their operations are limited by insufficiency of funds.
Is there a want of funds for a more complete treatment of the subject of land meteorology? - A very serious want of funds. As I mentioned before, for any serious discussion like that of the hourly values for all the elements for five years we are not provided with a sufficiency of funds; in fact the amount of our staff for land meteorology would be sufficient to discuss the results for one observatory, but not for seven. It is in that sort of way that the original provision of clerks who were to discuss the work was quite insufficient, the amount of materials being so enormous.
Mr. Scott also informs us that:
Arrangements have been concluded between the Meteorological Society and the Meteorological Office, and have come into effect on the 1st January 1875. The principal features of these arrangements are that the Observers belonging to these two organizations are supplied with a uniform schedule for recording their observations, and that the Society undertakes to furnish to the Office monthly returns from certain selected stations for publication with the returns from its own stations, in consideration of a certain payment, which will probably average about £50 per annum.
An invitation has been issued to the Scottish Meteorological Society to co-operate with the Office on similar terms, and the Meteorological Committee are not without some hope that this proposal may be accepted.
Besides the sum of £10,000 which is placed on the Civil Service Estimates and is annually paid to the Meteorological Committee, the Government incurs a certain expenditure on account of Meteorology at the two National Observatories of Greenwich and Edinburgh. This expenditure for the year 1874-75 amounted to £1,221 for Greenwich, and £115 for Edinburgh.
A further small annual payment of £150 is made by the Registrar General for the Reports of Meteorological Observations which are printed in his Monthly Returns. These Reports are supplied by Mr. Glaisher, the observations being made at different stations in various parts of England, by unpaid private observers, whose co-operation Mr. Glaisher has been able to obtain. The Evidence shows that the work is done under regulations which are sufficient to ensure its general accuracy; and it is obvious that the annual payment of £150 hardly covers the expenses incurred, and affords no remuneration for the trouble taken in organizing and controlling the System of Observations.
Evidence relating to Tidal Observations
Evidence in reference to Tidal Observations has been placed before us by Dr. Joule and Professor Sir W. Thomson.
Dr. Joule is of opinion that -
With regard to the sea level and the tides, although the laws with regard to the tides are pretty well known, they ought to be continuously observed, if only for the purpose of registering the changes arising from the alteration of banks, depth of channels, &c. Also with regard to the sea level, there have been reports from time to time with regard to the inroads of the sea on our coasts, but sufficient steps do not appear to have been taken to ascertain the facts in those cases. It seems to me very important to be acquainted with any alterations in the configuration of the earth which may be taking place, however minute those alterations may be.
He thus expresses his views as to the manner in which these Inquiries may be carried on:
Would that be a work which ought, in your opinion, to be carried on from day to day by a permanent establishment at such places? - I believe that self-registering apparatus have been devised which would enable the mean sea level to be registered, and the tides to be registered, without very much trouble.
Is it a sort or work which can be carried on by public officers stationed at any of the ports, or would you require a separate staff? - Probably it might be carried on by the officers at the stations. I do not think it would be necessary for anyone to be exclusively occupied in such a work.
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Sir W. Thomson's Evidence on this point is as follows:
In addition to those Institutions which you have recommended, you consider, do you not, that it would be advisable that the Government should undertake secular observations of the tides? - Yes, certainly, secular observations of the tides with accurate self-registering tide gauges, with the triple object of investigating the science of the tides, of perfecting our knowledge of the actual phenomena of the tides, both in respect to navigation and as a branch of natural history, and, thirdly, with a view to ascertaining the changes of the sea level from century to century.
Is anything of the kind done at present? - There are several tide gauges, some of which have been carried on with great care, others with not sufficient care, and none with any security of permanence.
Was not it in connexion with the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain? - No sufficient steps have been taken to ascertain whether the sea level is changing relatively to the lane in any part of this country.
Would you think a large number of stations requisite for the observations of the tides to which you have alluded? - Yes, a large number. The phenomena of the tides are of great complexity, but not of baffling complexity, provided that we make the observations at a sufficiently great number of points.
Would the duties attached to such observations take up the whole time of the persons who had charge of them? - By no means. They could undertake other duties. A tide gauge may be put under the hands of a careful harbour master or officer of the coastguard service at any station, but it must be under inspection to secure accuracy. The most careful and scrupulous of such men cannot make sure that the instrument is giving accurate results; and they cannot, except under instruction and occasional inspection, give out recorded curves, that they can be quite sure of being accurate in all points of scientific nicety; but the inspection that is required to secure accurate results would be a very simple and moderate matter.
The accurate Reduction of Tidal Observations, without which, of course, they are useless, has not hitherto been undertaken by any Department of the State, and we are indebted to the zeal of individuals for the results which have been obtained. The reductions are laborious, and require the employment of paid computers,. The following Memorial from the British Association for the Advancement of Science to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, put in evidence by Sir William Thomson, shows the difficulty that has been felt in procuring the moderate sum required for the Reductions:
MEMORIAL to the Right Honourable the LORDS COMMISSIONS of HER MAJESTY'S TREASURY
The Memorial of the British Association for the Advancement or Science
Humbly sheweth -
1. That in the year 1867 the British Association appointed a Committee 'for the purpose of promoting the extension, improvement, and harmonic analysis of tidal observations'. From that time until the present, under committees reappointed from year to year, the proposed work has been carried on. The mode of procedure adopted, and the results obtained up to the month of August 1871, are fully stated in the accompanying series of printed reports.
2. The primary object of this investigation is the advance of tidal science, but the Committee have uniformly kept in view the practical application of their results to Physical Geography, Meteorology, Coast and Harbour Engineering, and Navigation.
3. A large mass of valuable observations, recorded by self-registering tide gauges during the last 20 years, having been found available, the Committee have applied themselves, in the first place, to the reduction of these observations, and have deferred the object of promoting observations in other localities until the observations already made have been utilized to the utmost.
4. The work thus undertaken has proved, as was anticipated, most laborious. The calculations have been performed, under the superintendence of Sir William Thomson, by skilled calculators recommended by the Nautical Almanac Office. The funds required to pay the calculators, and to print and prepare tables, forms for calculations, &c. to the amount of £600, have been granted by the British Association in four successive annual allowances of £100 each, and a sum of £200 voted at the last meeting. The last grant barely sufficed for the work actually in hand, and to secure the continuance of the investigation additional funds are necessary. The Council of the British Association, therefore, directed the Tidal Committee to make an application to the Government for assistance, the amount at present asked for being limited to £150.
5. It seemed to the Council that after the Association had done so much in the way of actual expenditure of time by the members of its Committee, and had given such a large contribution from its very limited funds, enough had been done to show the object to be one for which assistance may reasonably be expected from Government. On representations made by Colonel Walker, Director of the Trigonometrical Survey of India, the Indian Government has already granted the means of defraying the expense of making tidal observations in India, and applying to them the methods of reduction devised by the Committee of the British Association. The Council hope, therefore, that the Government of this country may be similarly disposed to assist in a matter of national importance.
(Signed) WILLIAM THOMSON
President of the British Association.
May 21, 1872.
The Lords Commissioners of the Treasury did not accede to the Prayer of the Memorial, so that, at present, there is no guarantee that the Observations which have already been accumulated, and those which are still in progress, will ever be adequately discussed and utilized.
Evidence relating to the Extension of the Government Grant administered by the Royal Society
The strong and concurrent Evidence which we have received as to the usefulness of the Government Grant, as at present administered b a Committee of the Royal Society, has led us to inquire whether this grant might not be advantageously extended; and
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the Witnesses whom we have examined on this point are unanimous in expressing the opinion that great benefits might be expected from such an extension.
Thus, to the Question, "Have you formed any opinion as to whether it would be desirable that the Government Grant of £1,000 a year, placed at the disposal of the Council of the Royal Society, should be increased or not?" Professor Owen replies: "It has been so admirably applied and with such gain to Science, that there cannot be a doubt that it would be a great benefit to Science if it were doubled to begin with."
Mr. Spottiswoode, the present Treasurer of the Fund, states his opinion that an extension of the Government Grant would be desirable, and expects that the minimum which might be voted every year would increase materially.
Professor Grant gives his opinion "that it is very desirable that the grant should be enlarged". He also considers that it "would be expedient that wider publicity should be given to the fact of its being generally available to persons engaged in scientific investigations".
Mr. De La Rue is of opinion "that it is administered exceedingly well and very carefully". He considers that the amount should be increased.
From the Evidence given on page 13, it appears that Lord Salisbury also is of opinion that the Government Grant might be increased, with the object of affording liberal assistance to "first-rate workers".
In a Memorial presented to us by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, it is recommended that a corresponding Grant be placed at the disposal of that Body, for the Promotion of Science in Scotland. The claims of Scientific Workers in Scotland to participate in the Grant equally with those in other parts of the United Kingdom, have been fully recognised, and we think it of importance that there should be but one such Grant for the whole of the United Kingdom and one body responsible for its administration. In the measure hereinafter recommended we have suggested that the Administration of future Grants should be assigned to a Council of Science which should include the Representatives of the Scientific Societies of the United Kingdom.
Evidence as to the Payment of Scientific Workers
On this branch of our Inquiry, the Evidence laid before us, both by Statesmen and men of Science, is to the same effect, and in favour of increased State Aid. It has also especially been urged upon us, that to afford, by direct pecuniary aid, the means of livelihood to men of distinction in pure investigation would be a great advantage to science, as competent investigators would thus be enabled and encouraged to pursue a strictly Scientific Career.
Lord Salisbury is of opinion that the cause of Science is hindered by the want of a sufficient career for scientific men, giving the following statement of his reasons:
I am induced to think so, by noticing how very much more rapid the progress of research is where there is a commercial value attached to the results of it, than in other cases. The peculiar stimulus which has been given to electrical research, in the particular direction of those parts of it which concern the telegraph, is a very good instance in point, and the extent to which researches into organic chemistry have almost clustered themselves round the production of coal tar colours is another instance in point. And therefore it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that research is really hindered by the necessity under which those who are most competent to conduct it feel themselves, of providing for their own support by means of the talent and the knowledge which they possess.
Lord Derby takes the same view:
I think that, in one way or another, where you have a man of very great eminence us a scientific discoverer, it is unquestionably the duty of the State to provide him with means and leisure to carry on his work. Whether that is to be done by giving him an office under the British Museum, or in any similar institution, or whether it is to be done by simply granting him a pension in recognition of eminent scientific service, or in whatever other way it is done, it seems to me to be immaterial, but I certainly consider that it is a very important part of the public duty, to relieve men who have shown an eminent capacity for original discovery and research from the necessity of engaging in a lower kind of work as a means of livelihood. ...
Sir W. Thomson, in a reply to which we have already referred, stated his opinion on this point as follows:
That men should be enabled to live on scientific research is a matter of most immediate consequence to the honour and welfare of this country. At present a man cannot live on scientific research. If he aspires to devote himself to it, he must cast about for a means of supporting himself, and the only generally accepted possibility of being able to support himself is by teaching, and to secure even a very small income, barely sufficient to live upon, by teaching, involves the expenditure of almost his whole time upon it in most situations, so that at present it is really only in intervals of hard work in professions that men not of independent means in this country can apply themselves at all to scientific research. ...
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Professor Henry, the distinguished Director of the Smithsonian Institution in the United States, who was good enough to appear before us when he was in this country, gave the following emphatic evidence in the same direction:
My idea would be that if the funds were sufficient, and men could be found capable of advancing science, they should be consecrated to science, and be provided with the means of living above all care for physical wants, and supplied with all the implements necessary to investigation.
Professor Balfour Stewart, after referring to the instances of wealthy persons who undertake Scientific Research in this country, points out that the number of those so circumstanced is very small in comparison with the number of able men who are willing to give their time and capacities to Observations and Research. He goes on to say that able men, and men competent to conduct research, suffer in this country from not having sufficient means at their disposal to proceed as they would like to do.
Do you anticipate, then, that if there were any intelligent centre for the distribution of a sufficient fund to persons having the requisite capacities for observation and research, but not having the means, the distribution of such a fund would have any benumbing influence upon original observation and research? - No, I should think quite the contrary; it would encourage it very much.
Mr. Gore also advocates the enlargement of the present system.
... I should strongly advocate that the present system should be enlarged, so that the investigators should not merely be reimbursed for all that they have expended, but also paid in some measure for their time and labour, because each investigator has to give up a profitable employment in order to find the time.
He then gives his own personal experience, which probably resembles that of many of those who, without private fortune, engage in pure research.
I refuse a great many engagements in analyses and other scientific matters for the manufacturers who come to me. ... I gave up some pupils a short time ago to enable me to have more time for original investigation.
Some of the Witnesses seem to have considered the Pecuniary Aid which they think should be afforded, more in the light of Rewards for work done than as an Aid to work to be done. Thus, Dr. Joule, is of opinion -
That a small sum of money in recognition of scientific labour would be in many cases a most useful help as well as a great encouragement, and if the Patent Laws are retained they might be supplemented with provisions to meet the case, of those discoveries to which the Patent Laws do not apply.
Dr. Siemens is of opinion that the Government might promote original research by liberal grants to the Learned Societies; remarking that this is done now to some extent, but might be done with advantage to a greater extent.
He then suggests that the Government might also encourage Scientific Research "by granting through Societies, rewards for successful results obtained by independent research. In many instances the Patent Law provides for the reward, but in other cases of pure science the Patent Law does not apply, and the results of original research are left unrewarded."
Mr. De La Rue is of opinion that if men are not in a position of fortune to continue their researches, in some cases materials and even money might be granted to them.
Referring to the extent and value of the Original Researches in Chemistry carried on in Germany, he ascribes them "to the care which is given to the cultivation of every branch of science; and, moreover to the positions and places at the disposal of the Government which are given from time to time to men who render themselves eminent in Science."
With regard to the Scale on which such Remuneration or Payments for Maintenance should be made, Lord Salisbury observes:
I should say, taking the parallel [that of certain offices in the Church], to which I have already alluded, that an income of about £1,000 or £1,500 a year would be the kind of income which would suffice for the purpose that I have in view.
And he would also add Provision for Retirement.
With reference to the safeguards against abuse which would be necessary, Lord Salisbury continues:
... It would, for their [the investigators'] own interest, and to save them from invidious comments, be desirable, to impose upon them the necessity of publishing, either in the form of books or in the form of lectures (but not sufficient in number really to impede their work), an account of the result of their labours during each successive year. Perhaps one or two stated lectures in the course of a year, to be delivered to University students, would be the best means of imposing upon them that test of industry.
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Lord Salisbury further recommends that aid of this kind should be given directly and with as little concealment by ostensible duties of another kind as possible; adding:
... If any money is to be given, as I think it ought to be given, for the purpose of furnishing a career to men who are really engaged in research which is not pecuniarily profitable, I think that it would be far better given directly and openly than given under the form of an office which would practically be a sinecure.
In contrast with this view, that the endowment should be given directly, we think it right to quote the opinion of the late Professor Rankine:
I think there is no general principle, but every case must be judged of on its own merits. The other thing which is wanted, besides money, is the leisure time of competent persons. It seems to me that it is out of the question for any State to provide or endow such a set of persons, and that it would be impossible for any department of the Government, either to judge who were fit persons, or how they ought to be employed, or what would be a proper renumeration for them. And I believe that if any such system were instituted, it would only lead to abuse. Setting aside such leisure time as men may have who are of independent fortune, and do not require to practise any profession or special occupation, I would say that it appears to me that in order to ensure that other competent persons shall have the requisite leisure, it is desirable that there should be offices with other functions attached to them, but those functions should be of such a nature that the holder of the office may have leisure time for original research. ...
REMARKS ON THE FOREGOING EVIDENCE
The great advances in Physical Science which have been made in this Country, and within this century, by such men as Dalton, Davy, and Faraday, without aid from the State; the existence of our numerous Learned Societies; and the devotion of some few rich individuals to the current work of Science; at first sight appear to reduce the limits within which State Aid to Research is required in this country.
But whilst we have reason to be proud of the contributions of some great Englishmen to our Knowledge of the Laws of Nature, it must be admitted that at the present day Scientific Investigation is carried on abroad to an extent and with a completeness of organization to which this country can offer no parallel. The work done in this country by private individuals, although of great value, is small when compared with that which is needed in the interests of Science; and the efforts of the Learned Societies, not excepting the Royal Society, are directed to the Discussion and Publication of the Scientific Facts brought under their notice; these Societies do not consider it any part of their corporate functions to undertake or conduct Research.
It will have been seen, from the extracts from the Evidence, that amongst the Witnesses who have advocated an increase of State Assistance are some who have made great sacrifices in time and money in the cause of Scientific Research.
But whatever may be the disposition of individuals to conduct researches at their own cost, the Advancement of Modern Science requires Investigations and Observations extending over areas so large and periods so long that the means and lives of nations are alone commensurate with them.
Hence, the Progress of Scientific Research must in a great degree depend upon the aid of Governments. As a Nation we ought to take our share of the current Scientific Work of the World: Much of this work has always been voluntarily undertaken by individuals, and it is not desirable that Government should supersede such efforts; but it is bound to assume that large portion of the National Duty which individuals do not attempt to perform, or cannot satisfactorily accomplish.
The following considerations have been suggested to us by the Heads of Evidence relating to (1) Laboratories, (2) Observatories, (3) Meteorology, (4) Tidal Observations, and (5) the Payment of Scientific Workers.
1. The first condition of scientific investigation is that there should be Collections, Laboratories, and Observatories accessible to qualified persons. The evidence has shown that at present, for certain branches, these do not exist or are incomplete.
Moreover there can be no doubt that the Government Service should, to a great extent, contain within itself the means of carrying on Investigations specially connected with the Departments. Even having regard only to the current wants of the State, additional appliances are necessary.
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Three distinct ways have been suggested in which the State might assist in providing the Aids to Investigation which are required by private Individuals. It has been proposed: first, that competent Investigators should receive Grants in Money enabling them to provide themselves with means for conducting their Researches; secondly, that Laboratories, designed primarily for the Service of the State, and those of Universities and other similar Institutions receiving Aid from the State, should be placed, under proper conditions, at the disposal of such Inquirers; thirdly, that Laboratories should be erected by the Government specially designed for the use of private Investigators, though, of course, also available for the service of the State. Wherever the first of these methods can be conveniently and economically adopted, we are disposed to consider that it is the simplest and the best; but it must be remembered that for many Researches apparatus of a costly, but durable character, are among the primary requisites; and that to provide these separately for each investigator would involve a large and unnecessary expenditure. It appears to us that the difficulty thus arising might be adequately met by the adoption of the second of the above suggestions. Our attention has, indeed, been called to the inconveniences which might arise from the admission of independent workers into University or State Laboratories. But, notwithstanding this difficulty, we think the experiment is one which ought to be tried, and till it has been tried we should hesitate to recommend the erection by the State, for the especial use of private Investigators, of Laboratories which would certainly be costly, and might possibly be only imperfectly utilized.
2. Upon a Review of the whole of the Evidence relating to the subject of Astronomical Physics, we are of opinion that an Observatory for that branch of Science should be established by the State. In the study of Solar Physics, continuity of the observations is of the greatest importance; and owing to our variable climate, continuous observations of the sun in this country are subject to peculiar difficulties which should be duly considered in the choice of the site for such an Observatory. The neighbourhood of London is less favourable to Physical Observations than many other sites which might be found, and for this reason we should prefer that a Physical Observatory should be placed elsewhere than at Greenwich. On other grounds, also, we think that the Observatory for Astronomical Physics should be an Institution entirely distinct from any of the National Observatories for Mathematical Astronomy. The subject of Mathematical Astronomy is vast enough to occupy adequately the whole energies of a Director, and it is especially important that Astronomical Physics should have the undivided attention of the Head of an Observatory, because its methods, which are of very recent invention, are as yet incompletely developed, and because, depending, as they do, on a continual comparison of celestial phenomena with the results of experiments in the laboratory, they are entirely different from those of Mathematical Astronomy.
Our opinion as to the desirability of such an Institution is confirmed by the example of Foreign Nations; Observatories for Astronomical Physics being already at work in various parts of Italy, and their immediate erection having been determined on at Berlin and at Paris.
We venture to express the hope that similar Institutions may before long be established in various parts of the British Empire. The regularity of the climatic conditions of India, and the possibility of there obtaining favourable stations at considerable heights, render it especially desirable that arrangements should be made for carrying on Physical Observations of the Sun in that country.
3. With respect to Meteorology we are of opinion that the operations of the Meteorological Office have been attended with great advantage to Science and to the Country. The subject of Meteorology is a very vast one, and any scheme for its proper cultivation or extension must comprise - (1) Arrangements for observing and registering Meteorological Facts; (2) Arrangements for the reduction, discussion, and publication of the Observations; (3) Researches undertaken for the purpose of discovering the Physical Causes of the Phenomena observed. The resources placed at the disposal of the Committee are inadequate to cover the whole of this wide field; and, having due regard to all the circumstances of the case, we believe that in selecting certain parts of it, as the objects of their special attention, they have been guided by a sound discretion.
We are also disposed to consider that although, as we have already said, the Meteorological Committee occupies an anomalous position, no other form of organization could advantageously have been adopted under the actual conditions. We think, however, that if, as we shall hereinafter recommend, a Ministry of Science should be established, the Head of the Meteorological Office should be made responsible to the Minister. We fully concur
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with the opinion expressed by the Witnesses that many branches of Meteorology can only be effectually promoted by an organization having the support of Government; and we would draw especial attention to the consideration that, if Meteorology is to take rank as a branch of Terrestrial Physics, the observations must be made at stations widely dispersed over all parts of the earth's surface, and those taken by Observers of different Nations must be so arranged as to be comparable with one another. It is obvious that the intervention of Government would greatly facilitate the attainment of both these objects.
We are very unwilling that any Scientific Observations which can adequately be carried on by Individuals, or Associations of Individuals, should be undertaken by a Department of the Government. So far as the local interests connected with Climatic Meteorology suffice to ensure due attention being paid to that branch of science, we should prefer to see it left mainly to Scientific Societies, any assistance the Government might afford being merely subsidiary. That useful results may be obtained by voluntary effort is evident from the work carried on under the direction of Mr. Glaisher, and, from the case of the Scottish Meteorological Society, which has succeeded, with, very narrow means, in organising a valuable System of Observations on the Meteorology of Scotland. It is, however, important that any Grants for the promotion of Meteorological Observations in aid of voluntary efforts should be made on some systematic principle; and the attainment of this object would be furthered by making them subject to the Control of a Minister, who would be cognizant of all the facts relating to the expenditure of the Government upon Meteorology.
We may point out that the returns furnished by the Scottish Meteorological Society and Mr. Glaisher, are adopted by the Registrars General, and are recognized by Committees of Parliament in discussions affecting the Public Health, the Supply of Water, and other matters of the same kind. The value of Observations undertaken, as in this case, by private Individuals or voluntary Associations, must vary from time to time, according to the efficiency of the persons principally concerned in their superintendence. We feel, therefore, that the question how far it is proper that such Observations should receive official sanction, cannot be decided à priori, and must be left to the judgment of the responsible Minister for the time being.
4. With regard to Tidal Observations, it will be seen that, in the opinion of the Witnesses, these have not hitherto been conducted and reduced systematically. Considering the agencies which the Government can employ for the purpose of making these Observations, the importance of providing proper Superintendence for them, and of securing their Reduction, we think it desirable that they should be carried on under Government control. The expense involved would chiefly consist in the Establishment at proper points, and Verification, of Tide Gauges, and in the Reduction of the Observations; these being entrusted to officers of Government already stationed at the ports and on the various coasts of the Empire.
5. The Witnesses have expressed themselves strongly as to the Justice and Policy of Remuneration to Investigators for their Time and Trouble, and the Evidence also shows by implication how great must have been the sacrifices of those who without private fortune have hitherto devoted their great talents and their valuable time to such work without any remuneration whatever.
It has hitherto been a rule in the granting of Government Aid to Scientific Investigators, subject, so far as we have been able to ascertain, to but very few exceptions, that such Aid should be limited to what was necessary to meet the expenditure actually incurred on Instruments, materials, and assistance.
To grants made under these conditions we think that considerable extension might be given.
It is hardly necessary to assert the principle that when Scientific Work is undertaken at the request of the Government, the State is not only justified in paying, but is under obligation to pay for what is done on its behalf and for its service. But we desire to express our belief that there are many instances of unremunerative Research in which the benefit conferred on the Nation by those who have voluntarily engaged in it establishes a claim upon the State for compensation for their time and labour. Without such compensation much important work must remain unperformed, because it must be expected that many of the best men will not be in circumstances enabling them to devote long periods of time to unremunerated labour.
It is a matter of course that State Aid shall only be given to Investigators whose capacity and Industry have been placed beyond a reasonable doubt.
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IV. The Central Organization which is best calculated to enable the Government to determine its action in all Questions affecting Science
The functions of the Government with regard to science may be summed up under the three following heads:
FIrst. The Treatment of the Scientific Questions incident to the Business of the Public Departments.
Second. The Direction of Scientific Instruction when given under the Superintendence or Control of the State.
Third. The Consideration of all questions involving State Aid towards the Advancement of Science, and of Administrative Questions arising out of such Aid.
It would be difficult to enumerate exhaustively all the various topics comprehended under these three Heads, and it will be sufficient for the purpose of showing how wide is the field of action of the State in regard to Science, if we point out that under one or other of these heads are included all Scientific questions affecting the Army, the Navy, the Public Health, the Mercantile Marine, Public Works, Government Scientific Establishments; the Elementary Instruction in Science under the Department of Education in Primary Schools, in the Science Classes connected with the Science and Art Department, and in Secondary Schools so far as they are subject to Government control; the Aid which is now given, or which it is desirable should be given, to Universities and other Bodies not directly connected with the State, for the Middle and Higher Scientific Instruction, and the Control which the State either does or should exercise over them in virtue of such Aid or otherwise; the Appointments to all Scientific Offices in the gift of the Crown, Grants to Museums and their Control by the State; Aid to Scientific Expeditions of every kind; the Establishment and Direction of State Laboratories and Observatories; Grants in Aid of such Laboratories not under State Direction, and in Aid of Scientific Research; and generally the allotment and control of Public Funds for similar Purposes.
The majority of the Witnesses who have given evidence in relation to this branch of the Inquiry, express dissatisfaction with the manner in which questions under the preceding heads are now determined, and either recommend the Appointment of a Special Minister of Science or of a Minister of Science and Education.
In most cases the Witnesses recommend that such a Minister should, in regard to Science, be advised by a Council. Others, however, are of opinion that the Functions of such a Council might be exercised by an Administrative Staff of the usual kind. Before continuing our remarks on this subject we beg leave to lay before Your Majesty extracts from the Evidence which has been placed before us regarding the Appointment of a Minister of Science.
Extracts from the Evidence relating to the Appointment of a Minister of Science
We have received a large amount of Evidence in favour of the Appointment of a Minister of Science. There has been almost complete unanimity among the Witnesses on this point. We give the following extracts:
Professor Owen:
I conceive that the recommendation by Bentham in the last century of such a minister can hardly fail to be practically adopted before the close of the present century, and that the necessity of having a minister for such a purpose will be recognised. ...
Sir W. Thomson:
Would you contemplate that a new department of the State should be constituted for directing the scientific work of the Government? - It would be quite necessary to have a Minister of Science; it is indeed, I think, generally felt that a minister of science and scientific instruction is a necessity.
Not a minister of other instruction? - Specially of scientific instruction, and not under any national education board, but a minister of science and scientific instruction. The minister would necessarily be in Parliament and a political man, but it would be very rare that he could also be a scientific man, and perhaps not desirable that he should be a scientific man, but he must have able scientific advisers always at hand.
Could any such duties be well assigned to any existing department of the State? - I believe not.
You spoke of the necessity for having a minister of science, do you conceive that it would be requisite to have a cabinet minister for education and a second cabinet minister for science, or would you contemplate that the minister for education should be the minister for science? - I do not wish absolutely to fix it beforehand; on the whole I think, however, that the title of minister of education would not suffice. If there is to be a minister, it must be a minister of science and education. There might be a minister of science and education, with a chief secretary or under minister for national and elementary education, and another for the advancement of science and for the higher scientific instruction. But naturally the minister of education must act for the masses; that must be his great duty, and however much he might wish to act for science, he has still a great duty to the masses. On the whole, I think that it would be preferable to have a distinct minister
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of science and scientific instruction. A minister of science and scientific instruction, as a subordinate to a chief minister of science and education, might probably be a very good arrangement.
The minister of science administers knowledge to the whole country.
Col. Strange:
It seems to me that in the first place there should be some means of bringing science fully before the nation through Parliament. I know of no means of doing this that is in accordance with our constitutional procedure, except through a minister of state; and therefore assuming science to be a matter of enormous national importance, I think it is essential that it should be all brought under one minister of state, who should be responsible to Parliament for everything which is done in the name of the nation to further science, and who should frame his own estimates and keep them distinct from those of departments which have little or nothing to do with science. ... I think that there should be an estimate for science just as there is an estimate for the army and for the navy. ...
What I should be glad to see would be a minister for science, but I daresay that if proper assistance were given to such a minister, he might superintend other departments as well; for instance, as on the continent, he might superintend education and the fine arts. I think it would be preferable that he should be for science only. I think there is quite enough for him to do in England, for it to be done thoroughly; but rather than have no minister I would assign to him also education and the fine arts.
There would be a difficulty, would there not, in defining the boundaries between the duties of the minister for science and the minister for education? - I think not. I think one would relate to education, which is quite a distinct thing from national research, and I think that they should be kept as distinct as possible. I think one great evil now existing is the mixing up of those two things. Throughout my evidence I have here and there expressed the same opinion that they should be kept distinct, one being the means, the other the end; instruction I conceive to be the mode of growing a certain number of persons fit to investigate.
Mr. De La Rue:
I think that science ought to be recognized in the ministry by the appointment of a science minister, in order that all matters relating to science might come properly under the cognizance of the Government, and that whenever the Government sought the aid of scientific men it should be through the intervention of the science minister. ...
Mr. John Ball:
... If science is to be aided effectually, and at the same time controlled effectually, there should be some permanent officer in the department of the Government that has its relation with science, whose duty it should be and who should be responsible for making himself generally aware of the state of science and the doings of its cultivators, and who should be the proper person to advise the Government, not as to the best mode of deciding a strictly scientific question, but as to where the means for solving it are to be had. I look upon it at present as being a wholly haphazard matter how questions of science or connected with science and affecting the progress of science are decided in the public offices, and I speak from some slight personal acquaintance with the matter during the short time that I was in the public service in Parliament.
You stated, did you not, that you thought it desirable that there should be some permanent official to represent and advise the Government in its relations to science? - Decidedly.
Mr. Gore:
I think there should be a scientific department of the State, which should have the control of the money expended by the State upon scientific matters.
General Strachey:
The first conclusion that I arrive at is, that all questions relating to scientific matters that arise in the operations of the Government should be dealt with by one of the chief ministers of the Crown, and the officer at the head of the Education Department seems to be the most suitable of such officers. It has been, I know, suggested by some persons that it would be better if there were a separate department for science. That I venture to doubt. ...
Under such an education and science department there would be a natural division of the duties, which would probably lead to the appointment of some permanent officer in the position of an under secretary of state, who would have specific charge of the scientific duties of the department as distinguished from the educational duties, which constitute a distinct branch of administrative work. ...
The principal officers in the proposed scientific branch of the department should be, by their scientific qualifications, capable of disposing of the ordinary current business under their charge. ...
Dr. Sclater:
Do you agree with [Col. Strange's] views as to the creation of a Minister of Science and a Council of Science? - Yes, I agree generally with his views; I think that it would be very desirable for the interest of science.
Do you think it would be desirable that the existing State scientific institutions should be removed from the control of the Admiralty, the Office of Works, and other departments under which they are now placed? - I think it would be a very great advantage that they should be removed from these departments and placed under one minister.
Have you any opinion as to whether the work could be done by a minister of education, supposing such a minister were appointed? - I think it would hardly be expected that a minister should be appointed only for science; and as I believe it is the case in continental countries that that department is given to the minister of education, I think that we could not follow a better example here.
Professor Balfour Stewart:
I think it [the ministry of science] might form a division, perhaps, of the ministry of education.
Mr. Farrer:
I dislike very much the idea of establishing new departments of the Government. If it were possible that this business could be placed upon the Minister of Education, who is becoming more and more important, I think that would be much better than establishing a separate department for the purpose.
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Sir George Airy does not appear to be convinced of the advantages likely to be derived from the creation of a Science Minister, so far as it would affect the Scientific Departments.
Do you see any inconvenience arising from the several scientific institutions that are more or less connected with the Government being under different departments? - Not that I am aware of.
You are content that the Royal Observatory at Greenwich should remain under the Board of Admiralty. You do not require to have a Minister of Science, or a Minister of Education? - No; we are naturally connected in these respects with the Admiralty.
The proposal to establish a Council of Science
A proposal to establish a Council of Science was brought before the Government by the Royal Society in 1857, upon a Report from the Government Grant Committee of that Society.
The object of the Committee was (Evidence of Sir E. Sabine, qu. 11,117) to determine "whether any measure could be adopted by the Government which would improve the Position of Science or its Cultivators in this Country."
The report, as quoted by Sir E. Sabine (Qu. 11,119), was as follows:
With regard to the question of which the consideration was referred to the Government Grant Committee on the 11th of July 1855, namely, whether any measures could be adopted by the Government or Parliament that would improve the position of science or its cultivators in this country, the Committee beg leave to recommend the following resolutions:
1. The Committee regard with much satisfaction the steps already taken in the Universities for advancing the study of physical science by including several branches of it in the public examinations, and express their hope that the improvements thus introduced may receive the extension which the interests of science require, and that the public schools may be thereby induced to make physical science an integral part of their course of education.
2. The Committee recommend that the establishment of classes in metropolitan and provincial schools, where those who have not the means or opportunity of studying at the Universities may be taught the elements of physical science on a systematic plan, be promoted by grants from Government in aid of such funds as may be locally contributed for that purpose.
3. That the formation of provincial museums and libraries be encouraged in like manner, and that provincial lectures, accompanied by examinations, be established in Great Britain in towns which request this assistance, and engage to provide a part of the expense, such lectures to be in aid of the schools above-mentioned, so that by means of the two combined a sound knowledge of the principles and application of science may be systematically taught.
4. That duplicate specimens from the British Museum and other institutions, supported at the public expense, be distributed to provincial museums.
5. That national publications bearing on science be more extensively circulated than they are at present by additional donations to societies and individuals engaged in the cultivation of science.
6. That the sum placed annually by Parliament at the disposal of Government for the reward of Civil Services, 'useful discoveries in science and attainments in literature and the arts', be augmented; that the portion to be appropriated to science be defined, and that it be sufficiently large to admit of the grant of annuities of the nature of good service pensions as rewards of eminent scientific merit.
7. That the sum placed at the disposal of the Royal Society for the advancement of science be not necessarily limited to the annual grant of £1,000, when on any occasion special reasons may be assigned for an additional sum.
8. That scientific officers be placed more nearly on a level in respect to salary with such other civil appointments as are objects of ambition to educated men.
9. The Committee regard with much satisfaction the steps already taken for the concentration of the principal scientific societies in Burlington House, and trust that the period is not far distant in which permanent accommodation will be afforded to the principal scientific societies in buildings to be erected near the same site, and in pursuance of the same general plan.
10. While it may not be expedient to interfere in any way with the functions confided to the President and Council of the Royal Society in reference to the distribution of the Parliamentary grant, or with the ancient and recognized relations between the Royal Society and the Government, at the same time it appears to the Committee that much benefit would arise from the formal recognition of some board which might advise the Government on all matters connected with science, and especially on the prosecution, reduction, and publication of scientific researches and the amount of Parliamentary or other grants in aid thereof; also on the general principles to be adopted in reference to public scientific appointments; and on the measures necessary for the more general diffusion of a knowledge of physical science among the nation at large; and which might be consulted by the Government on the grants or pensions to the cultivators of science.
11. Assuming that the above proposal should meet with the approval of Her Majesty's Government, it will be desirable to ascertain what mode of constituting such a board would inspire them with most confidence in its recommendations. Two modes may be suggested in which such a board might be organised. First, the Government might formally recognise the President and Council of the Royal Society as its official advisor, imposing the whole responsibility on that body, and leaving it to them to seek advice when necessary in such quarters as it may best be found, according to the method now pursued in the disposal of the Parliamentary grant of £1000. The second method would be to create an entirely new board, somewhat after the model of the old Board of Longitude, but with improvements. The question as to which alternative shall be adopted is properly a subject for the consideration of the Government.
12. Such of the above recommendations, as involve the expenditure of money, might be eventually carried out by appropriating to this purpose a certain portion of the fees received from the grantees of patents, after
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providing for all expenses which ought to be defrayed from that source. The Committee are satisfied that no application of these fees could be devised more appropriate than the devotion of a portion of them to the encouragement of abstract science, to which practical art is under so many and such important obligations.
The proposal to establish a Council of Science has recently been revived by Colonel Strange.
Amongst the Witnesses who recommend the Appointment of a Council, there is a great diversity of opinion as to its Constitution and Limits of Action. As regards its Constitution, it will be seen from the Summary of Evidence which we shall give subsequently, that while some of the Witnesses are in favour of a Council very limited in numbers, others would desire to have it sufficiently numerous to include Representatives of nearly every branch of Science, as well as Men of known Administrative Ability.
In regard to its Limits of Action, the main difference arises on the two questions, whether the Council should or should not have the power of Initiating Inquiries, either directly or by suggestion to the Minister, and whether or not it should itself undertake the actual work of Investigation required for State Purposes.
As to the Mode of Remuneration, the opinions vary between those which advocate annual payments to permanent officials, and those which are in favour of payments for attendance at meetings.
The Opinions of the Witnesses who are opposed to any such Council are based, in the main, upon one or more of the following objections:
1. That Government can get the best advice without it.
2. That it would be liable to come into collision with Ministers.
3. That it would not work harmoniously with our General System of Administration.
The Evidence of three eminent Statesmen possessing great, administrative experience - Lord Derby, Lord Salisbury, and Sir Stafford Northcote - is in strong contrast (so far as the proposal to establish a Council of Science is concerned) with that which we have received from many persons holding official positions in various Branches of the Public Service. The Opinions of these latter, as to the Inefficiency of the Organization of their Respective Services in regard to questions affecting Science, we have already quoted in the First Part of this Report, and it will be seen, from the quotations we are now about to give, that they in general consider the creation of a Council to be the proper Remedy.
Extracts from the Evidence in favour of the Establishment of a Council of Science
We fear that no mere extracts from the Evidence of Colonel Strange would represent in an adequate manner the views which have led him to recommend the formation of a large and highly-paid Council of Science. It would scarcely be fair to him, as the most prominent advocate of the proposed measure, to do otherwise than refer to his Evidence at length, pp. 75 to 92, and 125 to 135, Vol. II of Evidence.
Sir W. Thomson's Evidence with reference to the Establishment of a Council of Science is as follows:
Do you think that a single body would be better than a number of small committees for advising the Government on the great variety of questions which from time to time would be likely to arise? - Yes, certainly.
The questions which might be referred to such a Council would differ very much from one another, and extend over a wide range, would they not? - Yes, but there would be a unity of design and action, with a multiplicity of knowledge and skill at command, secured by a single council, and those conditions cannot, in my opinion, be secured at all by occasional committees, or committees working separately and independently of each other. ...
A scientific council would relieve the Government of all responsibility in such matters, and would be responsible itself in a general way for all its proceedings to a political chief and to Parliament. ...
Have you formed any opinion as to the constitution of such a committee as we have been referring to; how the members of it should be selected? - I have no other opinion than that the men whose advice may be considered as most valuable and useful to the Government ought to be asked, quite independently of their connexion with any institution, whether under the Government or in the universities, or in connexion with any public or private body in the country.
You would contemplate that committee being formed by the Government itself, and not that the universities or the scientific societies should have the right of nomination? - Certainly by the Government; but aided by recommendations from the universities and scientific societies, and from this proposed consulting committee after its first constitution.
Would you have them a permanent body, with, it may be, a certain number of members going out by rotation, or in the event, suppose, of a change of Government, would you throw over the whole body? - A non-political body, l think, would be necessary for good action.
Would you leave the selection of each appointment to the Government of the day, or would you allow scientific societies or other bodies to recommend, or would you propose that the Government should be obliged to consult such bodies? - I would prefer that the Minister of Science should have the appointment.
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Dr. Frankland thus deals with Colonel Strange's Proposal:
Are you acquainted with Colonel Strange's proposal for the establishment of a consultative council of science? - Yes, I have heard from him some of the chief ideas that he entertains on that subject.
Are you disposed to consider that such a council would be desirable? - I think so. I am not prepared to say that it should be constituted exactly in the way that Colonel Strange mentioned, but a council of that description would be exceedingly desirable, on many grounds, for furnishing the Government with trustworthy scientific opinions in cases requiring them. ...
Are you of opinion that the advice of such a council, even on matters to which the larger proportion of the members of the council had not paid special attention, would be valuable? - Yes, I think it would, because those members of the council who were thoroughly acquainted with the subjects would be expressing their opinion to men conversant with scientific methods, and they would be able to convince their colleagues with respect to the opinion that the council generally ought to give upon the matter. It would be a very different thing from that of convincing a parliamentary committee, for instance, upon a scientific point, because all the men upon the council would have received a scientific training, and would understand the bearing of scientific arguments.
Have you considered at all how such a council could best be appointed, whether would you leave it to one of the ministers to appoint and select the proper persons to serve on the council? - I should think that it must ultimately fall upon the minister, but he might be assisted by the presidents of different learned societies or by the council of the Royal Society, in whom I think everyone would have confidence.
Mr. Farrer suggests the formation of a Council which might be closely connected with the Royal Society.
Have you any suggestions to offer as to the best modes, as it appears to you, of solving problems which from time to time present themselves? - I think if upon purely scientific questions there were some scientific body of some kind to whom the Government departments could as a matter of course refer for the solution of such questions as this, it would be a great advantage.
I have looked at the suggestions that have been made by Colonel Strange and others, and I do not think that any Government department or its professional officers would listen to the dictation of any council of purely scientific men; they would probably say, and say with justice, that they knew more about what was wanted than any such council could know. Every now and then in the course of practice in those cases a new scientific question does arise; such, for instance, as the question concerning deviation of the compasses. In such a case as that we required the best scientific assistance we could get; and in the case of sulphur in gas, and water impurities, we now require it.
I give with great hesitation a suggestion upon a point upon which I really am scarcely competent to suggest anything, namely, whether you had not better make use of what you have at present, namely, the Royal Society or a committee of the Royal Society, rather than attempt to establish any new body. No new body that you could establish would have the prestige, reputation, and influence that the Royal Society has. That is a matter not to be created; it is a matter which has grown with centuries. You have also in the Royal Society itself a scientific public to whose opinion any council or committee appointed by it would or might be made amenable; and my suggestion would be that you should endeavour to create some committee or body out of the Royal Society which should bear a fixed relation to the Government, which should meet regularly, and the members of which should be paid something, as the directors of a joint stock company are paid for their meetings, to whom the Government should have a right to refer, who should feel that they had on the one hand a duty towards the Government, and who on the other hand should be bound to make public all their proceedings, so that they would be responsible to the public scientific opinion of the country. That is the best suggestion that I can make, but, as I say, I am very ignorant upon the subject.
Admiral Richards is of opinion that the appointment of a Minister of Science and of a Council stand and fall together; and thinks "that the one would not be of very much value without the other".
But, as regards the Admiralty, the Department which he knows best, he would prefer that it should be able to decide Scientific Questions within itself. He says:
I think that the Admiralty requires the aid of such a council less, perhaps, than any other department of the Government, for this reason, that there are not very many questions, purely questions of science, that come under the notice of the Admiralty; and then we have the Astronomer Royal to refer to, who is a host in himself, and if any question arises which we do not refer to the Astronomer Royal, we generally ask the President and Council of the Royal Society, and we have never found any difficulty in getting assistance. The only department of the Admiralty which might require such assistance beyond this, is perhaps the Constructors' Department, in the designs for ships of war. But as regards that, my opinion is that it would be far better to have some scientific designer attached to that department than it would be to refer such questions to a council even.
As to the Admiralty deriving any advantage from the appointment of the proposed Council, he adds:
There would be this advantage, I think, which they would derive, that they would be freed from the political pressure which is brought frequently to bear upon the Admiralty upon questions of that kind. The whole responsibility of deciding upon a measure would be thrown upon the council.
Do you think that would be a desirable result? - I think that it would be desirable in all departments of the Government; it would be very agreeable to the Government of any day, I should think, to escape the responsibility of deciding on scientific questions on which they may not be very intimate, but in which they may be believed to be interested parties.
Do you think that the work would be bettor done? - I think it would. I should say there could be no doubt about that, but unless the Government are prepared to vote a very considerable sum every year for
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the advancement of science, which I am quite of opinion that every Government ought to do, I think very little benefit would accrue from having such a council.
Dr. Balfour Stewart is also in favour of a Council:
You have no apprehension that the Government, if advised by men of the highest scientific capacities, would be likely to operate so as to control science, and to fetter the operations of individuals, or to benumb and discourage Original Research and Observation? - I think not. I think that the great desideratum is to put more means at the disposal of private individuals, and, of course, this must be done by some sort of administrative body.
In what way would the advice of the council be better than that of the individual members of that council, who are the highest authorities on the question under review? - Because I think that science has a number of bearings, and that a question might involve, not one branch of science, but a great many, and you might, for instance, have to call in various men of science of different kinds. In order to answer this question, you might have to call in, not the advice of one member of the council, but the advice of a number. Of course there are a number of questions regarding which some of the members of the council would naturally be silent, but perhaps a good many of them might be interested in answering a particular question, and would give their answer. In a case of that kind I should fancy, however, that it ought to come as from the whole body, because, really, in most questions nowadays, the question would not involve one particular branch of science only, but it would involve the joint operation of two or three branches of science.
Take, for instance, such a question as that which has been recently referred to a committee, the efficiency and stability of ships of war, would there be any advantage in referring a question of that kind to the council, rather than to a committee specially appointed, as has been done on the occasion to which I refer? - I think that if there were a council of this kind, the council would have power to associate other people with them in a case of that kind. Science is so ramified, that the council would not be able of themselves to settle all questions; but upon particular questions, such as you name, very likely they would associate other people with them.
Do you think that they would be more likely to make a judicious selection of the persons to be consulted than the Minister of State would be, without the advice of such a council? - I think so, because a Minister of State is not likely to know the capabilities of various men. There are a number of men known to scientific bodies as profoundly conversant with particular branches of science, but their knowledge of those subjects does not appeal to outsiders, it only appeals to those who are cognizant with that particular subject. ...
Dr. Roscoe is in favour of a Council, and would give a voice in its appointment to the Learned Societies:
Can you make any suggestions us to the mode in which Government aid could be best carried into effect? - I do this with the greatest diffidence; but it appears to me that the system of a consultative council, to advise the executive on matters of scientific instruction, is the true one. I believe it is a work which it is almost impossible that the executive can do properly without advice received in some form, and that appears to me the form in which it is most likely to be productive of the greatest good.
Have you any suggestions to make us to the constitution of such a council? - I should be inclined to think that a council, formed on the same plan as this Commission, so far as regards the class of its members, would be a very proper one to advise the Government.
Would you think it advisable that the Government should name its own consultative council, or that some of the members should be nominated by the societies? - I should provide for a certain number of scientific men being upon the council, and desire that the Government should nominate (for you may trust the Government to do it with fairness), as well as the societies; that is, the lay members should be appointed by Government, and the professional ones by the various scientific societies. ...
Dr. Sclater agrees generally with Colonel Strange's views, and thinks that a Council "would be very desirable for the Interests of Science".
He then proceeds to state his opinion as to its Constitution:
Have you formed any opinion as to the constitution of a consultative council to assist this minister? - My idea would be that the heads of the different scientific institutions that are put under the control of the department of science and the minister of education might form a consultative body and be called a council of science, and that there might be certain other members added to assist them in deliberation, if it were thought necessary, such as representatives of the College of Physicians, the College of Surgeons, and of the scientific branches of the Army and Navy.
Colonel Strange's proposed council would consist of 30 members at least; do you think that that would be too numerous a body? - I think that a less numerous body might suffice, because I see that, in many cases, however numerous the body was, it would be necessary to call in special assistance.
If a council were constituted in the manner that you propose, should you contemplate that, as a rule, they would be capable of giving advice themselves on most questions that would arise, or would they generally find it desirable to call in further assistance? - I think, that in most cases, they would be quite competent to give an opinion to the Government; but that sometimes on particular questions, it would be necessary to go elsewhere for advice, and that, in such cases, there would certainly be somebody in the council who would know exactly where to put his hand upon the right man for the purpose. For instance, a question might arise in some special department of Natural History: in that case, the council would naturally refer to the head of the State Museum of Natural History to know if he could give an opinion himself, and if not to inform them who could give an opinion upon the point. Thus, I think that with the aid of a small council of science of, perhaps, 20 members, every question requiring solution by the Government as regards science might meet with very fair consideration and be very easily settled.
Have you any misgivings as to whether such a council would command sufficient public confidence amongst men of science? - I have no misgivings at all upon that subject. I should say that they would meet with general support from men of science. Most men of science, I think, see that something of the sort is
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imperatively required. All lament the piecemeal way in which scientific subjects are dealt with by Government, in consequence of their being subdivided amongst all these different offices, and of there being nobody to appeal to upon a question of science, and, therefore, I think the proposal to establish such a council would meet with universal acceptation amongst scientific men.
Then, in the case of investigations which were required to be undertaken, how do you conceive that they would be dealt with? - I should say that the member of the council representing the particular branch of science would be called upon to present a preliminary report of how he proposed to set about any particular investigation. He would say, to do this I shall require the assistance of such and such persons for so many days, or for such and such time, or to send here or to send there, and would bring these requirements in the shape of a preliminary report before the board, and, if this were approved, would carry out the investigation. Then he would present his report upon the result of the investigation, and the council as a body would consider it, and recommend its adoption by the Government or otherwise.
Then do I understand that you would prefer, as a general rule at least, that the members of the council should themselves carry out such investigations as might be required from time to time, rather than that they should merely indicate to the minister the person, outside the council very probably, who they thought was best competent to carry out the investigation? - I do not think it would be necessary to draw a hard and fast line upon such a question as that. I think that in many cases it would be better that the council, as a whole, should report to the Government on the best way in which any particular scheme might be carried out. I do not think that it would be necessary to introduce a rule that you should invariably go to the member of the council representing that particular science if advice were wanted upon that branch. But the council would naturally turn to the representative of the particular science for an answer; they would naturally look to his advice first.
I understand you to mean that the duty of the members of the council should be to know where to go in order that particular questions should be answered, whether it were to go outside the council or to go to one member of the body? - Yes, that is my opinion.
His remarks on the question whether there should be on the Council men having Administrative Experience are as follows:
I think that the heads of great scientific institutions must have administrative experience. If a man has to manage an institution like the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, or the State Museum of Natural History, he must have the command of a great many men under him, and must be acquainted with the business of the institution, and must have gained his administrative experience. He could not fail to be a person of administrative experience.
But, taking the application of scientific laws to specific departments of the Government, the army and navy, for example, would it not be important that there should likewise be on the council some men of special knowledge of the mode of facilitating the adaptation of scientific laws to those departments? - I think, certainly, that the army and the navy, which are the branches of the service, perhaps, most requiring scientific assistance, should be represented by one or more members of the board, and no doubt the Government would take care to secure a first-rate man for what I should consider a post of the very highest honour.
As to the numbers composing the Council, he considers "that it would not be advisable to have a larger Council than was absolutely necessary", for the reason that a small body of men generally work better and do more work than a large body; at the same time he does not think that 20 would be a very large number.
Dr. Hooker, the President of the Royal Society, gives it as his opinion "That the general proposition, that the Government should be aided by scientific persons, is an "excellent one, both with respect to the administration of the existing Government Scientific Institutions, and with respect to the occasional grants which the Government may be called upon to make for scientific objects." Like Dr. Roscoe, he thinks that the Council should not consist exclusively of Scientific men.
Mr. De La Rue thus gives his opinion:
There ought to be a board of advisers which should consist of men eminent in different departments of science. I can only speak as to those branches of science to which I have paid some attention, and I should put in the first category that there ought to be on the board a chemist of eminence, there ought also to be a physicist, an astronomer, a mathematician, particularly one who has paid attention to the application of mathematics to science, and an engineer or two engineers, one who has given attention to the construction of great works, such as railroads and bridges, that is to say, civil engineering, the other a mechanical engineer. I do not speak of a biologist or a physiologist, because other witnesses are much more competent to speak as to the necessity for such men than I am.
But do you think that all branches of science ought to be represented on the council? - Undoubtedly.
Can you give the Commission any idea as to the number which you think it would probably be necessary to provide for? - About 10 or 12 men, I imagine, would sufficiently represent science.
He would give some voice in the selection of the Members to certain Societies, and would not require the Members to "relinquish any other position that they might already hold".
As to the numbers of the Council, he says that "If 12 men were not found to be sufficient to include all branches of knowledge, it would be desirable to increase the number." He proposes "that special advisers might occasionally be called in who would be remunerated according to their attendance". ...
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He considers that the usual permanent staff of a Secretary and Assistant Secretaries, even if they were men of Science, would not be sufficient; urging as a reason that
Science is really now so extensive that one could hardly imagine any secretary so to be intimately acquainted with every branch of science as to be able, even with the aid of his assistant secretaries, to advise, or to point out where to obtain specific information on every question which might be brought under consideration. I think, therefore, that there would be a very great advantage for the Science Minister to have a sufficiently numerous Advising Council.
He considers that promptness of action would be promoted by the appointment of a Council:
There ought to be a body of men who could be immediately called together, whose time was so far at the disposal of the State that they might be assembled on every occasion and at any time to advise the Science Minister. Then we should get prompt action, instead of questions being allowed to drag over years and years without any practical solution being come to.
But even if a Council were appointed, he thinks that such branches of the Government as the Admiralty, the War Office, and the Public Health Office "should be specially scientific, each in its own department.
In answer to the question, "Have you no fear that there might be some collision, or, at any rate, considerable friction, between that Council and the Scientific Departments of the Public Service?" he says:
Probably at first there might be, but ultimately I believe the confidence of those directors of the departments would be gained by the very sound advice which they would receive from a body constituted us I conceive it ought to be.
He does not think the Government Grant Committee could be so modified as to render a Council unnecessary.
Supposing £5,000 or £10,000 were given to the Royal Society to aid investigations, I do not think that that in any way ought to weigh in the consideration of the establishment of a science minister whose functions would be altogether larger and much more important. We want science really cared for in England by the State, and we want all State questions relating to science, properly considered by a body capable of dealing with them.
Professor F. Jenkin is in favour of an Elective Board:
I think that the judging of the applications for assistance, applications for the endowment of new chairs, and the application of Government patronage generally as regards science might be managed by the following system. Supposing that instead of the grant being given simply by the Department itself(speaking now of the Committee of the Privy Council) there were a representative board composed of men of science, composed of professors who could advise - I will not say that they should have the power of deciding - I would rather leave that with the Government, but that they should have the power of reporting at any rate upon each of those applications, I think that the Government would get better advice than it can command at present. My idea is that this board should be an elected board, that each of the existing colleges (you could easily choose the colleges and universities) should appoint one member at such a board as that; but however the choice was made, if there were something like a representative board of scientific men to advise the department, even if their recommendations were not necessarily acted upon, but that they were simply a reporting body, I think that the Government would be better able to decide on such subjects than they can now do, and that their decisions would give greater satisfaction. ...
I do not know how otherwise the Government is to decide who is really the best man. We cannot have competitive examinations for professorships, I think, and the system of irresponsible testimonials has come to be in a monstrous state. A man really prepares a blue book; every man one has ever spoken to sends for a testimonial, and you get a whole library of those testimonials. ...
Professor Martin Duncan points out an important way in which the Council could be utilized:
With reference to any endowment that might be granted by the Government, have you formed any idea as to the control under which the administration of such endowment should be placed? - That is a matter which I have thought over, and I see that it might lead to great difficulties. The Government might wish to nominate a Professor of King's College, and such a professor might be objectionable to the Council of King's College, and I think it would be more satisfactory to scientific men if all those appointments were placed under the care of a board of scientific men of position, and who would be responsible to the Government for their nominations, and for the duties of the professors being well carried out. There would be no difficulty in obtaining such a board, because the presidents and officers of the learned societies, which have charters, would make a sufficiently good board, and a board beyond doubt as regards their scientific acquirements and their desire to uphold science. To leave the matter entirely in the hands of the Government would, perhaps, not lead to very satisfactory results.
Mr. Spottiswoode considers Colonel Strange's suggestion the most complete and perfect that has yet been made, and states that he has "always looked upon it as an arrangement to the carrying out of which all others should be directed"; at the same time, however,
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he considers "the proposal is a large one", and suggests that "it might be worth consideration whether some intermediate scheme for earlier action should be proposed".
His opinion on the Appointment of the Members is thus expressed:
If any council (without at present going into its constitution) were appointed, in whose hands do you think that appointment should be placed? - I think it clearly should be in the hands of the Minister with whom it would be in direct relation.
You would leave the choice absolutely to him, and not make the appointments in any respect ex-officio? - There might very well be certain ex-officio members, such, for instance, as the Astronomer Royal for the time being, the President of the Royal Society for the time being, and perhaps others.
The greatest importance would attach to the first constitution of the council? - Certainly.
How would you advise the minister to proceed in order to act wisely in that appointment? - I should suppose that he would obtain advice from the leading men of science of the day, and with their advice it would not be difficult to form, at all events, the elements of such a council, although he might not be able at once to complete a very fully organized body. If those first appointments were made, he would have the full advantage of the advice of those members in completing the entire list.
If such a consultative council were appointed, you would probably contemplate that it would be mainly composed of persons now to be found on the council of the Royal Society, or on the committee of recommendations of the British Association? - Yes, I should imagine that it would be mainly composed of Fellows of the Royal Society.
How would it work if there were some arrangement by which the council of the Royal Society should propose a certain number, two or three persons out of whom the Government might select one on any vacancy? - I see no objection whatever to that proposal.
That would secure, as a general rule, the appointment of persons of the highest scientific qualifications on the council? - I think it would.
Sir Henry Rawlinson thinks that the Council should be merely consultative. He regards the nomination of a Permanent Council of Science as the natural remedy for the "spasmodic" action on the part of the Government, and adds:
It appears to me that the chief and most important point in this matter has reference to the appointment of a Council, rather than to the nomination of a Minister. I think with a Consultative Council of Science there would be a corresponding uniformity of action. ...
In the Council of India we have no power of initiation. The initiative rests with the Minister, or, practically, with the executive officers, acting, I may say, on the inspiration of the Minister, and the measures are only brought before the Council, in a subsequent stage, for their approval or disapproval.
We have already quoted the Evidence of this Witness as to the difficulties which the Government Departments, and more especially the Indian Council, meet with for want of authoritative Scientific Advice. In answer to question 12,564, he goes on to say:
I may mention to the Commission, in reference to this subject, that the desirability of such a council is constantly brought to my observation through another channel, namely, through my duties in the Council of India, where we perpetually have references before us, which we are really unable to deal with. These references recall most forcibly to us, and very frequently, the necessity for the existence of such a council as I have proposed. ...
Should you apprehend that a minister would find it a very difficult task to constitute a council in such a manner as to command the confidence both of the public and of scientific persons? - No, I should think not, I should think a minister, with the latitude of selection which he would have in a country like this, would have no difficulty in bringing together a council of 10 or 15 gentlemen whose qualifications and reputation would command the respect of the world, and whose opinion would fortify him in his decisions, and be of great national benefit.
General Strachey has given us some important Evidence as to the Appointment and Functions of a Council of Science:
The persons who are employed in the public administration are certainly as a class not amongst those who have anything deserving the name of scientific education; therefore, for a long time to come, it is not to be expected that the members of the Government, or their chief subordinates, will have any such general knowledge of science as would enable them at all satisfactorily to deal with the scientific questions which come before them. Therefore, I conclude that it is absolutely essential for the Government, under any circumstances, to get advice from outside; and then comes the question as to how this advice is to be got. If there is no recognised and regularly organised body whose business it is to give advice to the Government on such subjects, then the only thing that a minister can do is to get his information from unrecognised and irresponsible authorities, persons whose opinions, perhaps, may be very valuable, but still persons of whom the public never can have any cognizance; and private advice given in that way seems to me given in the worst possible form. If, then, that form of advice is bad, how can you obtain advice of proper intrinsic value on the multifarious subjects on which it is certain to be needed by an administration really striving to advance science to the utmost, and how can you secure its being given under a sufficient sense of responsibility, and in such a way as to carry the greatest weight possible to the mind of the minister who is expected to act upon it? And here I would repeat that any specific proposal to give effect to such an idea must be made to fit into the general form of the administration; and I, therefore, consider that the best course would be to adopt the proposal that has been made by many persons, that there shall be some sort of council constituted to advise the responsible Government department as to its procee