W'i^h 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 0DDD14E'^DDD 
 
SCIENTIFIC LONDON 
 
 BERNARD H.' BECKER. 
 
 Juvat integros accedere fonteg 
 
 Atque haurire. 
 
 D. APPLETON & CO., NEW YORK. 
 
 1875. 
 

 Gift 
 
 Mrs. H. C. Bolton 
 
 1912 
 
PEEFACE 
 
 On becoming a frequent visitor at the meetings of 
 learned Societies, I was astonished to find that the 
 written records of their deeds were few and far 
 between, and that, with the exception of Weld's 
 " History of the Eoyal Society," but little connected 
 narrative had been produced on a subject of great 
 and increasing interest. Facts of inestimable value 
 lay scattered through endless volumes of *' Trans- 
 actions" and *' Proceedings," but these treasures 
 were not arranged in a form accessible to the 
 general reader. According to my lights I have 
 striven, in unambitious fashion, to supply this gap 
 in the literature of science, and in the little book 
 now offered to the public have attempted to describe 
 in a compact form the rise, progress, and present 
 condition of those great Scientific Institutions of 
 which London — and for that matter England — is 
 justly proud. 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 Both in the collection and arrangement of material 
 for these papers — which originally appeared in the 
 columns of Iron — I have received ready and valuable 
 aid from the officers of various institutions, and I take 
 this opportunity of tendering my hearty thanks to Pro- 
 fessor Huxley, to Major Donnelly, to Mr. W. Spottis- 
 woode, and to Mr. Henry Cole; to Mr. H. T. Wood and 
 Mr. Davenport, of the Society of Ai'ts ; to Mr. Walter 
 White, of the Eoyal Society ; to Mr. Whittall, of the 
 Statistical Society ; to Mr. Latimer Clark and Mr. G. 
 E. Preece, of the Society of Telegraph Engineers; to 
 Mr. Trenham Peeks, of the Eoyal School of Mines ; 
 to Mr. Norris, of the Birkbeck Institute ; to Mr. H. 
 W. Bates, of the Eoyal Geographical Society ; to 
 Mr. Forrest, of the Institution of Civil Engineers; 
 and especially to Colonel Charles Manby, to whose 
 frequent counsel and friendly supervision I am deeply 
 indebted. 
 
 It only remains for me to add that, however much 
 the array of facts in this little volume is due to the 
 courtesy of scientific friends, the only person respon- 
 sible for the opinions advanced is 
 
 The Author. 
 
 October 10th, 1874. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 L PAGE 
 
 The Eoyal Society . . . . . . . . 1 
 
 II. 
 
 The Royal Institution 27 
 
 III. 
 The Society of Arts '53 
 
 IV. 
 
 The Institution of Civil Engineers . . . . . 72 
 
 V. 
 
 The Chemical Society 136 
 
 VI. 
 The Department of Science and Art .... 149 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 VII. PAGE 
 
 The London Institution 189 
 
 VIII. 
 The Birkbeck Institute 201 
 
 IX. 
 The Gresham Lectures 215 
 
 X. 
 
 The Society of Telegraph Engineers .... 231 
 
 XL 
 The Museum op Practical Geology 248 
 
 XII. 
 
 The British Association for the Advancement of Science 266 
 
 XIII. 
 The Statistical Society , . 278 
 
 XIV. 
 The Royal Geographical Society 300 
 
SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE EOYAL SOCIETY. 
 
 To England belongs the honour of being the first 
 country after Italy to establish a society for the in- 
 vestigation and advancement of physical science. 
 The Koyal Society, the most ancient and illustrious of 
 existing scientific bodies, was founded in 1660. The 
 troubles of the great Kebellion were healed — at least 
 for a time — by the restoration of the Stuarts, and the 
 minds of men, relieved for a while from political 
 anxiety, turned with ardour towards the study of 
 science. " The period had arrived when that experi- 
 mental philosophy to which Bacon had held the torch, 
 and which had already made considerable progress, 
 especially in Italy, was finally established on the 
 ruins of arbitrary figments and partial inductions." 
 
 B 
 
2 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 By degrees was formed a group of pliilosophers who 
 began to knock at the door of truth, ''at that door 
 which Newton was destined to force open." These 
 were the founders of the Eoyal Society. 
 
 The road had been admirably prepared by Bacon, 
 and the disciples of the great master of inductive 
 philosophy were not slow in carrying out the plan of 
 a learned society as sketched in the " New Atlantis." 
 Among these were Eobert Boyle, Lord Brouncker, Dr. 
 Wallis, Elias Ashmole — who has given his name to a 
 museum at Oxford — the celebrated Oldenburg, and 
 last, but not least, that Christopher Wren who was 
 destined to replace the old Gothic Cathedral of St. 
 Paul's, which, at the period referred to, was the 
 central spot of busy London, by the present noble 
 structure. As early as 1645, and amid all the turmoil 
 of civil war, a few choice siDirits had been in the 
 habit of assembling for the purpose of discoursing 
 on experimental philosophy, sometimes at Dr. God- 
 dard's lodgings in "Wood Street, and occasionally at 
 the Bull's Head Tavern in Cheapside, where the 
 sacred fire was fanned by the intercourse of kmdred 
 spirits, but owing probably to the unsettled condition 
 of public affairs, nothing was done in the way of 
 organizing a learned body. 
 
 It chanced, however, that on the 28th November, 
 1660, several of those who had been in the habit of 
 
THE KOYAL SOCIETY. 3 
 
 meeting from time to time were assembled at Gresham 
 College, to hear a lecture on astronomy, by Christo- 
 pher Wren, who at that time was one of the resident 
 professors at the old Gresham mansion in Bishops- 
 gate. After the lecture a list of names was drawn 
 up, and the number of members fixed at fifty-five. 
 On the 6th March, 1661, the Society proceeded to the 
 election of a president. The choice of the members 
 fell upon Sir Eobert Moray, who, according to Burnet, 
 was the life and soul of the institution. Sir Eobert 
 being a member of the Privy Council, and in great 
 favour with Charles II., was charged by the king, who, 
 if he never said a foolish thing, certainly did a wise 
 one on this occasion, to assure the growing Society of 
 the royal sympathy and protection. A little more 
 than a year after its foundation the Society was formed 
 into a corporation by • royal charter. It was soon 
 found necessary to amend this document, and a 
 second charter was obtained from the king, and sealed 
 on the 22nd of April, 1663. A third charter, con- 
 ceding to the Eoyal Society Chelsea College, and 
 some additional privileges, was granted in 1669, but 
 the charter of 1663 is still the fundamental law of 
 the Society. This document declares the king him- 
 self to be the founder and patron of the Society, which 
 consists of a president, a council of twenty, and an 
 unlimited number of Fellows. Lord Brouncker was 
 
4 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 the first president, William Ball the treasurer, John 
 Wilkins and Henry Oldenburg the two secretaries, Sir 
 Eobert Moray and the celebrated Boyle members of the 
 council. 
 
 Lord Brouncker was at this time Chancellor to the 
 Queen, and had already made himself a name by his 
 mathematical studies. Two remarkable discoveries 
 were made by him. He was the first to introduce 
 continued fractions, and to give a series for the quad- 
 rature of a portion of the equilateral hyperbola. 
 
 The first meeting of the Council after the conces- 
 sion of the new charter took place on the 13th May, 
 1663, the Society then consisting of 115 members. 
 By the following November the number had increased 
 to 130, of whom eighteen were noblemen, twenty-two 
 baronets and knights, forty-seven esquires, thirty-two 
 doctors, two bachelors of theology, two masters of arts, 
 and eight were foreigners. 
 
 In August, 1663, King Charles II. presented the 
 Eoyal Society with the mace at present in their 
 possession. This mace — which is made of silver, 
 richly gilt, and w^eighs 190 oz. avoirdupois — fills an 
 important office in the Society. No meeting can be 
 legally held without it, and the same practice respect- 
 ing it prevails in the Eoyal Society as in Parliament. 
 In the House of Commons, when the Speaker is in 
 the chair and the mace on the table, any member 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 5 
 
 may rise to address the House. When the Speaker 
 leaves the chair the mace is taken off the table, and 
 when it is carried out of the building the assembly 
 is no longer a House. 
 
 Great interest attaches to the mace of the Eoyal 
 Society from its having long been supposed to be the 
 identical "bauble" removed by the command of 
 Ohver Cromwell. This, however, has been shown by 
 Mr. Weld to be an erroneous belief. The royal mace 
 used during the reign of Charles I. was broken up 
 with the rest of the crown jewels, and an entirely 
 new mace was made for the Commonwealth. This 
 was ornamented with flowers instead of the cross and 
 ball at the top, with the arms of England and Ireland 
 instead of those of the late king. The mace, still in 
 the possession of the Eoyal Society, is a truly royal one, 
 consisting of a stem handsomely chased with a running 
 pattern of the thistle, terminated at the upper end by 
 an m^n-shaped head surmounted by a crown, ball, and 
 cross. On the head are embossed figures of a rose, 
 harp, thistle, and fleur-de-lys, on each side of which 
 are the letters C. E. 
 
 The year 1664 was marked by great acti^dty in the 
 Eoyal Society. Eight committees were formed for 
 prosecuting researches in different directions. In the 
 month of June Sir John Cutler founded a chair of 
 Mechanics, and, with the consent of the Eoj^al Society, 
 
6 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 lie assigned to the celebrated Hooke a ]3ension of fifty 
 pounds a year, leaving to the Society the care of fixing 
 the number of lectures and their subject. Hooke was 
 also made curator, with a salary of thirty pounds, and 
 apartments were assigned him in Gresham College, 
 where the Society continued to hold its meetings. 
 
 On the 6th March, 1665, appeared the first number 
 of '' Philosophical Transactions." This rej)ort was 
 published by Oldenburg, and submitted to the Council 
 of the Society. During this year the plague proved a 
 serious interruption to the weekly meetings of the 
 Society, and actually compelled Oldenburg to get the 
 seventh and eighth numbers of the '* Transactions" 
 printed at Oxford, on account of the impossibility of 
 finding printers in London. 
 
 Meetings were held at uncertain intervals until 
 February, 1666. On the 21st of this month the 
 Society met again at Gresham College, under the 
 presidency of Lord Brouncker, and a noteworthy 
 event took place. It was decided that a gift of one 
 hundred pounds made to the Society by Mr. Colwall, 
 should be employed in purchasing a collection of 
 rarities found by Mr. Hubbard. This collection was 
 the nucleus of a museum, which became in time the 
 richest in London. Many presents came to Oldenburg 
 from abroad, the correspondence of this active member 
 having assumed immense proportions. Among the 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 7 
 
 curious objects in this collection was ''the skin of a 
 Moor, tanned, with the beard and hair white ; " but 
 more worthy of observation was "a clock whose move- 
 ments are derived from the vicinity of a loadstone," 
 and so adjusted as to " discover the distance of 
 countries at sea by the longitudes." This clock and 
 Hooke's magnetic watch were apparently the pearls of 
 the collection, and the direct ancestors of the electrical 
 clock of the present day. 
 
 The great fire of London produced a temporary 
 migration of the Eoyal Society. It is true that they 
 were not actually burnt out of Gresham College, but 
 that building was seized upon as a temporary Ex- 
 change, and the philosophers, elbowed out of the 
 City, found hospitable welcome at Arundel House. 
 Henry Howard, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, not 
 content with putting his house at the disposition of 
 the Society, presented them with a magnificent library, 
 the germ of which was formed by Matthias Corvinus, 
 King of Hungary. 
 
 In 1667, at Arundel House, was performed the 
 remarkable experiment of transfusing the blood of a 
 sheep into the veins of a man, the subject of the 
 operation being a poor devil of a student named 
 Arthur Coga, who for the consideration of one guinea 
 of the lawful money of the realm consented to lose 
 eight ounces of his own blood and receive into his 
 
8 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 veins fourteen ounces of slieep's blood. Pepys saw 
 this Coga at a tavern, and describes him " as a Httle 
 frantic, a poor debauched man." The experiment, if 
 in corpore vili, was attended with no evil consequences 
 to the patient, which is more than could be said for 
 the Continental experiments made about the same 
 time, which caused the death of sundry persons, and 
 brought the transfusion of blood into complete dis- 
 credit. The mechanical science of the Society found 
 ample recognition at Court, Catharine of Braganza 
 requesting this learned body to produce for her use a 
 thermometer, which was duly made by Hooke. 
 
 The year 1671 was marked by the rise of the 
 greatest luminary of the Eo^^al Society. A young 
 candidate was proposed for the honour of fellowship, 
 one Isaac Newton, professor of mathematics at the 
 University of Cambridge. Newton had already made 
 his mark, having invented the reflecting telescope. 
 The actual instrument constructed by his own hands 
 is now in the possession of the Eoyal Society, and 
 is justly esteemed one of its most precious relics. 
 Newton was elected on the 11th of January, 1672, 
 and on the 8th of February communicated to the 
 Society his researches into the nature of light. The 
 publication of these inquiries in the "Transactions" 
 aroused a storm of opposition. 
 
 Hooke in England, and Huyghens abroad, attacked 
 
THE KOYAL SOCIETY. 9 
 
 not only his conclusions, but the accuracy of the 
 experiments on which they were based. Although 
 much harassed by the controversy, Newton replied 
 within a few months in a manner which firmly estab- 
 lished his general doctrines. 
 
 Among the secretaries of this period figures the 
 name of John Evelyn, and among the foreign corres- 
 pondents the celebrated Leuwenhoeck, in whose hands 
 the microscope finally became a useful scientific 
 instrument. Leuwenhoeck not only transmitted his 
 valuable observations to the Eoyal Society, but 
 bequeathed to that body twenty-six microscopes, the 
 glasses of which he had polished himself. 
 
 Great names now appear on the roll. Flamsteed, 
 a Fellow of the Society, was appointed astronomical 
 observer at Greenwich. Two years later Edmund 
 Halley was also elected a Fellow on his return from 
 St. Helena, where he had been observing the stars of 
 the Southern hemisphere. In 1684 Dr. Denis Papin 
 — the inventor of the famous Digester — was named 
 curator, on condition of making an experiment at 
 every general meeting of the Society ; and the year is 
 also remarkable as that in which Samuel Pepys was 
 elected president. Of no " considerable " family, 
 being actually the son of a tailor, this remarkable man 
 and delightful gossip was educated at St. Paul's 
 School, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he 
 
10 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 left no particular mark. In 1655, when only twenty- 
 three years of age, he married a girl of fifteen, to 
 whose family connections he possibly owed part of his 
 advancement. Twenty-nine years later he took his 
 seat as president of the Eoyal Society. 
 
 No date is more justly celebrated in the annals of 
 this august Society than that of the 28th of April, 
 1686. At the ordinary meeting held on that day, 
 Dr. Vincent presented the manuscript of the first book 
 of the immortal work of Newton, " Philosophise 
 Naturalis Principia Mathematica." The Society 
 wished to print, at its own expense, the work which 
 was dedicated to it, but the finances of the institution 
 had been so terribly depleted by the pubhcation of 
 Willoughby's " Be Historia Piscium," that even the 
 salaries of the regular officers were in arrear. 
 Members did not pay their subscriptions, and some of 
 them, like Newton, were specially exempted from pay- 
 ment of the yearly fifty-two shillings, on account of 
 the inadequacy of their means. Finally, Halley took 
 the risk of publishing the " Principia " on his own 
 shoulders, a deed sufficient to immortalize him had he 
 done nothing fm^ther for the advancement of science. 
 
 When it is remembered that the volume contained 
 sixty-four sheets, and above a hundred diagrams cut 
 in wood, it is wonderful that Halley should have 
 performed the laborious task of editing it in about six 
 
THE EOYAL SOCIETY. 11 
 
 months. Halley's troubles were added to very consider- 
 ably by the reluctance of Newton to publish the third 
 book of the ^^Principia" — ''De Systemate Mundi." 
 Hooke, perhaps the greatest mechanical genius of 
 his own or any other age, felt himself outraged by 
 Newton having omitted in his preface all mention 
 of him. Halley writes to Newton in May, 1686, that 
 " Mr, Hooke has some pretensions upon the invention 
 of the rule of decrease of gravity being reciprocally as 
 the squares of the distances from the centre. He 
 says you had the notion from him, though he owns 
 the demonstration of the curves generated thereby to 
 be wholly your own. How much of this is so you 
 know best, as likewise what you have to do in this 
 matter." In reply to this Newton declared his inten- 
 tion to suppress the third book altogether, and said, 
 " Philosophy is such an impertinently litigious lady 
 that a man had as good be engaged in lawsuits as 
 have to do with her. I found it so formerly, and now 
 I am no sooner come near her again than she gives 
 me warning." Halley's invincible arguments and 
 entreaties fortunately prevailed on Newton not to 
 suppress the third book. 
 
 The entire work was written by Newton in about a 
 year and a half, and was, as we have seen, hurried 
 through the press by the indefatigable Halley. It is 
 depressing to find that the circulation of the first 
 
12 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 edition was undoubtedly small, inasmuch as in 1692, 
 when the reputation of the "Principia" was established, 
 Huyghens, who was anxious for a second edition, was 
 of opinion that two hundred copies would suffice. 
 The volume contains the dedication to the Eoyal 
 Society, a brief preface, verses by Halley in honour of 
 Newton, definitions, axioms, a short book on unre- 
 sisted motion, a second on resisted motion, and a third 
 on the system of the universe. " Halley's verses," 
 says Mr. Weld in his ''History of the Eoyal Society," 
 " were somewhat altered by Bentley in the second 
 edition, but the original readings were very nearly 
 restored in the third." The publication of the 
 " Principia" was licensed by the Eoyal Society on the 
 30th June, 1686, and the imprimatur signed by 
 the ubiquitous Samuel Pepys, is dated on the fifth of 
 the following month. 
 
 The manuscript of the immortal " Principia," 
 entirely written by Newton's own hand, is in admirable 
 preservation, and is justly considered the greatest 
 treasure in the possession of the Eoyal Society. 
 
 In the years 1687-88-89, numerous important 
 inventions were presented to the Society by Hooke, 
 Halley, and Papin — Hooke especially pursuing his 
 astronomical investigations with a huge telescope 
 mounted at Gresham College. 
 
 On the 14th June, 1699, was exhibited to the Society 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 13 
 
 a model of Savery's condensing steam-engine. In the 
 minutes it is recorded that " Mr. Savery entertained 
 the Society with showing his engine to raise water by 
 the force of fire. He was thanked for showing the 
 experiment, which succeeded according to expectation, 
 and was approved of." Savery presented the Society 
 with a drawing of his engine, still preserved among 
 the Society's collection of prints and drawings, and 
 entitled, " An Engine for Eaising Water by Fire," by 
 Thomas Savery. Doubtless Savery had a predecessor 
 in the history of steam, but it will be remembered 
 that although the Marquis of Worcester invented the 
 steam-engine " to drive up water by fire," seen by 
 Cosmo de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in opera- 
 tion at Yauxliall in 1656, we are indebted to Savery 
 for the introduction of a vacuum which enabled his 
 engine to perform double the work of that invented by 
 the Marquis of Worcester. 
 
 On the 11th February, 1708, Newton then being 
 President of the Eoyal Society, a proposition was 
 submitted " concerning a new-invented boat to be 
 rowed with oars moved by heat." At the two ensuing 
 meetings the matter w^as again brought forward, 
 accompanied by letters of recommendation from 
 Leibnitz. Papin says that, inasmuch as "it is certain 
 that it is a thing of great consequence to be able to 
 apply the force of fire for to save the labour of men," 
 
14 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 and 4hat "the Parliament of England granted some 
 years ago a patent to Esquire Savery for an engine he 
 had invented for that purpose, and his Highness 
 Charles, Landgrave of Hesse, hath also caused several 
 costly experiments for the same design," he therefore 
 offers with all dutiful respect " to make here an engine 
 after the manner that has been i^ractised at Cassell, 
 and to fit it so that it may be applied for the moving 
 of ships." Dr. Papin wished much to make " the said 
 Cassellian engine at his own cost," but was unable to 
 furnish the necessary funds. The Eoyal Society was 
 unfortunately in a similar position. 
 
 Papin clearly saw that ships might be propelled by 
 paddles moved by steam. In a paper published as 
 early as 1690 in the " Acta Eruditorum," he says, 
 " Without doubt oars fixed to an axis could be made 
 most conveniently to revolve by om- tubes. It would 
 only be necessary to furnish the piston-rod with teeth, 
 which might act on a toothed wheel properly fitted 
 to it, and which, being fixed on the axis to which the 
 oars were attached, would communicate a rotary 
 motion to it." 
 
 Despite the squabbles between Newton and Flam- 
 steed, the Eoyal Society waxed mighty under the pre- 
 sidency of the author of the " Principia." On the 
 death of Sir Godfrey Copley, in 1709, the interest of 
 one hundred pounds became vested in the Society. 
 
THE EOYAL SOCIETY. 15 
 
 For awhile this sum was given to the curator to pay 
 the expenses of experiments, but was finally em^Dloyed 
 in striking a gold medal of the value of five pounds, to 
 be given to the author of the best experiment made 
 during the year. This medal is the greatest honour 
 at the disposal of the Eoyal Society. It has been 
 given for a century and a quarter to the authors of 
 the most brilliant discoveries made in England and 
 on the continent of Europe. The first Copley medal 
 was awarded to Stephen Gray — a name almost for- 
 gotten until Dr. Eichardson, only the other day, vindi- 
 cated the claim of the first Copley medallist to the 
 title of father of electrical science. Among the 
 medallists are found the names of Benjamin Franklin, 
 James Bradley, John Dollond, and John Smeaton, of 
 Cavendish, Priestley, Maskelyne, Hutton, Hunter, 
 Rumford, Volta, Attwood, Astley Cooper, Wollaston, 
 Da^'y, Brodie, Brande, Brewster, Buckland, Arago, 
 Faraday and Leibig, Herschel and Leverrier. 
 
 Towards the middle of the last century the Eoyal 
 Society took an active part in promoting the change 
 of style effected in England on the 2nd of September, 
 1752. A few years later active measm^es were taken 
 for observing the transit of Venus, which, according to 
 the prediction of Halley, was to occur in 1761. The 
 importance of this event in determining the exact 
 distance of the sun from the earth induced the 
 
16 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 treasury to give ^91600 for the expedition to St. Helena 
 conducted by Nevil Maskelyne, but bad weather 
 interfered with the success of the observation. This 
 loss, however, was recovered eight years later, when 
 Messrs. Green and Banks (afterwards Sir Joseph) 
 sailed for Tahiti with Captain Cook in the Endeavour, 
 and obtained their observations on a cloudless day. 
 
 The year 1784 was marked by a grand discovery — 
 that of the composition of water, attributed by some 
 to Cavendish and by others to Watt. Doctors dis- 
 agree severely on this vexed question. It will suffice 
 to remark that Arago, Dumas, and Berzelius favour 
 the claims of Watt, while Whewell, Peacock, and 
 Brown rule for Cavendish. 
 
 The early part of the present century was marked 
 in the Eoyal Society by the advent of Sir Humphrey 
 Davy. In 1806 he read his celebrated paper " On 
 some Chemical Agencies." " This," says Whewell, 
 *' was a great event, perhaps the greatest event of the 
 epoch." Although the war between England and 
 France was at its height, Davy's work was crowned by 
 the Institute of France, and the author was presented 
 with a prize of three thousand francs. Davy now 
 devoted his attention to the illumination of mines, and 
 discovered the safety lamp, the originality of which 
 was, as appears to have been the case with almost 
 every scientific invention, contested at the time. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 17 
 
 Nevertheless, the honours of discovery were awarded 
 to Davy by a committee of the Eoyal Society, and the 
 colHery proprietors presented him with a service of 
 plate valued at £2500. In addition to this solid 
 reward all the honours of the Eoyal Society were 
 showered upon the illustrious chemist. He received 
 the Copley medal, the Eumford medal, delivered the 
 Baker Lecture several times, and in 1820 took his 
 seat as president in the chair whilom occupied by 
 Wren, Newton, Sloane, and Banks. - From its founda- 
 tion to the present time the Eoyal Society has thus 
 numbered many illustrious names among its presi- 
 dents, from Lord Brouncker to Dr. Hooker, and during 
 the two centuries of its existence has occupied various 
 dwellings — Gresham College, then Arundel House, 
 then Gresham College again, then a house in Crane 
 Court, then Somerset House, and lastly, after many 
 migrations, has found a home at Burlington House, 
 the handsome building extending from Burlington 
 Gardens to Piccadilly. The Society receives house 
 room, but nothing beyond that, from the Government 
 of the country, being now, as always, an entirely self- 
 supporting institution. It is true that a thousand 
 pounds a year are voted for the encouragement of 
 original research ; but the Eoyal Society only advise 
 the Ministry of the day as to the manner in which 
 this sum should be employed. A Special Committee 
 
18 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 of the Society is appointed to recommend the method 
 of distributing this fund, but no portion of it finds its 
 way into the coffers of the Society. 
 
 Eooms are also provided in the wings of Burlington 
 House for the Society of Antiquaries, the Linnasan 
 Society, the Geological Society, the Eoyal Astro- 
 nomical Society, and the Chemical Society. The 
 Koyal Society has on the first floor a handsome suite 
 of reception-rooms — available for the annual soirees 
 of the president — and a library affording space for 
 35,000 volumes. On the ground floor is a hall, an 
 ante-room, and the room in which the Society holds 
 its meetings. These take place once in every week 
 from the third Thursday in November to the third 
 Thursday in June. A record of these meetings is 
 preserved in the octavo " Proceedings," and the best 
 papers are printed in the quarto "Transactions." 
 These last have been regularly printed since their 
 institution in 1665, the series now extending to 160 
 volumes. 
 
 The Society has at its disposal four medals by 
 which to mark its appreciation of scientific investiga- 
 tions and remarkable discoveries. The first award 
 of the Copley medal was made in 1731, and of the 
 Kumford medal in 1800, to the founder himself, 
 Benjamin Count Eumford, for his various discoveries 
 in respect of light and heat. In the year 1825 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 19 
 
 George IV. communicated through Sir Kobert Peel 
 his intention "to found two gold medals of the value 
 of fifty guineas each, to be awarded as honorary- 
 premiums under the direction of the President and 
 Council of the Koyal Society, in such manner as shall 
 by the excitement of competition among men of science 
 seem best calculated to promote the objects for which 
 the Eoyal Society was instituted." The two first 
 medals were awarded in 1826 to John Dalton and 
 James Ivory. William IV. and her present Majesty 
 have continued the gift of these Eoyal medals, and 
 they are therefore annually awarded. The total 
 number of Fellows, including foreign members 
 (limited to fifty), is now 571. 
 
 Besides the mace already mentioned, and the 
 reflecting telescope made by Newton, the Society's 
 treasures include the sun-dial cut by the great 
 philosopher, when a boy, in the wall of his father's 
 house, and a large collection of the portraits of 
 Presidents, distinguished Fellows, and other great 
 luminaries of science, painted by Van Somer, Sir 
 Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey Kneller, Sir Joshua Keynolds, 
 Sir Thomas Lawrence, and other great artists. 
 
 These pictm-es are dispersed throughout the rooms 
 occupied by the Society. On the first floor one of the 
 most remarkable portraits is that of Copernicus, who, 
 after travelling over Europe, studying astronomy at 
 
20 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 Bologna, and filling tlie Chair of Mathematics at 
 Eome, settled down in his quiet canonry at Frauen- 
 burg, and at length embodied the result of his labours 
 in the celebrated treatise, ''De Orbium Coelestium 
 Eevolutionibus," to the publication of which he only 
 consented a short time before his death — having 
 probably a keen presentiment that the Copernican 
 system would cost him his canonry, if not his life. 
 The clean-shaven, priestly face is certainly a remark- 
 able one, with the long upper lip and portentously long, 
 sharp chin, so often found in men of genius. Near 
 him hangs George Buchanan, a bald and grizzly- 
 bearded Scot, looking mighty solemn at the neigh- 
 bourhood of that bright black-haired Frenchman, 
 Descartes. Not far from these worthies may be seen 
 the portrait of Flamsteed — the first Koyal ''Astro- 
 nomical Observator," to whom mankind is indebted 
 for that enormous mass of astronomical observations 
 which furnished the first trustworthy account of the 
 fixed stars. The harsh, rugged features of Galileo 
 next arrest attention, and after contemplating his 
 worn face the eye rests complacently on the picture of 
 Dr. Bradley, whilom Astronomer Eoyal, and the very 
 heau ideal of a prosperous Churchman. Enthroned 
 in an attitude of tremendous dignity, Edmund Halley 
 looms on the wall — a don every inch of him, but an 
 industrious secretary withal, and the composer of no 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 21 
 
 less than eighty-one papers, published in " Philo- 
 sophical Transactions," on subjects connected with 
 023tics, mechanics, mathematics, astronomy, mag- 
 netism, the law of mortality, &c. The great Hobbes 
 looks every inch a Puritan, albeit his works enjoyed 
 in his own day a very similar reputation to those of 
 Strauss in our own time. John Locke, his great 
 successor, appears in an admirable picture by Kneller, 
 and John Evelyn looks sadly forth from Kerseboom's 
 canvas. The effect of gazing upon this galaxy of 
 worthies is an inexpressible feeling of smallness in 
 the gazer, who is glad to change the scene and 
 descend to the ante-room, where he is restored to 
 a more comfortable frame of mind by the contem- 
 plation of the gracious features of his Majesty King 
 Charles II., the amiable, if erring, monarch, who 
 apologized to his courtiers for being such an "uncon- 
 scionable time in dying." The portrait by Lely 
 depicts the jovial monarch in anything but evil case. 
 The large eyes and drooping eyelashes give a thought- 
 ful look to a face which, were it not for the bright 
 scarlet over-full underlip, might well be taken for that 
 of a philosopher. In one feature — the long nose — 
 the kingly countenance is quite in keeping with the 
 scientific visages ranged around — a preponderance of 
 nose being remarkably characteristic of great thinkers 
 — Newton, Locke, Boyle, and many others being 
 
22 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 gifted with an enormous quantity of that useful 
 organ. So well was the necessity for an important 
 nose recognized by Tycho Brahe, that that great 
 astronomer, having had the misfortune to lose a 
 portion of his in a duel, supplied the loss by an 
 artificial nose made of gold, so well-formed and 
 coloured as to be hardly distinguishable, it is said, 
 from the natural feature. In his portrait, however, 
 the nose of Tycho Brahe looks odd enough, and gives 
 a singular expression to a countenance finished off by 
 a pointed beard, and adorned with a pair of portentous 
 moustaches. Near the portrait of the Eoyal founder 
 hang the pictures of the late Duke of Sussex and of 
 Earl Eosse, the builder of the famous telescope. 
 
 On entering the large room, the well-known features 
 of Newton are discovered in the central place of 
 honour, over the chair occupied by the president. 
 On the right of Newton is the sad, weary-looking 
 countenance of Eobert Boyle, and the handsome 
 features of that genial-looking cavalier. Lord Brounc- 
 ker. Farther on is descried the dark bourgeois face of 
 our old friend Samuel Pepys, — almost smothered in a 
 tremendous full-bottomed wig, — near whom looms large 
 the Johnsonian figure of Sir Joseph Banks, adorned 
 with the star and riband of the Bath. Here is Sir 
 Christopher "Wren, also much bewigged, turning his 
 back on St. Paul's, and there, in all the glory of tights 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 23 
 
 and Hessians, the figure of Dr. WoUaston, rendered 
 famous by his researches into electricity and galvan- 
 ism, and rich by his discovery of the method of 
 making platinum malleable. A sense of awe again 
 creeps over the visitor as he contemplates the massive 
 heads which have contributed so much to the well- 
 being of mankind. 
 
 It will be seen that a visit to the halls of the Eoyal 
 Society is not an expedition to be undertaken lightly, 
 or in an irreverent spirit. He who seeks to be 
 admitted to the sacred penetralia, where science sits 
 enthroned among her chosen votaries, feels very much 
 as he did on his first visit to the House of Lords, an 
 institution which has much in common with the Eoyal 
 Society. The would-be visitor must first look up a 
 friendly F.E.S., who, if the applicant be deemed 
 worthy, will introduce him either personally or bj' 
 letter to the acting secretary, Mr. White, who will 
 enter his name on the book, bracketed with the 
 name of the introducer, and he will now only have 
 to present himself at the fashionable hour of 8.30 to be 
 at once admitted to the Upper House of Science. 
 
 Having fulfilled these conditions, I presented myself 
 at Burhngton House on one of those foggy evenings 
 for which London is recovering its ancient notoriety. 
 Having deposited my coat and hat with a careful 
 attendant, I found myself in the spacious ante-room. 
 
24 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 gazing on the dark features of his Majesty King 
 Charles II., who, albeit of an over gay and festive turn 
 of mind, had probably acquired a certain dilettante 
 taste for science from his dashing relative, that ring- 
 leted Prince of Bohemia, who — equal to either fortune 
 — led a charge of cavalry in the field, or conducted 
 a scientific experiment in the quiet recesses of his 
 laboratory with equal success. This same " Kupert's 
 drop," the scientific toy destined to immortalize its 
 inventor, affords grave matter for reflection to those 
 endowed with a philosophic temperament. The heroes 
 of Long Marston Moor and Naseby, dashing Cavaliers 
 and sturdy Eoundheads, have long since rendered 
 back to earth the strength which they drew from her 
 mighty bosom. As the world whirls on their names 
 will wax dim enough in the page of history, but 
 '' Eupert of the Ehine " has written his name in 
 indelible characters on the records of scientific 
 discovery. 
 
 The members are now dropping in one by one, and 
 are chatting pleasantly in groups, or examining speci- 
 mens and photographs of curious organisms brought 
 by a distinguished Fellow, who is the happy possessor 
 of a sun-picture of the gigantic octopus recently 
 washed ashore at Newfoundland. Thoughtful-looking, 
 grey-haired men are the majority of the F.E.S., but 
 active withal, and evidently men to whom hard work 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 25 
 
 and constant study have become necessary stimulants. 
 For the nonce they put on a hoUday ah% as if bent on 
 enjoying a little bit of scientific dissipation, and 
 resolved to make a scientific night of it. But the 
 clock points to half-past eight, the hom^ at which 
 proceedings commence, and punctually to the moment 
 the audience settle down here and there, while the 
 president proceeds to take the chair. 
 
 On a dais placed immediately beneath the portrait 
 of Newton, at the upper end of the room, sits the 
 president, enthroned in a massive chau*, evidently 
 made " on the lines " of Sir Joseph Banks, and 
 affording ample room for Dr. Hooker, whose spare 
 figure and study-worn face are surmounted by a pair 
 of those bushy eyebrows which so frequently add 
 force and character to the features of those deeply 
 learned in the law and those other sciences to which 
 Mr. Ayrton recently declined to concede any priority 
 over jurisprudence. Before the president lies the 
 mace, without which no regular meeting can be held. 
 On his right sits Professor Stokes, Lucasian Professor 
 of Mathematics, the senior secretary, and on his left 
 sits, or rather recUnes in his armchaii', one who has 
 done much to gild the pill of science and make it 
 acceptable to the many — Professor Huxley. A short 
 paper is read in the absence of the contributor by the 
 junior secretary, and duly committed to the archives 
 
26 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 of the Society, after which ceremony the meaning of 
 some compHcated clockwork on the table is made 
 manifest. The inventor of the instrument — Professor 
 Eoscoe — steps up to the table at the invitation of the 
 president, and explains the machine in question, a 
 clever contrivance for measuring automatically the 
 strength of the actinic rays of the sun, by means of a 
 roll of sensitive papers, successive portions of which 
 are unwound, exposed to the light for a certain time, 
 and reeled off, thus preserving a record of the inten- 
 sity of the chemical rays during various periods, of 
 the day. At the conclusion of the exposition, the 
 president invites discussion, and the Fellows, nothing 
 loth, attack the subject vigorously. The reader of 
 the paper having replied to the objections brought 
 forward, is formally thanked by the Society, and 
 his invention duly recorded in the archives. Another 
 paper is read on Explosive Compounds, the con- 
 ductivity of concussion by rough and polished tubes, 
 and more especially on the extraordinary power 
 of water in transmitting the shock of an explosion to 
 an immense distance. This subject provokes a 
 lengthened and lively discussion, at the conclusion of 
 which the meeting comes to an end ; the chairman 
 rises, the mace is removed, and the learned Fellows 
 abandon themselves to tea and scientific gossip. 
 
( 27 ) 
 
 11. 
 
 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. 
 
 That stronghold of fashionable science, the Eoyal 
 Institution in Albemarle Street, covers a site of great 
 historical interest. In 1665, when the space now 
 occupied by Arlington Street was taken up by the 
 gardens of Goring House, three stately villas were in 
 course of erection on the opposite or north side of 
 Piccadilly. Between Burlington House on the east — 
 built originally by the Sir John Denham who poisoned 
 his beautiful wife — and Berkeley House on the west, 
 the entire space was occupied by the stately mansion 
 built by Lord Chancellor Clarendon. Pepys, of course, 
 went to see it while building, and has a prime bit of 
 scandal: ''the common people have already called it 
 Dunkirk House, from their opinion of his having a 
 good bribe for the selling of that town." John Evelyn 
 — a partial critic, inasmuch as he had had a hand in 
 its internal adornment as well as in laying out the 
 
28 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 gardens — declared that he had *' never seen a nobler 
 pile " than that occupied by Lord Clarendon until his 
 flight after he had been deprived of the great seal. It 
 was a short-lived palace. The Chancellor dying in 
 exile, the Earl, his successor, sold ''that which cost 
 ^50,000 building to the young Duke of Albemarle for 
 ^25,000, and ultimately this stately pal^e," says 
 Evelyn, was ''decreed to ruin, to support the pro- 
 digious waste the Duke of Albemarle had made of his 
 estate since the old man died." He sold it to the 
 highest bidder, and it fell to "certain rich bankers and 
 mechanics, who gave for it and the ground about it 
 ^£35,000 ; they design a new town, as it were, and a 
 most magnificent piazza. 'Tis said they have already 
 materials towards it, with what they sold of the 
 house, alone more worth than what they paid for it. 
 See the vicissitude of earthly things ! I was astonished 
 at the demolition, nor less at the little army of 
 labourers and artificers levelling the ground and con- 
 triving great buildings, at an expense of £200,000 if 
 they perfect their design." Bond Street, Dover Street, 
 and Albemarle Street were the result of the venture 
 of the "bankers and mechanics," who were shrewd 
 enough to descry, more than two hundred years ago, 
 that cities follow the sun and march westward. 
 
 Commencing with the nineteenth centuiy, the 
 Eoyal Institution can claim for itself many of the 
 
THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 29 
 
 most remarkable discoveries which have distinguished 
 an era of unrivalled activity. It owes its origin 
 partly to Sir Joseph Banks, but in a far greater degree 
 to a more remarkable man. Benjamin Thompson, 
 afterwards Count Eumford, was a lineal descendant 
 of one James Thompson, who figured at Charlestown 
 in Winthrop's company in 1630. Born in his grand- 
 father's farmhouse, he enjoyed the advantage of a 
 good grammar-school education, and then advanced 
 in the world by the steps familiar to this day in 
 America, but almost unknown in Europe. He was 
 apprenticed to an importer of British goods, was 
 allowed to make small ventures on his own account, 
 fancied that he had invented perpetual motion, took a 
 great interest in questions relating to light, heat, and 
 the wind, lost his place, and blew himself up with 
 fireworks before the age of sixteen. At seventeen he 
 was a dry-goods clerk in Boston, studied French 
 during his evenings, and got himself an electrical 
 machine with money earned by cutting and carting 
 firewood. He then boarded for some eighteen months 
 with a Dr. John Hay, and picked up a little anatomy, 
 chemistry, surgery, and physic, and in 1771 went to 
 Cambridge, Massachusetts, to attend Winthroj)'s 
 lectm-es on Experimental Philosophy. He then, after 
 the manner of his country, ''taught school" at Wil- 
 mington ; and afterwards became master of a school 
 
30 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 at a place originally called Kumford, but afterwards 
 re-cliristened Concord, when the disputes as to the 
 State to which it belonged were finally settled, and it 
 was ceded to New Hampshire for good and all. 
 
 Shortly before attaining the age of twenty, Thomp- 
 son, a fine, handsome young man, married — or, to 
 use his own expression — ''was married by" Mrs. 
 Eolfe, a wealthy widow of Concord. There was now 
 no more occasion to " teach school," and Thompson 
 hoped for leisure to pursue science vigorously; but 
 the American Eevolution breaking out, he speedily 
 found his way to England, in 1778 was elected a 
 Fellow of the Eoyal Society, and two years later 
 became an Under Secretary of State, and Colonel of 
 the King's American Dragoons. At the conclusion of 
 the war he was knighted by George the Third, and, 
 having met the Elector of Bavaria at Strasbourg, 
 passed a considerable time in Munich, busying him- 
 self in improving the breed of cattle and in building 
 workhouses, and it was in order to find the most 
 economical method of lighting the workhouse in 
 Munich that he initiated the series of experiments 
 afterwards embodied in a paper on "The Eelative 
 Intensities of the Light emitted by Luminous Bodies," 
 read before the Eoyal Society. 
 
 Honours now fell thicldy upon the successful 
 American. In 1785 he was elected member of the 
 
THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. 31 
 
 Bavarian Academy of Sciences, and in the two 
 succeeding years was made a member of the Berlin 
 Academy of Sciences and received the order of St. 
 Stanislaus. Finally, Sir Benjamin Thompson became 
 Lieutenant-General of the Bavarian Armies, received 
 the order of the White Eagle, and was made a Count 
 of the Holy Eoman Empire. 
 
 After the death of his wife he travelled for sixteen 
 months in Italy, and during his stay at Verona rebuilt 
 the kitchens of the two great hospitals — La Pieta and 
 La Misericordia. Seven-eighths of the firewood were 
 saved, and his success in this enterprise appears to 
 have greatly encouraged Count Kumford to pursue his 
 investigations into the proper management of fuel. A 
 curious essay written by him about this time contains 
 the mixed philanthropic and philosophic germ of the 
 Eoyal Institution. This is a " proposal for forming 
 in London, by private subscription, an establishment 
 for feeding the poor and giving them useful employ- 
 ment, and also for furnishing food at a cheap rate to 
 others who may stand in need of such assistance, con- 
 nected with an institution for introducing and bringing 
 forward into general use new inventions and improve- 
 ments, particularly such as relate to the management 
 of heat and 'the saving of fuel, and to various other 
 mechanical contrivances by which domestic comfort 
 and economy may be promoted." This was followed 
 
32 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 by other essays on '' Food and Feeding the Poor," 
 on '^ Eumford Soup and Soup Kitchens," and on 
 "Chimney Fireplaces." The Eumford medal was 
 now presented to the Eoyal Society " for discoveries 
 tending to improve the theories of fire, of heat, of 
 light, and of colours, and to new inventions and con- 
 trivances by which the generation and preservation 
 and management of heat and of light may be pre- 
 served." The endowment of the medal consisted of 
 dBlOOO stock, and was, I may add, presented on the 
 first award, in 1802, to its founder. Meanwhile 
 Eumford went to Ireland and fitted up laundries and 
 model kitchens, cottage fireplaces, and model lime- 
 kilns ; served in Bavaria, preserving by his firmness 
 and skill the neutrality of that country ; and finally 
 determined to return to America, but was deterred 
 from carrying out this project by his anxiety to launch 
 the Eoyal Institution. In the mind of Eumford the 
 dominant idea was originally that of bettering the 
 condition and increasing the comforts of the poor. A 
 society was formed for this purpose, and out of it 
 sprang, from a proposal of Count Eumford, a scheme 
 for forming a new "Establishment in London for 
 Diffusing the Knowledge of Useful Mechanical Im- 
 provements." The two great objects of the institution 
 were declared to be the diffusion of the knowledge 
 aforesaid, and the teaching of the application of 
 
THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 33 
 
 scientific discoveries to the improvement of arts and 
 manufactures in this country. To fulfil the first object 
 were to be exhibited full-sized working models of fire- 
 places, kitchens, stoves, grates, boilers, coppers, &c., 
 and smaller models of houses, bridges, spinning-wheels, 
 and of all " such other machinery and useful instru- 
 ments as the managers of the institution shall deem 
 worthy of the public notice." 
 
 In order to carry into effect the second object of this 
 institution — namely, '^ teaching the application of 
 science to the useful purposes of life" — a lecture-room 
 was to be fitted up " for philosophical lectures and 
 experiments, and a complete laboratory and philo- 
 sophical apparatus, with the necessary instruments, 
 will be provided for making chemical and other 
 philoso]3hical experiments." On the 7th March, 1779, 
 a meeting was held at the house of Sir Joseph Banks, 
 at which the list of original fifty-four proprietors and 
 subscribers of fifty guineas was read. In addition to 
 the names of Eumford and Banks are found on this 
 list those of Angerstein, Joseph Grote, the Duke of 
 Devonshire, Earl Spencer, Earl Holland, Lord 
 Palmerston, the Earl of Winchelsea, and William 
 Wilberforce. By the end of June, 1801, the Eoyal 
 Institution had received upwards of twenty thousand 
 pounds in subscriptions. The site of four houses had 
 been purchased in Albemarle Street, professors of 
 
84 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 chemistry, physics, and mechanics had been engaged, 
 daily lectures were delivered, a spacious chemical 
 laboratory had been erected, workshops for making 
 models had been built, and skilled workmen engaged 
 for making apparatus and models of various kinds. 
 Early in this year Count Eumford wrote to his 
 daughter that the Eoyal Institution was " not only the 
 fashion but the rage," and mentions incidentally that 
 *' we have found a nice, able man for this place as 
 lecturer — Humphry Davy." This " nice, able man " 
 was the eminent philosopher destined to explode a 
 great part of Eumford's scheme, his models, his fire- 
 places, his kitchens, his experimental cooking, and 
 his experimental dinners. In 1802 Count Eumford 
 forsook England for Bavaria — as it turned out, for 
 ever — and, like many other benefactors of his species, 
 was considered a good riddance. So far as can be 
 ascertained, the American-Bavarian Count was offen- 
 sively dictatorial in his manner, and exasperated those 
 whom he did not succeed in crushing. Having 
 shaken off Dr. Garnett, the first professor of chemistry 
 at the Eoyal Institution, he engaged Davy as an 
 assistant lecturer in chemistry, director of the labora- 
 tory, and assistant editor of the journals of the 
 Institution. The future president of the Eoyal Society 
 was granted a room in the house, coals, candles, and 
 a salary of 100 guineas per annum. 
 
THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. 35 
 
 The first interview of Davy with Count Eumford 
 was not very agreeable to the young chemist, then in 
 his twenty-third year. The intensely juvenile air of 
 the candidate, his almost provincial manners,' and a 
 slight Cornwall accent, sufficed to reduce the glacial 
 Count to a lower temperature than usual. With con- 
 siderable difficulty Davy obtained permission to give 
 a few lectures on the properties of gases. This, 
 however, was sufficient. At the first lecture the 
 variety and ingenious combination of his ideas, and 
 the fire, vivacity, clearness, and novelty with which 
 they were expounded, enchanted the few who came to 
 listen to the young lecturer, in whom they found 
 united the power of poetry, oratory, and philosophy. 
 The second lecture was crowded, and his course was 
 obliged to be removed to the large amphitheatre, 
 whither his fervid genius, and in some degree his 
 youth and good looks, drew immense audiences. The 
 ladies were charmed by the handsome young lecturer, 
 and never tired of praising the beauty of his eyes, 
 which they declared were " made for something 
 besides poring over crucibles." 
 
 Before coming to the Eoyal Institution, Davy had 
 already attained a certain celebrity by discovering the 
 anaesthetic properties of nitrous oxide, and the period 
 of his professorship was signalized by many brilhant 
 discoveries. Named titular professor of chemistry 
 
36 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 in 1802, lie only resigned the chair in 1813. He 
 delivered his last lecture on the 9th April, 1812, the 
 day after he was knighted by the Prince Eegent, and 
 the day before his marriage with Mrs. Apreece, a 
 wedding which put him in possession of a large fortune. 
 The splendour shed upon the Eoyal Institution by the 
 new professor of chemistry prevented the exhibition of 
 any regret at the entire alteration of the original plan 
 of the establishment. The Institution was no longer 
 a popular school of technical science, but became 
 almost the exclusive property of the higher classes. 
 Ladies of the highest rank, and young noblemen, 
 assiduously followed the lectures of Davy, while his 
 researches in the laboratory produced the most solid 
 results. It was there that he discovered the laws of 
 electro-chemical decomposition, and succeeded in 
 decomposing fixed alkalis — that he established the 
 true nature of chlorine and the philosophy of flame. 
 The electric battery with which the separation of 
 potassium and sodium was operated is still preserved 
 in the Eoyal Institution along with other apparatus 
 used by Davy. The delight of the investigator, on 
 seeing the globules of the new metal start through the 
 crust of potash and catch fire on contact with the air, 
 was intense. '' He could not contain his joy, and 
 danced round the room in an ecstatic transport ; it 
 was only after a while that he recovered sufficient 
 
THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 37 
 
 calmness to continue the experiment." An immense 
 electric battery was now constructed, and this heavy 
 artillery directed against resisting earths. The result 
 of experiment was to add four new metals to the list — 
 barium, strontium, calcium, and magnesium. On 
 resigning the chair of chemistry, Davy declared that 
 he only renounced teaching in order to devote himself 
 to original investigation, but after this date his life 
 was only marked by one great discovery — that of the 
 safety-lamp which bears his name. 
 
 In the year marked by the rising of that brilliant 
 star. Sir Humphry Davy, the directors of the Eoyal 
 Institution made another great success by appointing 
 to the chair of natural philosophy a man of tran- 
 scendant genius, the celebrated Dr. Young. He was 
 one of the few infant prodigies who have made a 
 mark in after-life. At two years of age he could read. 
 At four he could recite by heart numerous English 
 and Latin poems, of which last, by the way, he did 
 not then understand a word ; but by the age of four- 
 teen he had learned — besides Greek and Latin — 
 French, Italian, Hebrew, Persian, and Arabic. His 
 passion for learning was immense, and his talent 
 for overcoming difficulties astounding. On reaching 
 man's estate he was an accomplished linguist, a 
 brilliant mathematician, a botanist, a skilful musician, 
 a neat turner, and a daring circus rider. This uni- 
 
38 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 versal genius did not remain long at the Eoyal Insti- 
 tution, but yet had time to deliver a notable course 
 of lectures on Natural Philosophy before his retire- 
 ment, when his place was occupied by Dalton. The 
 famous author of the Atomic Theory was surprised, 
 like other people, at the youthful appearance of Davy, 
 and writes, characteristically enough: — " He is a very 
 agreeable and very intelligent young man, and we 
 have extremely interesting conversations of an even- 
 ing ; his principal defect — as a philosopher — is that 
 he does not smoke." 
 
 Although in the foremost rank of scientific men, 
 Dalton was far from achieving great success as a 
 lecturer, being almost utterly devoid of the fluency and 
 power of illustration possessed in such a remarkable 
 degree by Davy and Faraday. A most amusing ac- 
 count was given by Babbage of the incidents attending 
 the presentation of Dalton at Court. Firstly, he was 
 a Quaker, and would not wear the sword, which is an 
 indispensable appendage of ordinary Court dress. 
 Secondly, the robe of a Doctor of Civil Law was 
 known to be objectionable on account of its colour — 
 scarlet — one forbidden to Quakers. Luckily, it was 
 recollected that Dalton was afflicted with the peculiar 
 colour-blindness which bears his name, and that, as 
 the cherries and the leaves of a cherry-tree were to 
 him of the same colour, the scarlet gown would 
 
THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 39 
 
 present to liim no extraordinary appearance. So 
 perfect, indeed, was the colour-blindness, that this 
 most modest and simple of men, whose only pleasures 
 were a pipe and a game of bowls, after having 
 received the doctor's gown at Oxford, actually wore 
 it for several days in happy unconsciousness of the 
 effect he produced in the streets. The inventor of the 
 calculating machine, having offered to present his 
 Quaker friend, was evidently in a state of fussy 
 excitement about the result of the experiment. Poor 
 Dalton was compelled to rehearse thoroughly the 
 ceremony of presentation by the inexorable calculator, 
 who — having found the chances in favour of a faux- 
 pas to preponderate — was in a dreadful " taking " on 
 the eventful day. The calculator was completely 
 wrong. The King addressed a few remarks to Dalton, 
 who replied in fitting terms, and the tribulation of 
 Babbage was over. 
 
 While the claims of science were amply supplied by 
 the genius of Dalton, Young, and Davy, literature and 
 moral philosophy were entrusted to no ordinary 
 hands. During the years 1804-5-6, the town-talk 
 of London was divided between Young Eoscius, the 
 youthful tragedian, and the lectures on moral philo- 
 sophy delivered by the Kev. Sydney Smith, who, 
 forty years after, said, *' I did not know a word about 
 moral philosophy, but wanted two himdred pounds 
 
40 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 to furnish my house. My success was prodigious." 
 The "loudest wit I e'er was deafened with" probably 
 exaggerated his ignorance of his subject, as he had 
 passed five years at Edinburgh, and had opportunities 
 of hearing Dugald Stuart and Thomas Bromi ; but 
 in any case the lectures were a certain success in 
 the hands of the eloquent preacher, who, if himself 
 knowing little about moral philosophy, addressed an 
 audience which knew nothing at all. Of very different 
 calibre were the lectures on poetry delivered by Cole- 
 ridge. It will be recollected that it was in these 
 famous discourses that the author of " Christabel " 
 promulgated those views which have since spread 
 far and wide, and will probably hold their ground 
 when the ephemeral opponents of Shakspeare, and 
 worshippers of a second-rate poet like Schiller, have 
 for long ages been consigned to oblivion. 
 
 On the retirement of Davy, in 1813, William Thomas 
 Brand, a distinguished chemist and Copley medallist, 
 was nominated to the chair, which he so admirably 
 filled for forty years. Meanwhile, a young man whose 
 achievements were destined to invest the Eoyal Insti- 
 tution with peculiar glory had, in a manner of speak- 
 ing, received the mantle of Davy. Michael Faraday 
 was born at Newington Butts, of poor parents. His 
 father was a farrier, of whom — to the great sorrow of 
 Professor Tyndall — his son could never call to mind a 
 
THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. 41 
 
 single trait of intelligence. The boy was apprenticed 
 to a bookbinder, but in his leisure moments leamt " a 
 little chemistry and other parts of philosophy." He 
 had so far advanced as to construct for himself an 
 electrical machine, when his master happened to show 
 this specimen of ingenuity to one of his clients, Mr. 
 Dance, who obtained permission for the apprentice 
 bookbinder to be present at the four last lectures of 
 Davy. The youth listened attentively, and made such 
 notes that he was enabled to write a report of the 
 lectm^es, which he sent to Davy, with a modest request 
 that he might be employed in the laboratory of the 
 Institution. Davy was struck by the clearness and 
 exactitude of the young bookbinder, and gave him, at 
 the commencement of 1813, the post of laboratory 
 assistant. Towards the end of the year he accom- 
 panied Davy abroad, as his assistant and secretary. 
 Eeturning to London in 1815, he recommenced his 
 duties in the laboratory of the Institution, was 
 appointed Director of the Laboratory in 1825, and 
 two years later became one of the regular professors 
 of the Institution, where his scientific researches, like 
 those of Davy, were made at the cost of the Society 
 alone, without any assistance on the part of the 
 State. 
 
 The creed of this great philosopher, who had the 
 glory of holding aloft among the nations the scientific 
 
42 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 name of England for a period of forty years, is thus 
 clearly and briefly expressed : — " I have long held an 
 opinion, almost amountmg to conviction, in common, 
 I believe, with many other lovers of natural know- 
 ledge, that the various forms under which the forces 
 of matter are made manifest have one common origin 
 — in other words, are so directly related and mutually 
 dependent, that they are convertible, as it were, into 
 one another, and possess equivalents of power in their 
 action." This is what Professor Tyndall, in his eloge 
 of '* Faraday as a Discoverer," proclaims as the jewel 
 contained in the famous paper " On the Magnetization 
 of Light, and the Illumination of the Lines of Mag- 
 netic Force." The same eloquent expositor does 
 ample justice to the prophetic element in Faraday's 
 intellect : — *' Faraday was more than a philosopher, 
 and often wrought by an inspiration to be understood 
 by sympathy alone. The prophetic element in his 
 character occasionally coloured, and even injured (?) 
 the utterance of the man of science ; but, subtracting 
 that element — though you might have conferred on 
 him intellectual symmetry — you would have destroyed 
 his motive force." 
 
 Among the many achievements of Faraday are the 
 demonstration of the condensibility of many gases 
 and his investigations into the reciprocal relations of 
 heat, Hght, magnetism, and electricity. Not the least 
 
THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 43 
 
 noble quality of this remarkable man was his marked 
 preference of a purely scientific career over the 
 acquirement of wealth. With the reputation acquired 
 by the year 1832, he might have made several 
 thousands a year by ordinary professional work, but 
 considering all the time not actually devoted to 
 experiment or to demonstration as a sacrifice of 
 original investigation, Faraday lived and died poor 
 in the world's goods. 
 
 At the present day the Eoyal Institution maintains 
 its renown — thanks to Professor Tyndall, who, by his 
 work on "Heat Considered as a Mode of Motion," has 
 proved himself no unworthy successor of Davy and 
 Faraday. The late President, Sir Henry Holland, 
 clarum et venerahile nomen, was, on his decease, 
 replaced by the Duke of Northumberland, whose keen 
 interest in scientific inquiry is well known. The im- 
 portant office of Treasurer and Honorary Secretary — 
 on which to a great extent the success of the Institution 
 depends — is now ably filled by Mr. W. Spottiswoode. 
 
 The Eoyal Institution, in addition to the attractions 
 of its lectures, possesses a model-room, a newspaper- 
 room, a reading-room, and a library of 36,000 
 volumes, presided over by Mr. Benjamin Vincent. 
 
 As might be expected in a highly-fashionable insti- 
 tution, membership is not acquired at a cheap rate, 
 but candidates who are proposed by four members are 
 
44 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 immediately admitted to the privileges of the Institu- 
 tion, and pay on election ten guineas (five guineas as 
 an admission fee and five guineas as the first annual 
 payment). This payment secures admission to all 
 lectures delivered in the Institution, to the libraries, 
 and to the weekly evening meetings, with certain 
 other privileges — such as the right of admitting two 
 friends to the Friday evening meetings — a privilege 
 often abused on occasions when a lion of unusual 
 magnitude is about to roar. An inferior kind of 
 member is the annual subscriber, who enjoys most of 
 the privileges above named, with the exception of 
 admission to the weekly meetings, from which sublime 
 gatherings he is excluded. Other persons are suffered 
 to subscribe to the afternoon lectures at the very 
 moderate price of two guineas for all courses of 
 lectures from Christmas to Midsummer, but are not 
 allowed to show themselves elsewhere than in the 
 lecture theatre, and never there on a Friday night. 
 
 This weekly meeting is a wonderful combination of 
 science and society, of physics and fashion, albeit once 
 in a while a printer or photogra^iher manages to 
 obtain permission to dilate on the excellence of his 
 wares, and to thus advertise himself. Nevertheless, 
 in spite of an occasional drawback of this kind, the 
 Friday evening lectures are of sufficiently high class 
 to please aU but a purely scientific audience. It is 
 
THE BOYAL INSTITUTION. 45 
 
 clear that to gratify the members — who are, after all, 
 mere flesh and blood, and not philosophical abstrac- 
 tions — concessions to pojDular taste and feeling must 
 occasionally be made. Thus, while all may equally 
 enjoy a lecture on the Acoustic Transparency and 
 Opacity of the Atmosphere — a subject which, in its 
 practical relation to fog- signals, is full of general 
 interest — those of a higher and drier turn of mind 
 experience ineffable delight when Professor Sylvester 
 holds forth on the conversion of circular into parallel 
 motion ; while the noble army of simple lion-hunters 
 rush not only to hear, but to see. Sir Samuel Baker. 
 On this particular night I find all the approaches to 
 Albemarle Street blocked by carriages, and on making 
 my way into the Eoyal Institution find the theatre 
 fully occupied at a quarter-past eight o'clock, or three 
 quarters of an hour before the time of the lecture. 
 With the exception of a few seats reserved for the 
 two boards of Managers and Visitors, the hall is 
 crowded to the ceiling, every avenue being already 
 jammed with a dense mass of people, among whom 
 gay opera cloaks and Angot caps largely predominate 
 over black coats and snowy shirt-fronts. A few young 
 men are visible, but after standing about for a while 
 and finding it impossible to approach their far 
 friend, these youths vanish through the crowded 
 doorway and are seen no more, thus leaving the 
 
46 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 entire field clear to the British matron, who prevails 
 to-night to an extent that would have struck terror 
 into the soul of poor Nathaniel Hawthorne. There 
 is no inconsiderable amount of crowding and pushing 
 in this elegant throng, and I am forcibly reminded of 
 the saying of a certain philosopher — who has seen 
 men and cities, and the customs of them — that '' a 
 well-dressed crowd is a rude crowd." 
 
 So thoroughly and completely packed is every 
 bench, step, and doorway, that it occurs to me as a 
 piece of singular luck that no formidable philosophic 
 apparatus is necessary for a dissertation on the Slave 
 Trade of the White Nile, as the space often occupied 
 by Professor TyndalFs tubs is packed full of chairs, 
 to the great relief of a number of ladies. Sir Samuel 
 Baker delivers his views on the Slave Trade to an 
 evidently sympathetic audience, easily put into good 
 humour by being told that England was the first 
 na;tion to set the world the noble example of liberating 
 her slaves — a statement, by the way, not precisely 
 accurate, inasmuch as in 1780 was passed an Act for 
 the gradual extinction of slavery in Pennsylvania, an 
 example followed four years later by the States of New 
 Jersey and Connecticut, and in 1793 the French 
 abolished slavery in Hayti, forty years before its 
 abolition in our West Indian Colonies. No doubt to 
 those who had never heard much about slavery the 
 
THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 47 
 
 remarks on its cruelty and injustice were interesting 
 enough, but I, infelix, have had my ears too often 
 pierced by shrill American voices, raised to shrieking 
 pitch on this subject, during " the late trouble." Sir 
 Samuel Baker is an excellent advocate for a new 
 crusade against slavery, and produces ample evidence 
 as to the atmosphere of general rascality evolved by 
 slave-holding and slave-dealing, but his arguments, 
 though true enough, are not very new. The lectm^er, 
 however, possesses the excellent gift of carrying his 
 audience along with him, and sends them home happy 
 in the conviction that they have assisted at an anti- 
 slavery demonstration. 
 
 The claims of science are amply vindicated on the 
 following Friday by Dr. Wright, an experimentalist of 
 known boldness, who delivers a discourse on the 
 *' Chemical Changes Accompanying the Smelting of 
 Iron in the Blast-Furnace." Dr. Wright has enjoyed 
 the advantage of pursuing his investigations in concert 
 with Mr. Lowthian Bell, a gentleman well known by 
 his inquiries into the chemistry of the blast-furnace, 
 as well as by his office as President of the Iron and 
 Steel Institute, and his gigantic enterprises in the 
 production of iron and chemicals. Although of little 
 interest to the general public, this lecture commands 
 a good attendance of experts, who follow Dr. Wright 
 very attentively through his exposition, and endure, 
 
48 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 without a murmur, an atmosphere heavily charged 
 with noxious gases. 
 
 I have already observed that, in addition to the 
 Friday evening meetings, where lions of the first 
 magnitude roar by turns, several courses of afternoon 
 lectures, in which actual teaching is combined with 
 attractive experiments, are given during the session. 
 These lectm^ers and their subjects attract audiences 
 of varying strength. Looking in, one afternoon, to 
 hear a lecture on Palaeontology by Professor Duncan, 
 I find the theatre but thinly attended, in spite of the 
 interesting character of the lecture and its eloquent 
 treatment by the expositor. This apathy may perhaps 
 be explained by the difficulty of inspiring ordinary 
 human beings with a taste for science, pure and 
 simple ; as I well recollect that when — at the dawn 
 of the Darwinian system — palseontological lectures 
 were unavoidably associated with the controversy 
 initiated by that philosopher, every lecture directly or 
 indirectly bearing on the theory of Development 
 commanded a numerous and fashionable audience. 
 Attentive listeners sought, in the discourses of Pro- 
 fessor Owen, for facts and deductions more or less 
 damaging to the , bold theory advanced in the now 
 famous " Origin of Species by Natural Selection." 
 But the uproar occasioned by the " Essays and 
 Eeviews," and Mr. Frederic Harrison's review of the 
 
THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 49 
 
 reviewers in the '' Westminster," has nearly subsided, 
 and the polemical element has faded out of geological 
 discussion. Denuded of its controversial spice, palaeon- 
 tology no longer possesses its whilom attractiveness, 
 and the audience of to-day is apparently composed of 
 those who care for the subject for its own sake alone. 
 Professor Duncan is discoursing on that friend of my 
 youth, the ichthyosaurus, and in a few neat and 
 graphic sentences describes the manners, customs, 
 and peculiar structure of the great fish-lizard, with 
 whale -like body, crocodile head, and monstrous 
 saucer-eyes. The plesiosaur with the outline described 
 by the late Professor Buckland as that of a *' turtle 
 with a serpent pulled through it " next engages atten- 
 tion, and is described very graphically as a *' long- 
 shore-man" of the diluvial period, a prowler on the 
 edges of the great deep, and a snapper-up of uncon- 
 sidered trifles. Plesiosaurus disposed of, the inevitable 
 pterodactyle turns up, the flying lizard of predatory 
 habits, the possible progenitor of birds, and the certain 
 original of the heraldic dragon and griffin. The shape 
 of the head and the gradual adoption by this gruesome 
 creature of a breast-bone give still more coherence 
 to the theory that pterodactyle is a lizard which is 
 rapidly making up his mind to become a bird. These 
 particulars, and a dissertation on coral islands, make 
 up the body of an interesting lecture, which fails, 
 
 E 
 
50 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 however, to warm the audience into enthusiasm. 
 Perhaps people don't care for coral islands, or may- 
 hap, to parody a line of Mr. Bret Harte — '' the ptero- 
 dactyWs played out." 
 
 On another raw afternoon, about three p.m., I 
 betake myself to Albemarle Street, and become the 
 s]3ectator of a widely different scene. The theatre is 
 akeady full of eager visitors and thirsters after science, 
 when elucidated by those brilliant experiments which 
 excite the admiration and envy of Professor Tyndall's 
 imitators — I had almost written rivals, forgetting that 
 in this country, and in his own particular line of 
 physical demonstration. Dr. John Tyndall, F.R.S., 
 philosopher and cragsman, has no rival. At a three 
 o'clock lecture many ladies are, of course, present, in 
 all the variety of gorgeous array at present in fashion, 
 for however severe may be the mental attributes of 
 these fair students of physical science, no sternness is 
 ever visible in their outward appearance. Pending 
 the arrival of the professor of natural philosophy, 
 these young ladies are chatting pleasantly among 
 themselves. Are they talking science, I wonder, or 
 discussing the merits of the Leonardo da Vinci hat, 
 or the grace and style communicated by the Nor- 
 wegian waistbelt, with all sorts of turnip watches and 
 other quaint odds and ends dangling from it ? Do 
 they know much about liquids and gases, or have 
 
THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 51 
 
 they come to learn ? Verily, I know not. The well- 
 known lecture table is covered with apparatus, and a 
 huge bath tub occupies a considerable space. Mr. 
 Cottrell, the laboratory assistant, is very busy, till, 
 punctual to the stroke of three, a tall slender man, of 
 undeniably Scottish aspect, steps to his place behind 
 the lecture table, and a murmur of applause proclaims 
 the satisfaction of the audience at the arrival of the 
 successor of Faraday. The lecture, interesting in 
 itself, is rendered doubly so by numerous and beautiful 
 experiments, which succeed with infallible certainty. 
 Perhaps the listeners to Professor Tyndall are accus- 
 tomed to see his experiments '^ come off" in this way, 
 but the traveller in search of science often sees experi- 
 ments — chemical, physical, and others — break down 
 with provoking perversity. No approach to anything 
 like failure occurs to-day, and the aj^plause is great on 
 the light- carrying power of water being demonstrated 
 by an experiment of singular beauty. The prescribed 
 hour ap23ears unnaturally short when the clock strikes, 
 the lecture is closed by a short sentence, and, amid a 
 mighty rustling of silks, the audience i^repares to 
 depart. For a few minutes a talkative crowd blocks 
 up the wide staircase and hall, and a sort of scramble 
 takes place for the carriages of which Albemarle Street 
 is full. Fashion takes its departure, and, having laid 
 in science enough to last for a week, leaves the pro- 
 
52 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 fessor to enjoy himself in liis admirably- appointed 
 laboratory. 
 
 As I wend my way homewards I reflect on the large 
 amomit of good solid work that has been done in the 
 laboratories of the Eoyal Institution during the last 
 seventy years, and on the effect produced by the dis- 
 semination of scientific knowledge among the upper 
 classes. As a firm believer in the doctrine that all 
 revolutions in taste must take their incejption above 
 and gradually percolate through the several strata of 
 society, I keenly sympathize with the efforts of the 
 Eoyal Institution towards inoculating the grand monde 
 with a love for scientific investigation. Following the 
 example of the sun — which first illumines the moun- 
 tain tops, and later in the day penetrates into the 
 deeper valleys — knowledge, striking first on the upper 
 social regions, gradually descends, until all sorts and 
 conditions of men are irradiated by its peaceful light. 
 
( 53 ) 
 
 III. 
 
 THE SOCIETY OF AETS. 
 
 Like its younger sister in Albemarle Street, the 
 Society of Arts is a notable instance of that drifting 
 faculty which exercises so great an influence on all 
 human institutions. Launched with widely-differing 
 objects on the stream of events, these societies have 
 in a certain measure displaced each other. The Eoyal 
 Institution, now devoted to literature, and in a greater 
 degree to pure science, was originally founded to 
 promote those objects which have been fostered by the 
 elder society, which, drifting away from Akt in its 
 highest sense, has taken in hand industrial art, and 
 applied science. One single comparison will demon- 
 strate my meaning. In the beginning of the century 
 — under the auspices of Count Kumford — the Koyal 
 Institution undertook to improve the dwellings of the 
 working classes, to warm and ventilate workhouses, 
 hospitals, and cottages, and to exhibit and patronize 
 
54 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 improvements in the economical consumption of fuel 
 and the teaching of culinary science. In the present 
 year the Society of Arts, founded originally to 
 encourage young artists, has offered premiums for 
 the best kinds of culinary and domestic warming 
 apparatus, and has directly fostered attempts to 
 instruct the people of England in the best methods of 
 preparing food. 
 
 The Society of Arts has now existed for a hundred and 
 twenty years, and owes its foundation to Mr. William 
 Shipley, a landscape painter, who, from a " well- 
 grounded persuasion of the extensive utility of the art 
 of drawing to this nation, erected the Academy in the 
 Strand, opposite to Exeter Change." By the efforts 
 of this gentleman a meeting was held in 1754 at 
 Kawthmell's coffee-house, to consider the propriety of 
 establishing a Society for the Encouragement of Arts, 
 Manufactures, and Commerce. 
 
 It was resolved to bestow premiums on a certain 
 number of boys and girls, and an advertisement was 
 issued accordingly. The industrial element, however, 
 was not lost sight of, as while a number of drawing 
 prizes were advertised, premiums were offered for 
 the discovery of cobalt in England, the growth of 
 madder, and the manufacture of buff leather. The 
 primary object was the encouragement of art, but the 
 view taken of the " polite arts " was a sufficiently 
 
THE SOCIETY OF ARTS. 55 
 
 wide one, inasmuch as the premiums offered under 
 this head were ultimately grouped under 196 classes. 
 Many prizes were awarded for drawing, and among 
 the recipients was Bichard Cosway, who afterwards 
 became a Eoyal Academician, and a portrait painter 
 of repute. It was soon found necessary to confine the 
 objects of study to certain models, and as no public 
 museum or National Gallery then existed, individual 
 collections, such as that formed by the Duke of Eich- 
 mond, were selected for study. 
 
 On the consolidation of the Society the artists of 
 London applied for permission to hold an exhibition 
 in the Society's rooms. This permission was granted, 
 and exhibitions continued to be held for several years. 
 This annual inspection of the works of rival artists, 
 who formed themselves into separate bodies, excited 
 emulation, directed public attention towards their 
 works, and ultimately secured for them the royal 
 patronage and protection. These first exhibitions of 
 pictures by native artists in the rooms of the Society . 
 of Arts may, therefore, be regarded as the origin of 
 that exhibition of the Eoyal Academy which now 
 forms one of the great events of the London season. 
 
 While the encouragement of art — pure and simple 
 — thus formed the main object of the Society, investi- 
 gation was directed towards many practical subjects 
 related to the central idea. Endeavours were made 
 
56 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 to improve the materials employed by artists, and 
 much attention was devoted to the various engraving 
 processes as they gradually came into vogue. Wood 
 engraving, aquatint, and mezzotint, were the subject 
 of anxious care, as were improvements in pigments, 
 oils, and varnishes. 
 
 Bronze casting and chasing, iron castings, and 
 artistic metal work, were also encouraged, and at a 
 later date, when Alois Senefelder, an actor of Munich, 
 discovered lithography, the new art was first intro- 
 duced to this country under the auspices of the Society 
 of Arts. Steel engraving was also first taken seriously 
 in hand by Mr. Charles Warren, chairman of the Fine 
 Arts Committee, who, at the suggestion of Mr. Gill, 
 chairman of the Mechanics Committee, adopted a new 
 method of treating steel plates. Previously to this, 
 many attempts had been made to engrave on steel. 
 Albert Diirer is said to have etched on steel, and 
 there are four plates etched by this artist, impressions 
 of which exist in the British Museum, and which in 
 all books of art are recorded as having been executed 
 on steel. In the attempts to revive this art, pieces 
 of saw-blades were selected as the most promising 
 material, but these efforts were attended with very 
 little success. A Mr. Eaimbach then endeavoured to 
 engrave on blocks of steel, but without achieving any 
 material advance. Mr. Gill now drew the attention 
 
THE SOCIETY OF AETS. 57 
 
 of Mr. Warren to the method employed at Birming- 
 ham in the manufacture of ornamental snuffers and 
 other articles of cast steel. The process employed at 
 Birmingham was *' to subject the steel, after having 
 been rolled into sheets, to the process of decarboniza- 
 tion, by means of which it is converted to a very pure 
 soft iron, being then made into the required instru- 
 ment or other article. The ornamental work is 
 engraved or impressed on the soft metallic surface, 
 which, by cementation with proper materials, is 
 again converted suj)erficially into steel. Mr. Warren 
 modified this process, and obtained thin plates of 
 steel capable of being acted upon by acids and cut 
 with the graver, without destroying the cutting edge 
 of the tool — as was the case with the saw-blades. 
 The resulting plate yielded a greatly increased 
 number of impressions." When brought to perfec- 
 tion, steel plates were found equal to the production 
 of ten or twelve times the number of impressions 
 yielded by copper plates. Capital was invested in the 
 production of works of a high class, with the effect of 
 spreading far and wide through the country myriads 
 of prints calculated to elevate and improve the taste 
 of the people. This process of conversion and recon- 
 version of steel was soon afterwards applied by Perkins 
 to the production of steel rollers. These were first 
 softened and then pressed into the engraved surface of 
 
58 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 a hardened steel block, and having acquired a design 
 in relief were themselves hardened in their turn, and 
 by being applied to softened steel plates produced 
 almost indefinite multiplication of the original en- 
 graved plate. For commercial purposes this inven- 
 tion proved of immense value in the production of 
 bank notes, receipts, and postage stamps. 
 
 To ignore the exertions of the Society of Arts in the 
 direction of agriculture, and especially arboriculture, 
 would be to omit an important page in its history. 
 The introduction of new varieties of grasses and roots 
 was sedulously encouraged, while drill ploughs, the 
 drainage of land, root slicers, chaff cutters, scarifiers, 
 reaping machines, threshing machines, and means of 
 harvesting hay and corn in wet seasons, were all 
 subjects of premiums. Big things and little things 
 came in for their share of attention. In the early 
 days of the Society sheep were marked with tar, to 
 the great loss of wool-growers. The Society sought 
 strenuously to modify and improve the mode of 
 marking sheep, and meanwhile instituted a crusade 
 against that bold invader, the Norway rat, who had 
 recently overrun the country. 
 
 The preservation of timber was an object of earnest 
 solicitude. In this age, when coal has effectually 
 displaced wood as a heat producer, and iron has been 
 successfully applied to the construction of houses and 
 
THE SOCIETY OF ARTS. 59 
 
 ships, it is difficult to realize the anxiety of our fore- 
 fathers at seeing whole forests destroyed for smelting 
 purposes. For a long time past the work of destruction 
 had been going on, when the Society of Arts stepped 
 in to advocate the planting of trees on a large scale. 
 The production of oak was a special object of the 
 Society's attention, the planting of acorns was carried 
 on to a very large extent, and gold medals for raising 
 that description of timber were awarded to many 
 noblemen and gentlemen, among whom were the Earl 
 of Wilton, the Marquis of Tichfield, Mr. Morse, Mr. 
 Curwen, and others. The cultivation of the ash — for 
 which the Bishop of Llandaff received a gold medal — 
 of the Scotch fir and larch, and of fruit trees generally, 
 received active encouragement. Under the auspices 
 of the Society millions of trees were planted, to the 
 enrichment and adornment of many previously barren 
 slopes. It is worthy of remark that to a neglect of 
 these precautions is assigned an actual change of the 
 climatic conditions of parts of Italy, and that the 
 reduction of the Arno to an insignificant stream is 
 ascribed to the reckless denudation of the mountains 
 among which that historic river takes its rise. 
 Travellers in Switzerland also have not failed to 
 observe in the side valleys many relics of ancient 
 mines, deserted, at last, because all the wood within 
 carrying distance had been recklessly destroyed 
 
60 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 without any attempt being made to replace it by 
 planting. 
 
 Considerable effort was devoted to encouraging the 
 introduction and culture of spices into the British 
 possessions. The cinnamon tree was introduced into 
 Jamaica ; the nutmeg plant into St. Vincent ; the 
 clove tree into Trinidad; the mango and the bread- 
 fruit tree were also planted in the West Indies. 
 Attention was also directed towards such imports as 
 were capable of discovery, manufacture, and culture 
 at home. 
 
 Cobalt was discovered in Cornwall ; buff leather 
 and its manufacture improved ; copper and brass 
 vessels were tinned ; and hemp, flax, and madder were 
 cultivated for the use of our manufacturers. " Saw- 
 mills were built ; our fish supply improved ; and the 
 curing of fish encouraged. Upon the fish trade alone 
 the Society expended many thousands of pounds, and 
 succeeded in establishing a regular supply to the 
 London markets." 
 
 During the greater part of its career the Society 
 thus addressed itself to the task of fostering the useful 
 arts. One condition, however, was, in the early days 
 of the Society, rigidly insisted upon. The inventor 
 who sought to obtain recognition of his discovery was 
 obliged to forego the idea of patenting his work. What 
 was given to the world by the assistance of the Society 
 
THE SOCIETY OF ARTS. 61 
 
 of Arts, was to be given freely and openly for the 
 benefit of all. Although this principle would find 
 many and eloquent advocates at the present day, a 
 period intervened during which it was found necessary 
 to make concessions to patentees. The introduction 
 of steam as a motive power led to a sudden and 
 immense development of mechanical ingenuity, and 
 swelled the prospective reward of a successful inventor 
 to such large proportions that it was no longer 
 probable that men would work for honour and glory 
 alone. Eventually patentees were permitted to read 
 papers before the Society of Arts, which, dmdng the 
 greater part of a century, continued to take an active 
 interest in advancing the interests of science, and in 
 affording aid and countenance to the other societies 
 of less catholic tendencies, which sprang rapidly into 
 existence. As has been already pointed out, the Koyal 
 Academy in its youth owed much to the Society of 
 Arts ; and it is worthy of note that, not only was the 
 first exliibition of the works of rival artists held in the 
 Society's rooms, but the first collection of photographs 
 exhibited there in 1853. The Society still maintains 
 a liberal tone, and is generous enough to grant the 
 use of its handsome room to many societies for the 
 purpose of holding their various meetings. 
 
 If the Society in the Adelphi merit a place of honour 
 as a promoter of other societies, still more does it 
 
62 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 demand notice as the mother of exhibitions. Its 
 exhibitional maternity was shown in this wise. In 
 the year 1841 the Society of Arts, like many other 
 originally active bodies, had shown signs of falling 
 into decrepitude. For many of the purposes for which 
 it was originally established its office had been filled 
 by other institutions, which, being less expansive in 
 their views, appeared likely to act towards the mother 
 society like young ducks hatched by a barn-door hen, 
 and take to the stream of the future without consult- 
 ing the feelings of their foster-parent. The Society 
 was obviously falling into the sere and yellow leaf, 
 and it was clear that something had to be done to 
 rejuvenate it. A committee was appointed to revise 
 the working of the Society, and that body recommended 
 that a Council to manage the affairs of the Society 
 should be instituted. The committee in its report 
 also gave expression to the conviction " that the 
 Society cannot continue to exist on the plan of j)ro- 
 ceeding which is at present pursued," and that "the 
 object of the Society is the promotion of the useful 
 arts rather than the personal gratification of the 
 members." It was further recommended that six 
 commitees should be established, of five members 
 each, and many other valuable pieces of advice were 
 tendered, but nothing came of all this for the time 
 being. At length, however, measures were taken for 
 
THE SOCIETY OF ARTS. 63 
 
 obtaining a Eoyal Charter of Incorporation, finally 
 granted in 1847, and in the mean time it was proposed 
 that an Exhibition of English Industry, analogous to 
 those held abroad, should be instituted. The first 
 action taken in this direction was an offer of special 
 prizes for articles of manufacture, and a special fund 
 was obtained for this purpose by private subscription. 
 It was deemed necessary to stimulate the makers of 
 English pottery to efforts towards an artistic com- 
 bination of form and colour. A committee of artists 
 was appointed to adjudge the prize for a tea-service, 
 and this was awarded to a set designed by " Felix 
 Summerly," and manufactured by Messrs. Minton. 
 The identity of '* Felix Summerly" was then disclosed, 
 and the Society's silver medal was presented to Mr. 
 Henry Cole (who has since received the Companion- 
 ship of the Bath), on the 12th of June, 1846. From 
 this date a notable change came over the constitution 
 of the Society. Yearly exhibitions were held. It is 
 true that these were of a sectional character, and only 
 proposed to illustrate certain branches of English 
 industry; but it is not the less true that they were 
 the immediate precursors of the Great Exhibition of 
 1851. Prizes for modern industrial art were offered, 
 and were eagerly competed for. Manufactures and 
 artistic productions were got together at great ex- 
 penditm-e of cash and industry, with the effect of 
 
64 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 rapidly increasing the number of members. In 1847, 
 the members of the Society numbered scarce five 
 hundred ; but within three years these numbers had 
 tripled. But, in 1849, there were " croakers " in the 
 camp. Not a few of the ruling spirits were inclined 
 to '' look back from the plough." As an instance 
 of this may be quoted a recommendation of the 
 Finance Committee of 1849, that " the exhibitions be 
 discontinued," and another, passed in December of 
 the same year, that "it is expedient to reconsider the 
 policy of an Art Manufacture Exhibition in the year 
 1850." But the advanced spirits of the Society were 
 not to be baulked. Against the council of the ancients 
 a formidable opposition was organized. Mr. Cole 
 resigned his seat on the Council, and, biding his time 
 till the general meeting, effected a noteworthy cou]^ 
 d'etat. On election day the reactionary party were 
 ousted by an immense majority, and an entirely new 
 Council elected. The Exhibition of Ancient and 
 Mediaeval Art was duly held, and resulted in a splendid 
 success, and a complete revolution of the financial 
 condition of the association. In 1850 the debts of the 
 Society amounted to ^2402, an amount that was 
 reduced in 1851 to 5S1696, since when the Society has 
 become not only solvent, but possessed of a large 
 accumulation of capital, which — in the opinion of 
 many of the members, now amounting to over 3000 — 
 
THE SOCIETY OF AKTS. 65 
 
 it is somewhat chary in dispensing. This great storm, 
 which completely altered the condition of the Society 
 of Arts, and culminated in the Great Exhibition of 
 1851, can thus be distinctly traced to Mr. Felix 
 Summerly's ^' tea-cup." 
 
 The merit of initiating the idea of an International 
 Exhibition has been often warmly contested, but there 
 is no longer any doubt that the original proposition 
 was made to the Committee of the Society of Arts in 
 1844, by Sir William Eothergill Cooke. There is no 
 question that the idea of this gentleman was clearly 
 that of an International Exhibition, at that time 
 declined by the Committee of the Society of Arts, 
 but at a later period adopted by that body with the 
 sanction and co-operation of the late Prince Consort. 
 
 In the month of June, 1849, the secretary, Mr. J. 
 Scott Eussell, stated at the annual meeting, in the 
 presence of the late Prince Consort, that, owing to the 
 yearly increasing success of the Society's Exhibition, 
 the Council had no doubt of their being able to carry 
 out the plan originally proposed for holding a great 
 national exhibition of the products of British industry 
 in 1851. This statement led to frequent communica- 
 tions between His Eoyal Highness the president, and 
 various members, with the ultimate result of expand- 
 ing the plan to international dimensions. The Prince 
 Consort, as president of the Society, brought the 
 
DO SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 scheme officially under the notice of the Government ; 
 but in the mean while the Society of Arts was not 
 idle, and had already entered into a contract for 
 building a convenient edifice, when a royal commission 
 was issued. Mr. Scott Eussell and Mr.— now Sir — 
 Stafford Northcote were appointed secretaries. An 
 executive committee was formed, consisting of "Henry 
 Cole, Charles Wentworth Dilke the younger, George 
 Drew, Francis Fuller, and Eobert Stephenson, with 
 Matthew Digby Wyatt as secretary." Meanwhile the 
 Society of Arts had organized the financial arrange- 
 ments necessary for carrying out the scheme, but the 
 immediate connection of the Society with the Exhibi- 
 tion now came to an end ; the child had outgrown its 
 nurse, and required nothing short of a royal commis- 
 sion to manage it. How well the Exhibition of 1851 
 was managed, and how after the final adjustment 
 of accounts a surplus of ^186,438 18s. 6tZ. remained 
 in hand, are now matters of history, as well as the 
 expenditure of that sum as part of the money 
 devoted to the purchase and development of the Gore 
 House estate. 
 
 Since the launching of the Great Exhibition, the 
 Society of Arts has done much good work in promoting 
 industrial art and encouraging inventive genius. It is 
 true that much of its work has been taken out of its 
 hands by the societies and museums to which it has 
 
THE SOCIETY OF ARTS. 67 
 
 given rise. Among these is the PhotograjDhic Society, 
 whose inception was due to the exhibition organized by 
 Dr. Diamond. The South Kensington Museum itself 
 may be fairly regarded as an offshoot of the Mediaeval 
 Exhibition, while the Government Department of 
 Science and Art is dii'ectly descended from the parent 
 body. But the mission of the Society is not to repose 
 on its laurels. It comes to the fore with a formidable 
 list of premiums, at the head of which is a series of 
 gold medals and prizes of ^50 for improved cooking and 
 warming apparatus; ^6500 are devoted to this purpose, 
 and have been placed at the disposal of the Society by 
 a single member. A large number of prizes in money, 
 and many gold and silver medals, are also offered to 
 inventors. Much interest is excited at the present 
 moment concerning the award of the Albert Gold 
 Medal, a prize established in memory of the late 
 Prince Consort, to reward " distinguished merit in 
 promoting arts, manufactm-es, or commerce." This 
 medal was first presented in 1864 to Sir Eowland Hill, 
 K.C.B., in 1865 to the late Emperor of the French, 
 and in 1866 to Faraday. Since then, this distinguish- 
 ing mark of the Society's appreciation has been con- 
 ferred on Wheatstone, Whitworth, Liebig, Henry Cole, 
 Henry Bessemer, and has this year been awarded by 
 the council to Dr. C. W. Siemens, " for his researches 
 in connection with the laws of heat, and the practical 
 
68 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 applications of them to furnaces used in the arts ; 
 and for his improvements in the manufacture of iron ; 
 and generally for the services rendered by him in 
 connection with economization of fuel in its various 
 applications to manufactures and the arts." 
 
 For some years the Society's examinations, con- 
 ducted through local institutions about the country, 
 have assisted the spread of general education, and 
 now that this work is being more completely executed 
 by the University local examinations, the Society has 
 set on foot a scheme of technological examinations, 
 which it is hoped may bear good fruit. 
 
 The members of the Society are supplied with ample 
 entertainment by the ordinary meetings, the lectm^es 
 endowed by Dr. Cantor, and the meetings of the 
 African, Indian, and chemical sections. For the very 
 moderate sum of two guineas per annum they are 
 allowed to attend meetings, to introduce two visitors, 
 and moreover to receive a copy of the weekly journal 
 published by the Society. Prior to 1852, no Journal 
 of the Society of Arts existed, the Society being content 
 with a somewhat meagre volume of Transactions. 
 With the new era of prosperity the Journal was hap- 
 pily inaugurated, and now supplies members of the 
 Society with a complete record of the weekly proceed- 
 ings, together with such admixture of general scientific 
 or technical matter as may be deemed necessary by 
 
THE SOCIETY OF ARTS. 69 
 
 the editor, Mr. H. T. Wood. With the growth of the 
 Society its organ has, of course, increased in import- 
 ance, and during the last year or two, especially, has 
 been considerably improved. Not the least valuable 
 part of the Journal is the preservation of the discus- 
 sions which generally ensue on the reading of a paper, 
 and occasionally exceed in importance the paper 
 itself. 
 
 In the course of my travels I have had many 
 opportunities of enjoying the discussions at John 
 Street, Adelphi. Just before entering the spacious 
 and handsome " great room," adorned by Barry's 
 well-kno^Ti pictures, I find a notice that any gentle- 
 man wishing to take part in the discussion should 
 make his name known to the secretary, Mr. P. Le 
 Neve Foster. This notice has always appeared to me 
 as a sort of '' fiery cross," or summons to immediate 
 action, calling upon me then and there to "pull my- 
 self together," collect my scattered wits, and hold 
 myself in readiness to jump up at the right moment 
 and contradict everybody. As a rule, I succeed in 
 crushing this feeling, and follow my general plan of 
 retiring into myself, and waiting until called for ; but 
 there are moments when my amazement at finding 
 that I understand the subject overcomes my natural 
 timidity, and I say, " Ha ! ha ! " among the captains. 
 
 Inasmuch as the ordinary meetings are understood 
 
70 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 to be held for the exjDress ]3iirpose of ventilating new 
 ideas or pet crotchets, it is only natural to suppose 
 that the fun of these meetings exists in the discussion. 
 To those of an unregenerate nature there is always 
 something objectionable in being talked to, or talked 
 at, without a chance of reply. There is no man whom 
 I love and revere more than my friend the Eev. Mr. 
 Chasuble. He is a good classic and a good fellow, 
 generous and hearty, a good logician, and a worthy 
 gentleman, whom I love everywhere but in the pulpit, 
 where he has it all his own way. I admire Professor 
 Stillmore immensely, and love to hear him discourse 
 excellent science, except on those occasions when he 
 appears behind the lecture-table as another and very 
 inferior being to the real Stillmore, whom I delight to 
 cultivate. Holding these heathenish views, and loving 
 not to sit at the feet of any Gamaliel whatsoever, I 
 enjoy myself hugely at the Society of Arts. I know 
 that, so soon as the lecture is announced, somebody 
 will make up his mind to come down and contradict 
 all the statements advanced. No sooner does the 
 victim appear at the reading-desk than I glance round 
 the room, and often succeed in detecting those who 
 come to argue — if not *' to scoff." These critics know 
 all about the subject, whether it be Frozen Beef or a 
 Channel Tunnel. They become feverish if the reader 
 of the paper be slow or at all inarticulate, and they 
 
THE SOCIETY OF AETS. 71 
 
 look keenly at his diagrams, meaning to make short 
 work of those productions in due season. For his 
 allotted space the reader is suffered to proceed without 
 let or hindrance ; but no sooner has he made an end 
 of his reading, than well-informed gentlemen — who 
 have either been listening attentively or, as is more 
 probable, been thinking over what they should say 
 when he had done — spring up and proceed to demolish 
 him bit by bit. After a while, a reaction sets in, 
 the friends of the lecturer support him more or less 
 warmly — generally less — and the battle becomes 
 general all along the line. The hero of the evening 
 has the right of reply, so that the much-valued privi- 
 lege of the last word rests with him. 
 
 Under these regulations, there is often much healthy 
 talk, and occasionally some good "tossing and goring" 
 — a quotation which reminds me that its author was 
 one of the early debaters of the Adelphi, and that a 
 " subject relating to mechanics " was once descanted 
 upon at the Society of Arts and Manufactures, with a 
 "propriety, perspicuity, and energy which excited 
 general admiration," by no less a personage than Dr. 
 Samuel Johnson. 
 
72 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL 
 ENGINEEES. 
 
 Whatever diverse opinions may be held as to the 
 stationary or progressive nature of the moral sciences, 
 and although art may be said to have actually retro- 
 graded since the age of Pericles, no doubt can exist as 
 to the enormous advance in wealth and comfort made 
 by the civilized world during this present century — 
 emphatically the century of the straight line. It is 
 probable that an ancient Athenian gentleman was at 
 least as weU instructed in metaphysical science as a 
 modern graduate of Oxford or Edinburgh, Heidelberg 
 or Halle. So far as keen artistic sense and purity of 
 taste are concerned, the Greek — with eye educated by 
 the constant contemplation of forms of perfect beauty 
 — with ear attuned to the sounding march of Homer's 
 hexameters, and with mind accustomed to dwell on 
 the stern grandeur of ^schylus, the polished lines of 
 Sophocles, and the more sympathetic verse of Euri- 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 73 
 
 pides — possessed an unquestionable advantage over 
 the modern scholar, whose attentive i^erusal of novels 
 and newspapers is hardly calculated to improve his 
 oratory. If, however, it may be conceded that no 
 advance has been made — nay, more, that actual 
 retrogression has taken place — during the last 2500 
 years in the study of words and their uses, and in the 
 production of beautiful forms, it must, on the other 
 hand, be admitted that the modern Englishman pos- 
 sesses a knowledge of things and wields a power over 
 the forces of nature undreamt of by the poets, philo- 
 sophers, and grammarians who discoursed sweetly 
 in the garden, or thundered out sonorous periods in 
 the Agora. Most worthy of note is the marvellously 
 short space of time in which the great modern 
 development of human power has taken place. Albeit 
 a hardy plant, science has grown with almost incon- 
 ceivable rapidity. In some five or six thousand years 
 man had only improved the canoe and the coracle 
 into a gaUey and a sailing ship, and had shown even 
 less inventive genius in the methods of terrestrial 
 locomotion — indeed, so far as roads were concerned, 
 England was worse off 200 years ago than during 
 the period of the Eoman occupation. Something 
 had been done in widening the minds of men by 
 making them better acquainted with the globe that 
 they inhabited. Vasco de Gama and Columbus had 
 
74 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 unlocked the treasures of the Eastern and Western 
 World ; the mariners' compass had come into general 
 use ; Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Galileo had made 
 short work of traditional cosmogonies, and those 
 potent civilizers, the printing-press and gunpowder, 
 had been invented. But the material condition of 
 mankind had as yet received no immediate benefit 
 from these discoveries. The wealth of Mexico and 
 Peru, far from enriching Spain, had diverted from the 
 parent country the energy of her bravest sons, and 
 the loss of the Low Countries had inflicted on the State 
 a loss from which she has never since recovered. 
 France was occupied in the pursuit of glory; Holland, 
 rich and prosperous beyond all European nations, was 
 harassed with the task of Joshua — in staying the sun 
 of Louis Quatorze ; while England had as yet given 
 but small promise of the industrial pre-eminence she 
 was destined ultimately to assume. Nevertheless 
 indications were not wanting in our little island of a 
 strong desire for material progess, due, according to 
 some authorities, to the great awakening of the 
 human mind during the period of the Eenaissance, and 
 according to others to the inductive system of philo- 
 sophy propoimded by Bacon. Be this as it may, an 
 inquiring spirit was abroad, and investigations into 
 the then hidden forces of nature — with the direct 
 intention of pressing them into the service of mankind 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 75 
 
 — occupied the miads of many eminent Englishmen. 
 Bobert Boyle rendered important services to science, 
 and hovered on the brink of other yet more important 
 discoveries. Newton, Flamsteed, and Halley immor- 
 talized themselves by their contributions to astronomy; 
 but most remarkable of all were the sudden strides 
 made in the arts of construction, in which the cele- 
 brated Hooke greatly distinguished himself. Leuwen- 
 hoeck raised the microscope to the dignity of a 
 scientific instrument, under Savery the first crude 
 steam-engine was brought into working order and 
 employed as an ef&cient agent for raising water, and 
 Newton invented the reflecting telescope. So far as 
 the sudden advance in mechanical science which 
 signalized the last century can be assigned to any one 
 IDerson it may be ascribed to this great man, whose 
 " Principia " revealed the method of applying mathe- 
 matical princix^les to the forces of nature. 
 
 All this admirable seed, destined to bear fruit an 
 hundred and a thousand fold in due season, did not of 
 course produce any immediate amelioration in the 
 condition of the British nation. More than any other 
 nation England might, as late as a hundred and fifty 
 years ago, have been pronounced singularly deficient 
 in public works. While Holland — and for that matter 
 India and China — possessed a vast system of canals, 
 the internal communications of this country were in a 
 
76 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 barbarous condition. Artificial harbours, canals, and 
 machinery there were none, and the public roads 
 across the country were for the most part little better 
 than bridle paths. Over these primitive and deeply- 
 rutted tracks, often impassable in wet weather, the 
 few wheeled carriages in use were dragged, at a 
 fearful expenditure of sinew, time, and temper. A 
 county magnate, on the occasion of one of his rare 
 visits to London, set his affairs in order before start- 
 ing, and packing a lumbering coach with ample pro- 
 vision, trusted to the strength of six or eight powerful 
 Flanders horses to drag him through the tedious miles 
 of mire which separated him from the metropolis, 
 holding himself fortunate indeed if he escaped break- 
 ing down more than half-a-dozen times on the road, 
 and eluded the attentions of professional or amateur 
 highwaymen. So long as the roads remained mere 
 muddy tracks it was found convenient to avoid as 
 much as possible the use of wheeled carriages. The 
 " solitary horseman " and the ''two travellers," beloved 
 of romancists, picked their way among the stones and 
 quagmires which separated one great town from 
 another, and the commerce of the country was mainly 
 carried on by means of pack-horses. 
 
 Owing to the difficulty and danger of transit, the 
 luxuries of life were exorbitantly dear, and even those 
 necessaries which did not happen to grow in the im- 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEEES. 77 
 
 mediate vicinity of the consumer were difficult of 
 attainment. In the total absence of canals, inland 
 navigation was both tedious and uncertain. " The 
 rivers were left," as the Eastern potentate remarked, 
 *' as Allah had made them ; " and therefore this 
 imperfect river navigation could only be undertaken 
 under favourable circumstances, i.e. when the rivers 
 were sufficiently flooded. In a few rare instances 
 temporary flush-weirs were used to pen up the water 
 in shallow places, and in a few others side cuts with 
 the pound lock were introduced, with side weirs con- 
 structed with the double object of allowing the floods 
 to escape and utilizmg the water-power. 
 
 During the first quarter of the last century New- 
 comen's steam-engine, having been improved by 
 Potter and Beighton so as to become self-acting, was 
 used for pumping water from collieries, but the con- 
 sumption of fuel was so great that its application 
 continued to be very limited. For driving such 
 machinery as existed, and for working the few mills 
 in operation, wind and water were the sole motive 
 powers employed, and with the exception of the silk 
 mills at Derby, introduced by Sir Thomas Lombe 
 from Italy, nothing in the shape of manufacturing 
 machinery was known. Metallurgy was yet in its 
 infancy — charcoal being the chief medium used for 
 reducing iron — sanitary precautions were unknown — 
 
78 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 the magnificent cloaca of Eome having found no 
 mediaeval successors — paving was neglected, and gas 
 as yet undreamt of. 
 
 A great change was at hand. A revolution in the 
 face of England was about to be wrought by three 
 remarkable men — the fathers of modern scientific 
 engineering. In 1716 James Brindley was born at 
 Chapel-en-le-Frith, in Derbyshire. Eight years later 
 John Smeaton was born at Austhorpe, near Leeds ; 
 and in 1736 James Watt saw the light at Greenock. 
 If strict definition be adhered to, Watt can hardly be 
 classed as a civil engineer, although he proposed a 
 plan for improving the river Clyde, and suggested the 
 idea of the Caledonian Canal, before devoting himself 
 exclusively to the improvement of the steam-engine, 
 and working out those grand discoveries which have 
 immortalized his name. 
 
 Although born later than Brindley, Smeaton was 
 the first to distinguish himself — a circumstance attri- 
 butable probably to the comparative ease of his circum- 
 stances, and from his having no educational leeway 
 to make up in manhood. Commencing with a fair 
 education, and devoting himself for a short space to 
 the study of the law, Smeaton soon discovered that 
 the bent of his genius was in another direction, and 
 being luckily not thwarted by his parents, applied his 
 vigorous mind to philosophical inquiry. Starting in 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 79 
 
 life as a mathematical instrument maker in 1750, he 
 two years later attracted the notice of the scientific 
 world by his air-pump, and subsequently, by several 
 communications to the Eoyal Society on mechanical 
 subjects, so raised himself in the estimation of that 
 learned body as to obtain their gold medal, and the 
 honour of being elected a Fellow of the Society. The 
 celebrated paper on the natural powers of wind and 
 water to turn mills and other machinery depending 
 on circular motion produced directly and indirectly 
 the most important results. Owners of water-power 
 discovered that their power was increased one-third 
 by the adoption of Smeaton's plan. Subsequent 
 improvements were made on Smeaton's system for 
 windmills, which by Meikle, By water, and Cubitt 
 were brought — as were high-roads and mail coaches — 
 to absolute perfection just as they were about to be 
 thrust from the world by steam. 
 
 Smeaton next devoted his attention to the laws 
 which govern the formation and the maintenance of 
 harbours, and, after inspecting the great works in 
 operation in Holland, introduced many improvements 
 in the draining of marsh lands. About the middle 
 of the last century a perfect rage sprung up for 
 public works, and, in the conduct of these, Smeaton 
 never once failed. Curiously enough, his first 
 important work is that with which he is most im- 
 
80 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 mediately identified. At the very period — 1755-59 
 — when he was unknown and untried as a practical 
 engineer, he was selected as the fittest person to he 
 entrusted with the rehuilding of the Eddy stone Light- 
 house, just destroyed by fire. By the design and 
 construction of this celebrated edifice, Smeaton intro- 
 duced a new era in masonry, and achieved one of the 
 greatest triumphs that have ever fallen to the lot of 
 an engineer. 
 
 While Smeaton was battling with the winds and 
 waves, Brindley was struggling with the difficulties of 
 emerging from an agricultural to a mechanical career. 
 Born of humble — but as the American humourist hath 
 it, " not otherwise dishonest " — parents, Brindley 
 was, almost until manhood, entirely without educa- 
 tion. Drifting afterwards into the millwright's trade, 
 he acquired by his mechanical skill a certain pro- 
 vincial celebrity which, although not very lucrative 
 in itself, yet paved the way to an engagement destined 
 to immortalize Brindley and enrich his patron. An- 
 terior to the career of Brindley, pound locks had 
 been introduced on river navigations, and were also 
 used on the Sankey Canal in 1755. This work was 
 effected by making an almost entirely new channel, 
 and its success gave a remarkable impetus to canal 
 construction. In 1758 Brindley was called upon by 
 the Duke of Bridgewater to advise on his project of 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 81 
 
 a canal from Worsley to Manchester. Without un- 
 necessary pondering or hesitation, Brindley forsook 
 tradition, and, striking into a new path, placed the 
 inland navigation of England far in advance of what 
 had been achieved elsewhere. 
 
 He constructed — in addition to the Bridgewater 
 Canal, with its many miles of underground commu- 
 nications in the Worsley coal mines, and its famous 
 aqueduct at Barton — the celebrated Grand Trunk 
 navigation, cutting through the mountainous back- 
 bone of England by the Harecastle tunnel. In con- 
 junction with Smeaton and others he estabhshed 
 water communication between the distant and appa- 
 rently naturally divided towns of London, Liverpool, 
 Bristol, and Hull, and justly acquired the title of 
 father of inland navigation. 
 
 While Brindley and Smeaton were engaged in the 
 construction of great public works, James Watt was 
 giving up the best years of his life to the improve- 
 ment of the steam-engine. Stated briefly, the inven- 
 tions of Watt, which had the effect of bringing the 
 steam-engine into general use, were as follows : the 
 separate condensing vessel, with an air-pump for 
 exhausting the steam cylinder, instead of injecting 
 cold water into it for impelling the piston on New- 
 comen's plan by atmospheric pressure. In conjunc- 
 tion with Boulton, Watt brought these improvements 
 
 G 
 
82 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 into operation about the year 1773, and produced a 
 greater diminution in the consumption of fuel than 
 Smeaton, who had rendered the system of Newcomen 
 as perfect as it could be made, had already done. 
 The labour of the eight succeeding years resulted in 
 the invention of rotatory motion by the steam-engine, 
 first by the crank, and afterwards by the sun and 
 planet wheel, thus adapting it to the driving of all 
 kinds of machinery. A year later, Watt invented 
 the application of steam with expansion and with 
 double action, alternately above and below the piston, 
 and in 1784 invented the parallel motion, or working 
 gear and valves and the governor. These improve- 
 ments being carried into effect in the engines made 
 by Boulton and Watt in 1784-85 induced their intro- 
 duction to mills, whence they have succeeded in 
 expelling simpler applications of natural forces. 
 
 Concurrently with the advance made in the con- 
 struction of harbours, lighthouses, canals, drainage 
 works, and the steam-engine, great improvements 
 were effected in the roads of the country. Food for 
 melancholy reflection is supplied by the fact that 
 many of the most important roads in the world have 
 been made for purely military purposes — i.e., to bear 
 soldiers to kill people, not corn to feed them. The 
 ancient Koman roads — admirably constructed as they 
 were — owed their construction to strategic purposes, 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 83 
 
 and the famous road over the Simplon was made 
 with no other object but to facilitate the pouring of 
 a French army into the plains of Lombardy. For 
 like reasons a certain impetus was given to road- 
 making in England by the raids of the two Pre- 
 tenders ; and by the direction of General Wade the 
 first really good roads seen in this island since the 
 decadence of the Komans were formed through the 
 north of England into the Highlands. These works, 
 constructed by military engineers, drew strong atten- 
 tion to the wretched condition of the ordinary roads 
 of the country, which, as has been previously re- 
 marked, were simply worn tracks and nothing more. 
 It is true that public or hackney coaches were estab- 
 lished in London in 1625, but it was not until 1666 
 that a coach was established which travelled between 
 London and Oxford in two days. Another, called the 
 " Flying Coach," was afterwards started to perform 
 the journey in thirteen successive hours — or at the 
 rate of four miles an hour — but this unprecedented 
 feat could only be accomplished during the summer 
 months. In 1712 London and Edinburgh were con- 
 nected by a service of coaches, but this journey occu- 
 pied thirteen days, exactly the period required by 
 the Great Western to perform her first voyage from 
 Bristol to New York. Improvements in the con- 
 struction of roads and of coaches were gradually 
 
84 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 introduced, and in 1784 passengers and letters were 
 conveyed from London to Edinburgh in three days 
 and nights, an achievement which created the most 
 extraordinary excitement. This period was next 
 reduced to forty-two hours, when the ultimate effect 
 of animal spirit and endurance was reached. The 
 transport of goods was enormously expensive and 
 tedious. It required from two to three days to 
 convey a ton of merchandise from Liverpool to Man- 
 chester, at a cost of forty shillings per ton, a service 
 now performed in two or three hours for as many 
 shillings. 
 
 In the construction of the improved high-roads 
 which covered this island during the early part of 
 the present century, a prominent part was taken by 
 Thomas Telford, who, in conjunction with William 
 Jessop and John Eennie, composed a trio of emi- 
 nent engineers — the connecting link between the . 
 fathers of the craft and the generation of workers ! 
 who, in our own day, have covered the globe with 
 evidences of their skill. The labours of Jessop — the 
 pupil, and afterwards the assistant, of Smeaton — 
 reflected no discredit on his great teacher. Among 
 the many great undertakings that he conducted to 
 a successful conclusion may be mentioned the im- 
 provements on the rivers Aire, Calder, and Trent, 
 the Grand Junction Canal, the inland navigation of 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 85 
 
 Ireland, the City ship-canal across the Isle of Dogs, 
 and the conversion of that part of the river Avon 
 which flows through the city of Bristol into an im- 
 mense floating dock. Jessop was, moreover, the con- 
 sulting engineer of the West India Dock Company 
 in London, and of the Ellismere Canal Company. 
 He also laid down the Surrey iron rail, or tramway, 
 which, albeit a failure as a speculation, is worthy of 
 note m a sketch of the progress of civil engineering 
 as one of the earliest applications of this mode of 
 conveyance to the purposes of public traffic. 
 
 John Eennie — whose name looms large in the 
 annals of engineering — enjoyed the advantage of 
 early training under the ingenious Meikle, the in- 
 ventor of the threshing machine, and worked as an 
 occasional student under some of the most celebrated 
 professors of the University of Edinburgh. Com- 
 mencing business as a millwright, in his native 
 county of Haddingtonshire, he was soon led to 
 change the scene of his labours in consequence of 
 an introduction to James Watt, who invited him 
 to superintend the erection of the Albion flour-mills, 
 where the perfected machinery of Boulton and Watt 
 was to be put into operation. Quickly acquiring 
 reputation as a superior mechanist, he was appointed 
 about the year 1791 or 1792 to direct the execution 
 of the Lancaster Canal. This and the Crinan Canal, 
 
86 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 which divides the Mull of Cantire from Argyleshire, 
 established his reputation as a civil engineer of the 
 first rank. He was associated with other great works 
 — the completion of the Eau Brink cut, and the new 
 Nene outfall for the drainage of the fens of Norfolk, 
 Lincoln, and Cambridgeshire. He also participated 
 in the construction of three of the large dock estab- 
 lishments in the port of London, the Leith docks, 
 and extensive additions to those of Liverpool and 
 Hull. Still more stupendous operations now engaged 
 his attention. Sheerness Dockyard was raised by 
 him out of a quicksand 25 feet deep and 10 feet 
 under low water. Pembroke was also designed by 
 him, as were the breakwater in Plymouth Sound, 
 the artificial harbours of Kingstown, Howth, Holy- 
 head, and Donaghadee, together with three bridges 
 over the Thames, and others in various parts of the 
 country. 
 
 Thomas Telford — a Dumfriesshire man — enjoyed 
 none of the advantages possessed by Eennie and 
 Jessop, but advanced to a high position by the sheer 
 force of that pe7fervidum ingenium with which the 
 inhabitants of North Britain are supposed to be 
 endowed. A native of Eskdale, he received the educa- 
 tion commonly given to the peasantry of that country, 
 and having been apprenticed to a stonemason, worked 
 diligently at his trade mitil his twenty-third year. A 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 87 
 
 visit to Eclinburgii revealed to him a wider horizon 
 than that of his native valley. Coming to London, 
 and working for a time as a mason in the quadrangle 
 of Somerset House — then building — he attracted 
 attention by his superior intelligence, and was 
 appointed to superintend the erection of a new official 
 residence in Portsmouth Dockyard, and subsequently 
 undertook the direction of some alterations in Shrews- 
 bury Castle. In 1793 he was nominated acting 
 engineer of the Ellesmere Canal. Albeit every part 
 of England contains some record of Telford, his 
 works were not confined to the United Kingdom ; his 
 skill was employed in the construction of the great 
 ship-canal of Gota, in Sweden, the last connecting 
 link in the navigation from the Baltic Sea to the 
 German Ocean. The Caledonian Canal, originally 
 proposed by Watt, and advised on by Jessop, was 
 executed by Telford. Participating in the construction 
 of many other great works — notably the Gloucester 
 and Berkeley ship-canal — Telford is, perhaps, after 
 all, best known by the gigantic system of roads exe- 
 cuted under his superintendence — the Highland, the 
 Holyhead, and the Glasgow and Carlisle, whereby 
 '* whole regions were brought within the pale of 
 society." Besides the thousands of minor bridges 
 forming part of these works, Telford constructed 
 several bridges over the Severn, the Broomielaw 
 
0« SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 bridge over the Clyde, the bridge over the Conway, 
 and, lastly, the famous structure which spanned the 
 Menai Straits. Telford closed a long and glorious 
 career in 1834, and found a fitting tomb in West- 
 minster Abbey, having lived to see the advent of the 
 iron roads that were destined to consign to disuse 
 many of the finest products of his genius. 
 
 The great development of civil engineering pro- 
 duced by the labours of himself and his contempo- 
 raries induced the illustrious Smeaton, so early as 
 1771, to found the society since known by his name. 
 At that period the Eoyal Society absorbed nearly all 
 those distinguished by scientific attainments. In the 
 comparative infancy of scientific knowledge this was 
 natural and possible from the very catholicity of that 
 illustrious body, but as the objects of philosophical 
 research multiplied, and the sphere of inquiry widened, 
 many offshoots from the parent stem assumed an 
 independent existence. The Eoyal Astronomical 
 Society was the first of these, and was followed by 
 associations for promoting the study of geology, 
 botany, zoology, geography, and statistics. The Smea- 
 tonian Society of Civil Engineers had existed for 
 nearly fifty years, when it was felt that the growing 
 importance of civil engineering demanded an institu- 
 tion on a larger scale. Thomas Telford (himself a 
 Smeatonian) concurred in this view, and an oppor- 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 89 
 
 tunity was soon found of carrying it into effect; 
 Towards the end of 1817 a few gentlemen, then begin- 
 ning life, resolved to form themselves into a society 
 for promoting a regular intercourse between those 
 engaged in the various branches of civil engineering, 
 and *' thereby mutually benefiting by the interchange 
 of individual observation and experience." The first 
 meeting was held at the King's Head Tavern, in 
 Cheapside, on the 2nd January following, when rules 
 were adopted for the government of the society, which 
 continued to assemble for the next two years, when 
 it was resolved "that a respectful communication be 
 made to Thomas Telford, Esquire, civil engineer, to 
 patronise the institution by taking upon himself the 
 office of President." Telford accepted the chair with- 
 out hesitation, and was formally installed on the 21st 
 March following. Keceiving a new impetus from this 
 important accession of strength, the institution grew 
 rapidly in importance, until on the 3rd of June, 1828, 
 it received a charter of incorporation under the 
 Great Seal by the title of the " Institution of Civil 
 Engineers." 
 
 During the quarter of a century which elapsed 
 between the formation of the Society and the occupa- 
 tion of the presidential chair by Sir John Eennie in 
 1846, the ci^dl engineers of the United Kingdom had 
 distinguished themselves not only at home, but in 
 
90 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 every quarter of the globe. Steam had asserted its 
 empire on land and sea. Time and space had been 
 reduced to their lowest terms. Projects for traversing 
 water by boats worked by mechanical means appear 
 to have occupied the attention of philosophers from 
 remote periods — remote, that is, from an engineering 
 point of view. The propulsion of boats by wheels is 
 said to date as far back as the time of the Eomans, 
 and the Chinese are said to possess a boat moved by 
 these means. Spain also puts in a claim on behalf 
 of one Blasco de Garay, reported to have made an 
 experiment in propelling vessels in the presence of the 
 Emperor Charles V., at Barcelona, in 1543. Kevert- 
 ing to more exact history, we find Prince Eupert 
 owning a barge propelled by wheels in 1682, when it 
 was proposed to build tug-boats with wheels, worked 
 by horses, for towing vessels against wind and tide ; 
 but the first idea of applying steam to the propulsion 
 of ships appears to be due to the celebrated Papin, 
 who in 1690 proposed to propel boats by racks and 
 pinions, with pistons working in steam cylinders. 
 This ingenious inventor had thought out this scheme 
 very well, and was only deterred from putting it in 
 practice by want of funds, a disease from which — at 
 the period in question — the Eoyal Society, to whom 
 Papin had applied, suffered severely,. In 1737, 
 Jonathan Hulls published a pamphlet, wherein he 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 91 
 
 gives a plate of a boat with a wheel attached to the 
 stern, chiven by a steam-engine to propel the boat — 
 tugging behind her a vessel of war. He took out a 
 patent for the invention, but experienced so much 
 opposition that he relinquished the project. New- 
 comen's engine was proposed for propelling the wheel ; 
 but the difficulty of producing rotatory motion with 
 that kind of engine explains the abandonment of the 
 design. Nothing more was done until 1765, when Dr. 
 Eobison, of Edinburgh, proposed to James Watt to 
 apply steam for propelling engines on land and sea. 
 Watt, however, considered Newcomen's engine ill- 
 calculated for this purpose, and devoted his entire 
 energies to the perfection of his own form of engine, 
 content to leave its manifold application to time. 
 
 In 1782 the Marquis de Jouffroi tried a steamboat 
 on the Saone at Lyons, but without success. About 
 the year 1788 Fitch and Eamsay, of America, and 
 Serrati, an Italian, are said to have made some experi- 
 ments, with what success is not known ; and in the 
 same year Miller, of Dalswinton, constructed a double 
 boat, 60 feet long, with two paddle-wheels in the 
 centre, moved by manual labour, and was convinced 
 that Jpower alone was wanting to bring his idea to 
 full fruition. Taylor proposed to employ steam, and 
 applied to Symington, a practical engineer (who had 
 previously proposed some improvements in New- 
 
92 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 comen's engine, with a view to propelling carriages), 
 to supply him with an engine. This experiment was 
 successful, so far as it went, and was followed by 
 others ; but the difficulty of avoiding an infringement 
 of Watt's patent, and the trouble and annoyance 
 occasioned by the opposition of mankind, induced 
 Miller, Taylor, and Symington to abandon their 
 invention and recur to their previous avocations. 
 
 In 1801 Lord Dundas employed Symington to con- 
 struct a steamboat propelled by an engine on Watt's 
 plan, '* having one cylinder placed horizontally, and 
 the piston, with a stroke of four feet in length, was 
 jointed at the extremity, and attached to a connecting 
 rod, with a crank at one end, turning a paddle-wheel, 
 ]Dlaced in a well-hole at the stern of the vessel, w^hicli 
 has two rudders, one on each side of the cavity in 
 which the paddle-wheel was placed." This vessel was 
 named the Charlotte Dundas, and answered its pur- 
 pose — that of towing vessels on the Forth and Clyde 
 canal — completely, but, as usual, a storm of prejudice 
 had to be encountered. The proprietors of the canal 
 objected to the boat, alleging that the ''wash" occa- 
 sioned by the paddle-wheel would injure the banks of 
 the canal. In the course of the next year the cele- 
 brated Fulton, who had been for some time in England, 
 went to Scotland and visited Symington, who made 
 several trips up and down the canal, and fully ex- 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 93 
 
 plained every part of the boat and apparatus to Ful- 
 ton, who observed that the objection of injuring the 
 banks of small rivers and canals, which might apj)ly 
 to England, would have no force in America, where 
 things were on a larger scale. Having made notes of 
 all particulars, Fulton went to France, built a steam- 
 boat, tried it on the Seine in 1803, and soon after 
 went to America. It is a cmious fact in the history 
 of inventions that both the First Consul of the French 
 Eepublic and the English people, then well acquainted 
 with the use of the steam-engine, should have allowed 
 this important discovery to slip through their fingers. 
 Fulton, however, had no doubt of the importance 
 of the invention, and pm'sued it with a tenacity 
 thoroughly American. In 1805 he applied to Messrs. 
 Boulton and Watt to make a steam-engine, and a^Dplied 
 it to a boat built in America. This was the Clermont 
 ■ — the wheels and machinery were on Symington's plan, 
 propelled by Watt's engine. A speed of five miles an 
 hour was attained ; and from this time Fulton con- 
 tinued to construct larger boats, and applied to Boulton 
 and Watt for more and more powerful engines. 
 
 These efforts in America excited much attention 
 in this country. In 1812 Henry Bell, of Glasgow, 
 started the Comet to ply for goods and passengers on 
 the Clyde, between Glasgow and Helensburgh. This 
 boat only attained the same speed as the American 
 
94 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 Clermont — five miles an hour. From this date the 
 improvement in the construction of steamboats and 
 marine engines was comparatively rapid. The side- 
 wheel system superseded the stern-wheel and in 1814 
 Boulton and Watt first applied two engines to a small 
 boat on the Clyde. In 1819-20 four steamers were 
 working between Dover and Calais ; and by 1821 a 
 line of steamboats was running between London and 
 Leith. Meanwhile steam had been introduced into 
 the Eoyal Navy, and Maudslay and Field had applied 
 a valve for improving the expansive action of steam in 
 the cylinder. In 1825 William Jolliffe, in conjunc- 
 tion with Bessell and Hall, established the General 
 Steam Navigation Company, and built two vessels of 
 between five and six hundred tons burthen. These 
 vessels were intended to ply between London and 
 Cadiz and London and St. Petersburg, but the company 
 considered the project of Jolliffe as rash, and restricted 
 their operations to the British Channel and the 
 German Ocean. 
 
 In the memoir of the late Charles Wye Williams I 
 find that about the year 1819 he — with the intention, 
 originally, of assisting Mr. John Oldham, the engineer 
 of the Bank of Ireland, and subsequently of the Bank 
 of England — turned his attention to steam navigation, 
 chiefly with the object of introducing Mr. Oldham's 
 patent feathering paddles, which, after numerous 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 95 
 
 modifications, became known as " Morgan's wheel." 
 Mr. Williams consulted with the late Mr. A. Manby, 
 of the Horseley Ironworks, and thence was produced 
 a small steam-engine with two oscillating cylinders, 
 the first of its kind and the precursor of all those 
 which have since been so extensively used on rivers 
 and at sea, by John Penn and other engineers. 
 These engines, with a pair of Oldham's feathering 
 paddles, were adapted to a whale-boat, at the Eing's 
 End Foundry, Dublin, by Mr. Charles Manby (Hon. 
 Sec. Inst. C.E.), and the success was so great as to 
 lead to the formation of a steam company for the 
 conveyance of passengers and goods between Liverpool 
 and Dublin ; and the company built, in 1823, the 
 steamers City of Dublin and Town of Liverpool, each of 
 300 tons burthen. Mr. Williams was denounced as a 
 bold and rash man to commence such a speculation 
 with two ships. However, as it turned out, there was 
 a call for more capital and ships, and four additional 
 steamers were laid down, viz. the Hibernia, Britannia, 
 Manchester, and Leeds. This growth of steam property 
 caused the firm of Williams and Co. to merge into the 
 firm of the " City of Dublin Steam Packet Company." 
 At a later date Mr. Williams, in conjunction with 
 Mr. Caiieton, launched the famous Peninsular and 
 Oriental Steam Navigation Company. 
 
 Eapid progress was now made in the construction 
 
96 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 of marine engines. To obviate the inconvenience of 
 the incrustation of boilers by the deposit of salt, Hall, 
 of Dartford, introduced the system of surface conden- 
 sation, while Maudslay and Field, in 1825, invented 
 and patented their brine pumps, and Thomas Howard, 
 of Eotherhithe, invented a refrigerator for pursuing 
 the old system of condensation by jet. The next great 
 event in the history of steam navigation was the 
 crossing of the Atlantic by the Great Western, in 1838. 
 This enterprise was due to the spirit of a Bristol 
 company, with Brunei as their consulting engineer. 
 Considerable difficulty was experienced in inducing 
 engineers to attempt the construction of marine 
 engines of sufficient power to drive a ship of 1240 tons 
 burthen. Messrs. Maudslay and Field, however, 
 undertook the work, and constructed a pair of engines 
 on the side-lever principle, each of 210 horse-power, 
 with cylinders 73 inches in diameter, and 7 feet 
 stroke, making 15 strokes per minute. At her first 
 trial on the Thames, the vessel went twelve miles per 
 hour, and on the 8th April, 1838, started on her first 
 voyage from Bristol, under the command of Captain 
 Hosken, with seven passengers, 50 tons of goods, and 
 500 tons of coals, and reached New York on Monday, 
 the 23rd April, thus accomplishing a distance of 3000 
 miles in thirteen days and ten hours. The success of 
 this experiment, which surpassed the most sanguine 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 97 
 
 expectations of its promoters, opened the eyes of the 
 world to the possible extension of ocean steam navi- 
 gation. The famous Cunard line from Liverpool to 
 Boston was designed for carrying the mails, and 
 started with four fast vessels of about 1000 tons and 
 450 horse-power each. This was followed by the 
 Eoyal Mail Company, for carrying the mails between 
 England and the West Indies, starting with twelve 
 vessels of somewhat similar dimensions. The radical 
 defect of these early steamships was the enormous 
 weight of the engines, and the great space requu-ed by 
 them, which rendered it difficult for them to carry any 
 great amount of cargo beyond the passengers. This 
 serious inconvenience led to the devotion of much 
 ingenuity to the improvement of marine engines. 
 Messrs. Seawards were the first to introduce engines 
 wherein side levers were dispensed with, and the 
 power applied directly from the piston to turn the 
 paddle-wheel shaft. This system was modified by 
 Miller, who was very successful in obtaining high 
 rates of speed, and the long-standing objection of extra 
 friction was got rid of by adopting the vibrating 
 cylinders described in Trevithick and Vivian's patent 
 in 1802, patented by Witty in 1813, and by Manby in 
 1821, by whom the first engines of this kind were con- 
 structed. Other improvements were adopted, and 
 again improved upon by Maudslay and Field, Spiller, 
 
98 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 Penn and Barnes, Miller, Seaward, Napier, Manbj, 
 Fairbairn, Hall, Eennie, and many other able men 
 who turned their attention to the extension and 
 improvement of steam navigation. 
 
 Just as the paddle-wheel was about to demonstrate 
 its power to contend with the Atlantic waves, a rival 
 propeller — destined ultimately to supersede it for 
 ocean-going ships — sprang into existence. It was said 
 by the late Sir John Eennie that " the first idea of 
 stern-propelling was very probably suggested by the 
 movement of fishes, whose chief propelling power 
 exists in the tail, as also from the common and ancient 
 practice of sculling a boat from the stern." 
 
 Be this as it may, rude notions of a screw propeller 
 had long floated in ingenious minds. Shorter, Napier, 
 Tredgold, and Brown tried and described the action of 
 propellers of various shapes applied to different parts 
 of a vessel. Cameron, Woodcroft, Lowe, Ericson, and 
 others, patented screw-propellers ; but nothing of 
 positive value was effected until the year 1836, when 
 the late Sir Francis Pettit Smith — since affectionately 
 known as " Screw " Smith — obtained a patent for the 
 appKcation of a screw to propel vessels by placing it 
 in that part of the stern of the vessel called the "dead 
 wood." He accordingly built a small vessel thirty- 
 four feet long, and made experiments with her on the 
 Thames. With this little boat he achieved a speed 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 99 
 
 of seven or eight miles an hour, and then tried her 
 in a seaway. The Ship PropelHng Company was 
 now formed, and, under the direction of Smith, 
 the Archimedes was designed by Pascoe, built at 
 London by Whimshurst, and fitted with engines and 
 machinery by Kennie. At first the propeller consisted 
 of a single-threaded screw; but this not answering 
 very well, another screw was soon adopted with two 
 threads opj)Osite to each other. The Archimedes was 
 a success. She obtained a great velocity through the 
 water, and proved herself an admirable sea-boat. 
 
 The success of the screw propeller was now de- 
 monstrated, and although vessels constructed on this 
 system failed for awhile to accomplish the speed 
 attained by those driven by the paddle-wheel, their 
 superior power in a rough sea — since demonstrated 
 beyond all possible question — induced the construction 
 of the Rattler. Subsequently to this the Fairy, a 
 Eoyal yacht, displayed the power of the screw in 
 producing speed — this little boat of 260 tons burthen 
 achieving 15| miles per hour through the water. 
 
 Coincident with these improvements in the 
 machinery of navigation, a new material was intro- 
 duced for the construction of vessels. Hitherto birch 
 bark, bull-hide, and wood had been the chief materials 
 employed in making ships, but in 1820-21 Aaron 
 Manby constructed, at Horseley, near Bu-mingham, 
 
100 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 a wrought-iron boat of 120 feet length and 18 feet 
 beam. This vessel, propelled by Oldham's feathering 
 paddle-wheels, was built for the pm^pose of plying on 
 the river Seine, and was navigated across the Channel 
 by the late Sir Charles Napier. This boat continued 
 to ply between Paris and Havre for many years, and 
 although for a while superseded by other and more 
 powerful boats, survived to wear out her engines, and, 
 being fitted with new ones, held her own on the Seine 
 for a long period. Notwithstanding the success of the 
 Aaron Manhy, the art of iron shipbuilding developed 
 slowly, and it was not until the fifth decade of the 
 present century that ironships came into general use, 
 since when it has been decided to build steamships of 
 no other material. 
 
 "While these great demands were being made upon 
 the iron industry of the country, an important modifi- 
 cation was introduced into the method of smelting 
 iron. The low furnaces of the Middle Ages had long 
 since been superseded by the blast-furnace, and coke 
 had supplemented charcoal in the important work of 
 reducing iron ore. Powerful blowing engines had 
 been used, but hitherto they had been employed 
 simply in forcing through the tuyeres atmospheric air 
 at its ordinary temperature. In the first volume 
 of the " Transactions of the Institution of Civil 
 Engineers " is a noteworthy paper communicated by 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 101 
 
 J. B. Neilson on the hot-air blast. In 1836 this 
 gentleman writes to the president — "About seven 
 years ago an ironworker, well known in this neigh- 
 bourhood, asked me if I thought it possible to purify 
 the air blown into blast-furnaces, in a manner similar 
 to that in which carbureted hydrogen gas is purified; 
 and from this gentleman's conversation I perceived 
 that he imagined the presence of sulphur in the air 
 to be the cause of blast-furnaces working irregularly, 
 and making bad iron in the summer months. Subse- 
 quently to this conversation, which had in some 
 measure directed my thoughts to the subject of blast- 
 furnaces, I received information that one of the 
 Muirkirk iron furnaces, situated at a considerable 
 distance from the engine, did not work so well as the 
 others ; which led me to conjecture that the friction of 
 the air, in passing along the pipe, prevented an equal 
 volume of the air getting to the distant furnace as to 
 the one which is situated close by the engine. I at 
 once came to the conclusion that by heating the air at 
 the distant furnace I should increase its volume in the 
 ratio of the known law, that air and gases expand as 
 448 + temperature. In prosecuting the experiment 
 which this idea suggested, circumstances, however, 
 became apparent to me which induced the belief on 
 my part that heating the air introduced for supporting 
 combustion into air-furnaces materially increased its 
 
102 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 efficiency in this respect." The hot-blast came 
 immediately into operation, and Mr. Neilson supple- 
 mented his paper by some remarks which now read 
 curiously enough. 
 
 "Were the hot-blast generally adopted, the saving to 
 the country in the article of coal would be immense. 
 In Britain about 700,000 tons of iron are made 
 annually, of which 50,000 tons only are produced in 
 Scotland ; on these 50,000 tons my invention would 
 save in the process of manufacture 200,000 tons of 
 coal annually. In England the saving would be in 
 proportion to the strength and quality of the coal, and 
 cannot be computed at less than 1,520,000 tons 
 annually, and taking the price of coals at the low rate 
 of four shill'mgs per ton a yearly saving of a9296,000 
 sterling would be effected." 
 
 It was indeed high time that a saving in the pro- 
 duction of iron was effected, for a revolution was at 
 hand, destined to transfer the carrying trade of the 
 country from Brindley's canals and the magnificent 
 highways designed by Telford to the iron roads now 
 accepted as the ordinary means of transit. 
 
 The history of great discoveries reveals two salient 
 peculiarities. First is the cmious fact that at certain 
 epochs the world becomes, as it were, ripe for the 
 reception of great truths. From its four corners 
 civilization addresses itself to the task of supplying 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 103 
 
 the recently discovered want. Inventors of various 
 nationalities advance by different roads and distinct 
 means towards the great object in view. Investigators 
 working in entire independence of each other arrive 
 almost simultaneously at the same conclusion. 
 
 It would seem as if the human mind underwent 
 periodical upheavings, and that outcrops of the same 
 stratum of thought occurred in different localities. 
 Instances without number may be cited — among 
 others, those of Hooke and Newton, touching the law 
 of the inverse square, of Watt, Cavendish, and La- 
 voisier, on the composition of air and water, and of 
 Adams and Leverrier in the discovery of the planet 
 Neptune. It is by no means clear who invented gun- 
 powder, and the merit of first printing by movable 
 types is hotly disputed. The history of chemistr}^ 
 abounds with illustrations of the law of simultaneous 
 discovery. Without citing well-worn cases, I may 
 quote a triple one. About twelve years ago the 
 isomerism among the alcohols was simultaneously 
 discovered in three separate countries by three inde- 
 pendent sets of investigators in quest of entirely 
 distinct objects : in Germany by Kolbe, in England 
 by Wankljm and Erlenmeyer, and in Paris by Wurtz 
 and Friedel. 
 
 The second peculiarity is that no sooner is one class 
 of mechanism brought to perfection than it is super- 
 
104 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 seded by a fresh application of forces. Wind and 
 water mills were no sooner perfected and fitted with 
 the admirable mechanism invented by Smeaton, Ark- 
 wright, and Hargreaves, than Watt introduced steam 
 as the great motive power. Archery had just attained 
 its most perfect development when gunpowder was 
 discovered. The arts of attack and defence of fortified 
 places have seen many mutations. Fortresses hitherto 
 deemed impregnable were reduced by line and rule on 
 the method of trenches introduced by the Turks and 
 improved by Vauban, and a siege was deemed a mere 
 matter of time when the experience of Silistria, Kars, 
 and Sevastopol proved that plain earthworks could 
 hold their own when revetements of solid masonry 
 must infallibly have given way. The art of building 
 and manoeuvring sailing ships had been reduced to a 
 science, in the case of the famous yacht America, just 
 as steam was superseding sailing ships altogether. 
 Postal service had achieved perfection when the elec- 
 tric telegraph was invented, and roads and coaches 
 had been brought to the highest pitch of efficiency at 
 the very moment when railways were to revolutionize 
 the face of the world. But however the merit of 
 England in great inventions may be shared by other 
 countries, this latter is unquestionably and indispu- 
 tably her own. 
 About the commencement of the present century a 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 105 
 
 wild, eccentric man, named Trevithick — who had 
 acquired some celebrity in the West of England as a 
 mining engineer — succeeded in producing locomotive 
 engines. In conjunction with Vivian and Blenkinsop 
 he proposed ribbed wheels, with nails or bosses for 
 the purpose of enabling the engine to ascend steep 
 inclines. Previously to this date, rails or tramways 
 had been made at various collieries throughout the 
 kingdom, and flanges had come into almost common 
 use. Dr. Eobison, James Watt, his assistant Mur- 
 doch, and other inventors had calculated the pos- 
 sibilities of introducing locomotives on common 
 roads, but the high-pressure engine was by the best 
 authorities considered unsafe. Undeterred by these 
 considerations, Trevithick and Vivian constructed a 
 locomotive engine for the Merthyr Tydvil Eailway. 
 Working by adhesion alone, this engine, which " con- 
 sisted of one high-pressure cylinder, with a fly-wheel 
 and four bearing wheels — two of which were turned 
 by the action of the piston — produced a velocity of 
 five miles per hour dragging a load of fifteen tons." 
 Unluckily for Trevithick, one of his engines exploded, 
 and an accident which would have been deemed a 
 mere trifle at the present day, and the costs whereof 
 would have been calmly carried to the profit and loss 
 account, sufficed — at the barbarous period referred to 
 — to arrest the career of inventive genius for a time ; 
 
106 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 but in 1811 Blenkinsop took out a patent " for using 
 rails having teeth like a rack in them, into which 
 wheels having corresponding teeth were worked by 
 the engine, thus securing the engine against slipping." 
 This departure from the principle of adhesion was 
 ignored by Blackett, who in 1813 resumed Trevithick's 
 original plan, and " constructed an engine which 
 worked by adhesion alone upon the rails at the 
 Wylam Colliery at Newcastle." At this hour a man 
 was prepared to crystallize by the power of his genins 
 these crude efforts into a practical shape. 
 
 A keen, honest Northumbrian — the worthy father 
 of a more worthy son — had advanced by this date to 
 the position of engine-wright to Killingworth Colliery. 
 Engaged during his leisure hours in superintending 
 the education of his son, and in helping him to make 
 a sun-dial by the aid of Ferguson's " Astronomy," 
 George Stephenson bent his main energies towards 
 the construction of a locomotive. This extraordinary 
 man, who reached the age of eighteen without being 
 able to read or write, had, in the following fourteen 
 years, not only contrived to pull together a fair 
 ''scratch education," but had so greatly distinguished 
 himself by his successful treatment of an obstinate 
 Newcomen pumping-engine as to have acquired the 
 sobriquet of the " engine doctor." Continually making 
 improvements in locomotives, Stephenson took out 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 107 
 
 patents, in conjunction with Dodd in 1815, and with 
 Losh in 1816, and their productions were found equal, 
 in 1820, to drawing coal trains at the rate of seven or 
 eight miles per hour over the cast-iron edge rails 
 recently introduced and patented by Birkenshaw. 
 
 The Hetton and the Stockton and Darlington Rail- 
 ways made by Stephenson were opened about 1825, 
 and contained all the recent improvements in flanged 
 wheels and wrought-iron rails. The first locomotive 
 which ran on the Stockton and Darlington Eailway 
 is, I believe, still preserved as a valuable relic, and 
 regarded with much veneration by the natives of 
 Darlington. James had already foreseen the develop- 
 ment of the locomotive, and in 1815 published a letter, 
 proposing railways as a regular mode of communica- 
 tion ; but it was not till the Liverpool and Manchester 
 Eailway Company obtained their first Act in 1826 — 
 leaving the tractive power to be employed an open 
 question — that the locomotive excited general public 
 attention. The company employed Messrs. "Walker and 
 Eastrick to report on the northern railways, and these 
 gentlemen favom-ed the employment of stationary 
 engines, while Stephenson and Eennie strongly advo- 
 cated the introduction of the locomotive. Under these 
 circumstances, the company offered a reward of five 
 hundred guineas for the best locomotive engine. The 
 result of the trial of the competing engines in 1829 
 
108 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 electrified the world. The " Kocket," made by the 
 Stephensons, attained the undreamt-of speed of 
 twenty-five miles an hour, and decided the tractive 
 question at once ; and the Liverpool and Manchester 
 was opened in 1830, Mr. Huskisson proving the first 
 victim to the iron-horse. Interesting in itself, and 
 deeply valuable for the lessons conveyed by it, is the 
 record of the fanatical opposition brought to bear 
 against the new system. That powerful and gloomy 
 giant known as Vested Interest arose in his might, 
 and contested the ground inch by inch. Landowners 
 rose in arms against Stephenson and his works, and 
 professional engineers denounced him as a quack, and 
 his scheme as the most absurd '' that ever entered 
 into the head of man to conceive." Innumerable 
 objections, practical and sentimental, were advanced. 
 The railways would cut up the country, deform the 
 face of Nature, burn up the crops, and throw entire 
 districts out of cultivation. Cattle would be frightened 
 to death, pheasants smoked out, the noble and im- 
 portant pursuit of fox-hunting interfered with, and the 
 country generally would, to use the time-honoured 
 sentence, "go to the devil." How far these profound 
 vaticinations have been realized, the present state of 
 England and English industry can testify. 
 
 Conscious of the disadvantage of a defective educa- 
 tion, George Stephenson determined that his successor 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CmL ENGINEERS. 109 
 
 should suffer from no such drawback, and made the 
 training of his son the object of his earnest solicitude. 
 No narrative can be more touching than that of the 
 studious evenings passed by father and son together 
 after the labours of the day. A severe course of study 
 prepared the young man to render his father most 
 valuable assistance not only in the great railway con- 
 troversy, but in the actual construction of the famous 
 locomotive which established their reputation. 
 
 Taking with his father a prominent part in the 
 construction of the English railway system, Eobert 
 Stephenson did not confine himself entirely to the 
 ordinary work of a railway engineer. As a builder 
 of stupendous bridges on a new and original plan, he 
 acquired a high rank. The tubular bridge across the 
 St. Lawrence at Montreal, and the Britannia Bridge, 
 across the Menai Straits, remain as enduring monu- 
 ments to his splendid genius. In 1855 he was 
 elected president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 
 a post which he filled with such ability as to reflect 
 honour both upon himself and the distinguished body 
 over which he presided. A most endearing trait in 
 his character was his loving admiration for his great 
 parent. In the course of his presidential address he 
 said : '' It is my great pride to remember that what- 
 ever may have been done, and however extensive may 
 have been my own connection with railway develop- 
 
110 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 ment, all I know, and all I have done, are primarily 
 due to the parent whose memory I cherish and 
 revere." 
 
 Another remarkable instance of the hereditary 
 transmission of engineering genius occurred in the 
 case of the Brunels. Sir Mark Isambard Brunei made 
 his mark in several branches of engineering science, 
 notably in the invention of the celebrated block 
 machinery, and in the general introduction of bands 
 of thin hoop-iron between courses of brickwork — an 
 important improvement which has been extensively 
 used ever since — but his name is more particularly 
 identified with the Thames Tunnel — a stupendous 
 work previously proposed and commenced by Tre- 
 vithick, but subsequently abandoned. The difficulties 
 encountered in the construction of this tunnel were of 
 a nature to test to the utmost the perseverance and 
 ingenuity of the constructor. By the invention of 
 the famous shield, Brunei exhibited his fertility of 
 resource, and by the completion of a work, then unique 
 in its character, placed his name for ever on the roll 
 of illustrious engineers. 
 
 During this great development of engineering 
 genius the Institution of Civil Engineers had waxed 
 mighty in the land. The institution was uniformly 
 fortunate in the choice of its officials, but in the early 
 days of its existence, under the presidency of Telford 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEEKS. Ill 
 
 and the secretaryship of James Jones — to whom much 
 of the credit of organizing the society is due — the 
 finances failed to exhibit a prosperous aspect. The 
 usual struggle for existence occurred. Many secre- 
 taries were appointed, among whom is found the name 
 of Captain (afterwards Colonel) Stoddart — one of the 
 Central Asian pioneers, who at Bokhara suffered the 
 fate often imposed upon travellers by barbarous 
 nations. 
 
 The name of Arthur Aikin — one of the founders of 
 the Geological Society, the originator of the idea of 
 the Zoological Gardens, the first president of the 
 Chemical Society, and the famous secretary of the 
 Society of Arts — also figures as honorary secretary to 
 the Institution of Civil Engineers. After the death of 
 Telford — who was interred in "Westminster Abbey — 
 James Walker was called to the presidential chair in 
 1835, and it was under the presidency of this cele- 
 brated engineer that the constitution of the society 
 underwent a revolution, brought about mainly by the 
 exertions of Mr. Charles (now Colonel) Manby. Mr. 
 Thomas Webster (now Q.C.) held the appointment of 
 secretary from 1836 to 1839, but on being nominated 
 assistant to Judge Maule he asked his friend Mr. 
 Manby to undertake his secretarial duties for a time. 
 In 1839 Mr. Manby was appointed to the position, 
 and at once put his shoulder to the wheel. In secur- 
 
112 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 ing the services of this gentleman as secretary, the 
 Institution was singularly fortunate, inasmuch as he 
 not only possessed the true organizing faculty neces- 
 sary to restore to the Institution its lost vitality, but 
 was so happily situated as to be enabled to give a 
 large portion of time to his labour of love. Under 
 his care the society speedily gained strength, and has 
 since asserted its existence with undiminished vigour. 
 Fourteen years ago. Colonel Manby, whose exertions 
 in the formation of an Engineer and Eailway Volunteer 
 Staff Corps have recently been gracefully acknowledged 
 by the Indian Government, and whose works — many 
 of which were undertaken in conjunction with the 
 lamented John Kobinson M^Clean — have met with 
 ample recognition by foreign Governments, relin- 
 quished the post of acting secretary for the honorary 
 dignity, since which date the duties of secretaryship 
 have been admirably fulfilled by Mr. James Forrest, 
 to whose courtesy I am indebted for much of the 
 material of this sketch. 
 
 One of the principal changes brought about by 
 Colonel Manby was the alteration of the term of 
 presidentship. Feeling that the occupation of the 
 chair for a long term of years by one individual, 
 however distinguished, was prejudicial to the true 
 interests of the society, he succeeded in inducing 
 Mr. James Walker to resign the presidency in 1845, 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEEES. 113 
 
 since which date the presidents have been elected 
 annually, although it is a custom of the Institution to 
 confer on its chief officer the honour of one re-election. 
 
 Since this important alteration in the constitution 
 of the Society, only one president — Sir John Eennie — 
 who sat from 1845 to 1848, has occupied the chair for 
 more than two years. 
 
 Without any design to expand the present sketch 
 beyond its proper limits, I find it difficult to pass over 
 without special notice the names of the distinguished 
 men who have filled the presidential chair of the 
 Institution of Civil Engineers. In 1846 Sir John 
 Rennie, on his elevation to the dignity of president, 
 delivered that remarkable address to which I, in 
 common with all subsequent writers on engineering, 
 am largely indebted for many important and interest- 
 ing particulars. In the course of this admirable 
 specimen of comprehensive arrangement and lacid 
 exposition, the president alluded to the railway work 
 already done, and ^' the mania for new lines, which 
 has exceeded all former precedent. 1901 miles have 
 been already executed on the narrow gauge, 2^4 on 
 the broad gauge ; 614 miles are in progress of con- 
 struction, and projects for 20,687 miles were actually 
 introduced into Parliament last session, representing 
 a capital of £350,000,000. Of these projects Acts of 
 Parliament have been passed for 3573 miles, requiring 
 
 I 
 
114 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 a capital of £129,229,767." Only twenty-eight years 
 have passed since these words were spoken, and the 
 United Kingdom now hoasts over 15,000 miles of rail- 
 way, representing a capital of £600,000,000 sterling. 
 
 Sir John Kennie was succeeded by a man whose 
 innate genius for mechanics had been developed by a 
 course of severe training, and brought into prominence 
 by a fortunate incident of which he took full advan- 
 tage. After working under Sir Samuel Bentham at 
 Portsmouth, young Joshua Field was brought up to 
 the Admiralty at Whitehall to assist in the drawing 
 department. At this period Mr. (afterwards Sir 
 Isambard) Brunei was engaged on the famous block 
 machinery then in process of construction by Maudslay . 
 The latter gentleman requiring some assistance in 
 drawing, applied to Sir Samuel Bentham to recommend 
 him a competent draughtsman, when Sir Samuel and 
 Mr. Goodrich strongly recommended young Field, who 
 acquitted himself so well as to induce a permanent 
 connection with Mr. Maudslay, whose partner he 
 subsequently became. The famous house of Maudslay 
 and Field has left its mark on the history of 
 mechanical engineering. Besides occupying the first 
 rank in the construction of marine engines, the house 
 distinguished itself by its saw machinery, corn-mills, 
 and mint machinery, and more especially by the 
 construction of the first shield used in making the 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 115 
 
 Thames Tunnel. To Mr. Field, in conjunction with 
 Mr. Henry Eobinson Palmer, Mr. William Nicholson 
 Maudslay, Mr. James Jones, Mr. Charles Collinge, 
 and Mr. James Ashwell, belongs the honour of found- 
 ing the Institution of Civil Engineers. 
 
 During the presidentships of Eennie and Field raged 
 the ''battle of the gauges." On either side of this 
 great question were ranged the engineering giants of 
 the day. The broad gauge — already adopted on the 
 Great Western Kailway — was w^armly advocated by 
 the younger Brunei, an engineer of brilliant and 
 daring genius, who, albeit his conceptions rarely 
 produced pecuniary success, yet acquired well-merited 
 renown by the grandeur of his inspirations, and left 
 behind him the reputation of one whose splendid 
 failures were perhaps more instructive, and possibly 
 more valuable, to mankind than the positive achieve- 
 ments of successful mediocrity. In the forefront of 
 the opposing battalion stood the younger Stephenson, 
 whose well-balanced intellect discerned at once the 
 importance of carr^dng out great undertakings at a 
 cost which should not entail ruin upon shareholders 
 in order to enhance the reputation of the engineer. 
 The result of this great conflict is now a matter of 
 history, and the inclination now shown — wherever 
 fresh ground is opened — to reduce the gauge to far 
 narrower limits than 4 feet 8^ inches, demonstrates 
 
116 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 the solidity of judgment displayed by the great North- 
 umbrian. 
 
 In 1850 Sir William Cubitt became president of 
 the Institution. The career of this great engineer 
 is one among many instances of gradual development. 
 A miller's son with a taste for construction commenced 
 by repairing the machinery of the mill, was subse- 
 quently apprenticed to a joiner, and tried to make a 
 machine for splitting hides. This, although a failure, 
 showed so much ingenuity, that the young man was 
 taken into partnership by an agricultural machine 
 maker. After inventing the self-regulating windmill 
 sails, Cubitt commenced the construction of machines 
 for draining marshes, and ultimately achieved extra- 
 ordinary success in drainage works, canal making, 
 and the construction of docks at Cardiff and Middles- 
 borough. Turning his attention to railways, he — as 
 engineer-in-chief — constructed the South-E astern 
 Eailway, " where he adopted the bold scheme of 
 employing a monster charge of 18,000 lb. of gun- 
 powder for blowing down the face of the Bound Down 
 Cliff, between Folkestone and Dover, and then con- 
 structing the line of railway along the beach, with a 
 tunnel beneath the Shakespeare Cliff." To the ear of 
 the malefactor the name of Cubitt had an awful 
 sound, as that of the inventor of the treadmill. 
 
 The chair was now successively filled by two 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 117 
 
 hydraulic engineers of the highest rank. James 
 Meadows Eendel, after acquiring considerable reputa- 
 tion by his success in bridge building, devoted his 
 attention more particularly to the construction of 
 harbours and docks. Among his achievements may 
 be enumerated the Birkenhead Docks, the new docks 
 at Grimsby, and the Great Western Docks at Plymouth. 
 Here he first introduced the method of construction 
 since employed with so much success at the great 
 harbours of Holyhead and Portland. In each of these 
 great works many natural obstacles were overcome. 
 At Grimsby the works were projected far out upon the 
 mud-banks of the river Humber, entirely beyond low- 
 water mark, and great difficulty was experienced in 
 laying the foundations, owing to the treacherous 
 nature of the substratum. 
 
 Born in the same year — 1799 — as Mr. Eendel, and 
 succeeding him as president in 1854, James Simpson 
 had previously turned his energies to the construction 
 of waterworks, and designed and executed in 1828 at 
 the Chelsea Waterworks his first filter bed, which had 
 an area of about one acre, and proved so completely 
 successful that no material alteration has been made 
 in the system of filtration since that time. During 
 the course of a long and prosperous career, Mr. Simp- 
 son constructed the works at Seething Wells and 
 designed the extensive works for bringing to Bristol the 
 
118 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 springs and streams of the Menclip Hills. He also 
 designed and executed the works for supplying Aber- 
 deen with water taken from the river Dee, about 
 twenty miles above the city, and, indeed, may be said 
 to have made this department of engineering science 
 peculiarly his own. 
 
 From 1856, when Eobert Stephenson became presi- 
 dent, down to the present day, the chair has been chiefly 
 occupied by railway engineers. Stephenson was suc- 
 ceeded by Joseph Locke, who has been styled the third 
 great leader of the engineering world,the two first places 
 being conceded to Stephenson and Brunei. Singularly 
 enough, these three great engineers were born within 
 two years of each other, and within a similar space 
 quitted the scene of their labours. One of the most 
 salient characteristics of Mr. Locke w^as his keen ap- 
 preciation of economy ; he may indeed be said to have 
 made his reputation by constructing the Warrington 
 and Birmingham — then designated the Grand Junction 
 Eailway — within the estimate, at a cost of between 
 ^14,000 and £15,000 per mile. The commercial world 
 was attracted by this valuable result, and Joseph 
 Locke's reputation as an economical engineer assured 
 him the direction of many great undertakings. He 
 achieved much good work by discouraging the intro- 
 duction of engines of various forms and by various 
 makers on the same line, and by insisting on a 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 119 
 
 system of uniformity in order to insure economy and 
 promptitude in repairs. Mr. Locke left no monu- 
 mental works behind him, but he has left a monu- 
 mentum cere perennius in the hearts of grateful share- 
 holders who have drawn dividends from his lines, 
 while the ambitious labours of his rivals reduced them 
 to the verge of impecuniosity. 
 
 Only last year the engineering world deplored the 
 loss of John Eobinson M^'Clean, who became president 
 in 1864. This gentleman, who was a son of the late 
 Francis M^ Clean, of Belfast, was born in that city in 
 181B, and was educated at the Koyal Academical 
 Institution. At the age of twenty-one he went to 
 Glasgow, where his career was exceedingly brilliant. 
 Studying for two sessions under Professors Thomson, 
 Meikleham, and Sir W. Jackson Hooker, Mr. M^ Clean 
 obtained high honours in the classes of mathematics 
 and natural philosophy, and at the same time pursued 
 practical studies in mining engineering and survey- 
 ing. On the completion of his university career, he 
 entered the of&ce of Messrs. Walker and Burges, civil 
 engineers, 23, Great George Street, Westminster, and 
 remained with them until 1844. During his stay with 
 these gentlemen, Mr. M^ Clean assisted in preparing 
 the surveys and contract drawings of the improve- 
 ments in Belfast Harbour, and other important public 
 works undertaken by Mr. Walker ; but in 1844 the 
 
120 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 rising young engineer determined to assume the inde- 
 pendent exercise of the profession in which he after- 
 wards took an active and distinguished part. In the 
 very inception of his independent career he became 
 the engineer-in-chief of the Furness Eailways, and 
 from that time forward v^as intimately associated with 
 the great pubhc works of that remarkable district, 
 including the Barrow Harbour, Barrow Docks (which 
 rival the famous docks at Birkenhead), graving-docks, 
 railways, and other works. The modern history of 
 Barrow-in-Furness is a record of rapid development 
 unparalleled in the annals of industry. Haematite ore 
 had long been known to exist in large quantities in 
 this remote corner of Lancashire, but the develop- 
 ment of the iron mines of Furness dates from the 
 introduction of the railway system. 
 
 The growth of Mr. M^ Clean's fortunes more than 
 kept pace with the sudden extension of railways. 
 Born at the very nick of time, he found himself 
 in the possession of his full powers at the moment 
 when the railway system — like a young giant — 
 stretched forth its iron arms towards every point 
 of the compass. Never was opportunity more readily 
 seized. Pursuing his advantage with unfailing energy 
 and untiring industry, Mr. M^ Clean soon found him- 
 self in the foremost rank of his profession. He 
 did not confine himself to the construction of rail- 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEEES. 121 
 
 ways, for when an agitation was commenced about 
 the polluted state of the Thames, which, in 1849, was 
 becoming full of sewage, and engineers were invited 
 by the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers to send 
 in plans for the drainage of London, the rising man 
 failed not to contribute his scheme, and had the satis- 
 faction of finding it most favourably viewed by the 
 Commissioners, who considered it "the best conceived 
 and most practicable scheme submitted to them." In 
 1849 Mr. M*^ Clean received into partnership Mr. F. 
 C. Stillman, and the new firm at once engaged in the 
 construction of the South Staffordshire Eailway and 
 branches, the Birmingham, "Wolverhampton, and 
 Dudley Eailway, the Staffordshire and Worcestershire 
 Canal Eeservoirs, and the South Staffordshire Water- 
 works, supplying water to a population of nearly half 
 a million. 
 
 In the year of the first Great International Exhibi- 
 tion, Mr. Maclean carried out extensive works in 
 Paris, and, on the death of Mr. Walker, was appointed 
 Government engineer to the harbours of Dover, 
 Alderney, and St. Catherine's, the Plymouth Break- 
 water, and the Shovel Eock Fort at Plymouth. During 
 the next fifteen years the successful engineer enjoyed 
 the full tide of popularity. He was at once consulting 
 engineer to the Birmingham Canal Navigation and 
 the Bute Docks at Cardiff, and engineer to the Surrey 
 
122 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 Commercial Docks, the Tottenham and Hampstead 
 Junction Kailway, the Bristol and Portishead Pier and 
 Kailway, the Cannock Chase and Wolverhampton Kail- 
 way, the Furness and Midland Eailway, the Eyde 
 Pier Company, and numerous other public works in 
 Great Britain. He also held the post of consulting 
 engineer to the Lemberg-Czernowitz Austrian Eailway 
 and the South-E astern of Portugal Eailway, and was, 
 moreover, a fellow of several scientific societies. 
 
 Mr. Mc Clean was preceded in the chair by Mr. 
 George Parker Bidder — the bosom friend of Eobert 
 Stephenson — and by Sir John Hawkshaw. The career 
 of George Bidder affords a peculiar instance of the 
 triumph of method. The famous " calculating boy " 
 has invariably disclaimed the possession of any extra- 
 ordinary amount of memory, and has openly stated 
 that a certain degree of jproficiency in the art of mental 
 calculation is within the reach of almost every one. 
 In a remarkable paper on mental calculation, read by 
 Mr. Bidder before the Institution of Civil Engineers 
 in the year 1856, he explained with singular lucidity 
 and happiness of illustration the operations performed 
 by his mind while at work upon figures, and insisted 
 very strongly on his favourite doctrine — that mental 
 arithmetic can be taught like anything else. 
 
 The whole course of his argument is against the 
 necessity for original genius, and in favour of the 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 123 
 
 theory that the slow and gradual acquirement and 
 the orderly arrangement of facts are the principal 
 qualities demanded of the mental calculator. 
 
 He proceeds thus : — 
 
 *' I do not, however, mean to say that it ought to be 
 taught, or that it is desirable to attempt to teach it, 
 to the extent to which I have been enabled to carry it. 
 I have sacrificed years of labour, I have striven with 
 much perseverance, to obtain and to retain a power 
 or mastery over numbers which will probably, at all 
 times, be as rare as is its utility in the ordinary affairs 
 of life. Far be it from me, however, to say that it 
 has been of little use to me. Undoubtedly the 
 acquirement has attracted towards me a degree of 
 notice, which has ended in raising me from the 
 position of a common labourer, in which I was born, 
 to that of being able to address you as one of the 
 vice-presidents of this distinguished Society. But, as 
 I have already said, I am not about to lay before you 
 any abbreviated process of calculation ; there are no 
 " royal roads" to mental arithmetic. Whoever wishes 
 to achieve proficiency in that, as in any other branch 
 of science, will only succeed by years of labour and of 
 patient application. In short, in the solution of any 
 arithmetical question, however simple or complicated, 
 every mental process must be analogous to that which 
 is indicated in working out algebraical formulae. No 
 
124 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 one step can be omitted ; but all and every one must 
 be taken up one after another, in such consecutive 
 order, that if reduced to paper the process might 
 appear prolix, comjDlicated, and inexpeditious, although 
 it is actually arranged with a view of affording relief to 
 the memory. And here let me say, that the exercise 
 of the memory is the only real strain on the mind, 
 and which limits the extent to which mental calculation 
 may be carried. It may be imagined that this is some- 
 what inconsistent with my previous observation that 
 I possess no extraordinary power of memory. But it 
 must be borne in mind that my memory is the limit 
 by which my mental powers are restricted ; and that 
 the processes I pursue are all adopted, simply with a 
 view of relieving the registering powers of the mind, 
 i.e. the memory. 
 
 ■ " I can perhaps convey to you no stronger view of 
 this subject than by mentioning, that, were my powers 
 of registration at all equal to the powers of reasoning 
 or execution, I should have no difficulty, in an in- 
 conceivably short space of time, in composing a 
 voluminous table of logarithms ; but the power of 
 registration limits the power of calculation, and, as I 
 said before, it is only with great labour and stress of 
 mind that mental calculation can be carried on beyond 
 a certain extent. Now, for instance, suppose that I 
 had to multiply 89 by 73, I should say instantly 6497 ; 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 125 
 
 if I read the figures written out before me I could not 
 express a result more correctly, or more rapidly ; this 
 facility has, however, tended to deceive me, for I 
 fancied that I possessed a multiplication table up to 
 100 times 100, and, when in full practice, even beyond 
 that ; but I was in error ; the fact is that I go through 
 the entire operation of the computation in that short 
 interval of time which it takes me to announce the 
 result to you. I multiply 80 by 70, 80 by 3 ; 9 by 70, 
 and 9 by 3 ; which will be the whole of the process as 
 expressed algebraically, and then I add them up in 
 what appears to be merely an instant of time. This 
 is done without labour to the mind ; and I can do any 
 quantity of the same sort of calculation without any 
 labour, and can continue it for a long period; but 
 when the number of figures increases, the strain on 
 the mind is augmented in a very rapid ratio. As 
 compared with the operation on paper in multiplying 
 three figures by three figures, you have three lines of 
 four figures each, or twelve figures in the j)rocess to 
 be added up ; in multiplying six figures into six 
 figures you have six lines of seven figures, or forty-two 
 figures to be added up. The time, therefore, in 
 registration on paper will be as 12 to 42. But the pro- 
 cess in the mind is different. Not only have I that 
 additional number of facts to create, but they must be 
 imprinted on the mind. The impressions to be made 
 
126 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 are more in number, they are also more varied, and 
 the impression required is so much deeper, that instead 
 of being hke 3 or 4 to 1, it is something Hke 16 to 1. 
 Instead of increasing by the square, I beheve it in- 
 creases by the fourth power. I do not pretend to say 
 that it can be expressed mathematically, but the ratio 
 increases so rapidly that it soon limits the useful 
 effect of mental calculation. As a great effort, I have 
 multiplied twelve places of figures by twelve places 
 of figures ; but that has required much time, and 
 was a great strain upon the mind. Therefore, in 
 stating my conviction that mental arithmetic could be 
 taught, I would desire it to be understood, that the 
 limits within which it may be usefully and properly 
 applied should be restricted to multiplying three figures 
 by three figures. Up to that extent, I believe it may be 
 taught with considerable facility, and will be received 
 by young minds, so disposed, quite as easily as the 
 ordinary rules of arithmetic." 
 
 In 1862 Sir John Hawkshaw became president. 
 During a highly successful career this gentleman has 
 been engaged on many works of the first magnitude, 
 among which may be cited the Lancashire and York- 
 shire Eailway, the Charing Cross Eailway, and Lon- 
 donderry Bridge. Sir John Hawkshaw also acquired 
 great reputation by the resource displayed by him 
 on the failure of the Middle Level sluice at St. Ger- 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 127 
 
 mans, near Lynn, where, instead of constructing a 
 new sluice, he invented and erected syphons for the 
 drainage of the district. Sir John Hawkshaw is an 
 engineer of advanced ideas, and is a warm advocate 
 of the Anglo-French tunnel under the Channel. 
 
 In 1866 Mr. M^ Clean was succeeded by Mr. John 
 Fowler, an engineer of the first rank, who has con- 
 structed lines in nearly every part of England, the 
 Great Northern and Western systems in Ireland, the 
 Metropolitan Eailway, and numerous other railways 
 in and around London. 
 
 Between 1868 and the date of writing, the chair 
 has been occupied by four engineers of the highest 
 distinction. Charles Hutton Gregory — a son of Dr. 
 Gregory, the distinguished Professor of Mathematics 
 at the Eoyal Academy, Woolwich — was brought up in 
 the works of Messrs. Bramah and Co., and was early 
 in life appointed the resident engineer of the Croydon 
 Eailway. He subsequently became connected with 
 the Bristol and Exeter, and all the lines of railway 
 within that district, and has latterly been generally 
 consulted by the Crown Agents for the Colonies. 
 
 Mr. Charles Blacker Vignoles holds one of the oldest 
 commissions now extant in the British army. He 
 was on active service in Spain, and distinguished 
 himself in a " forlorn hope," whence he was lucky 
 enough to escape with a whole skin. On the advent of 
 
128 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 "piping times of peace," he turned his mathematical 
 knowledge to good account, and, as became the grand- 
 son of old Dr. Hutton, he embraced the career of 
 a civil engineer. Mr. Yignoles constructed many 
 notable works in England, and also took his share in 
 the parliamentary fights of the last generation. He 
 then turned his attention to Eussia, where he made 
 several lines of railway, and the famous Kieff suspen- 
 sion bridge. Mr. Vignoles has also had a large share 
 in constructing the railway system of South America. 
 Mr. Thomas Hawksley — who succeeded Mr. Vignoles 
 as President of the Institution of Civil Engineers — 
 commenced life as a surveyor, but speedily attained 
 celebrity as a surveyor for water and gas, and has 
 designed and constructed many important works at 
 Nottingham, Liverpool, and other places. In the 
 present year Mr. Hawksley gave place to Mr. Thomas 
 Elliot Harrison. This gentleman was brought up in 
 the office of Eobert Stephenson, in whose estimation 
 he stood very high on account of his clearness of 
 judgment and fertility of resource. Mr. Harrison has 
 acquired deserved celebrity by the construction of the 
 High-Level bridge at Newcastle, and of the docks and 
 other great works connected with the North -Eastern 
 Eailway. 
 
 The illustrious roll of presidents, and the record of 
 their achievements, form after all but a small part of 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEEBS. 129 
 
 the history of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 
 Among the members are Sir William Armstrong, who 
 achieved celebrity by the invention of the hydraulic 
 crane and the gun which is called after him ; his great 
 rival in the manufacture of ordnance, Sir Joseph 
 Whitworth, the founder of the famous Whitworth 
 scholarships; Dr. C. W. Siemens, whose researches 
 in metallurgy have acquired for him a world-wide 
 reputation ; James Abernethy, James Brunlees, J. F. 
 Bateman, Joseph Bazalgette, Sir William Fairbairn, 
 Isaac Lowthian Bell, Sir George Elliot, William 
 Menelaus, and many more able engineers and in- 
 ventors, to mention all of whom would be a lengthy 
 task. 
 
 Suffice it to say that during the last half-century 
 the genius of English engineers has displayed its 
 power in every region of either hemisphere. While 
 the vast peninsula of Hindostan was being knit to- 
 gether by iron bonds, an enterprising band of English 
 engineers laid the foundation of the railway system of 
 South America. The success of the Maua Eailway — 
 designed and constructed by Edward Brainerd Webb 
 — opened the eyes of the Brazilians to the value of 
 railway communication in a country of such " magni- 
 ficent distances" that railroads are the only possible 
 roads. From Brazil the desire for railways spread to 
 the Eiver Plate, where many important railways have 
 
130 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 been made, and others are still in course of construc- 
 tion by Mr. Webb and other eminent engineers. 
 On the transandine side of the continent much has 
 also been done in facilitating means of communi- 
 cation and opening up to commerce the immense 
 resources of South America. The Peruvian Govern- 
 ment is constructing, under the advice of Mr. 
 Edward Woods, about 500 miles of railway, and 
 the Chilian Government about 300 miles. Eailways 
 have also been introduced into Japan; but the offer 
 of a railway to the Emperor of China has not 
 yet met with a cordial acceptance. Nearer home 
 many great works have been undertaken, among 
 which may be cited the Amsterdam Ship Canal — now 
 being executed under the direction of Sir John Hawk- 
 shaw and Mr. Dirks — and large additions to the dock 
 accommodations of Liverpool. To these last it was 
 originally proposed to add several of Mr. Edwin 
 Clark's hydraulic docks; but the invention of the 
 pneumatic floating dock by Messrs. Latimer Clark 
 and Standsfield has led to the adoption of the newer 
 and far more economical substitute. 
 
 It is gratifying to find that, in the great race of life, 
 English engineers still hold their own, but it is also 
 worthy of remark that the professors of an important 
 and exclusively modern department of engineering 
 have not hitherto been deemed worthy of the highest 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 131 
 
 honours conferred by the Institution of Civil Engineers. 
 Perhaps the existence of a " Society of Telegraphic 
 Engineers " explains the seeming oversight ; for, 
 although no member of the army of electricians has 
 5^et occupied the post of President of the Institution 
 of Civil Engineers, the society in Great George Street 
 has shown no reluctance in taking to her bosom these 
 professors of a new science. In fact the Institution is 
 sufficiently catholic in its views, and opens its doors 
 to no less than four classes of persons. Honorary 
 members are '' distinguished persons " not engaged in 
 the practice of the profession. Among the fifteen 
 honorary members are the Emperor of Brazil, the 
 Prince of Wales, the Duke of Connaught, and General 
 Todleben. The members number 793, and have 
 already been — so far as space will permit — individually 
 referred to. In addition to the actual members, 1295 
 associates are enrolled. These gentlemen are not 
 necessarily civil engineers by profession, but must be 
 qualified to concur with civil engineers in the advance- 
 ment of professional knowledge, and moreover must, 
 like the actual members, have attained the age of 
 twenty-five years — a highly salutary regulation. Ex- 
 press provision is made for the admission of students, 
 who must be between eighteen and twenty-six years of 
 age, and must be or have been pupils of members or 
 Associates of the Institution. At the present moment 
 
132 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 289 students are admitted to many of the most im- 
 portant privileges of membership on paying a sub- 
 scription of <£2 2s. per annum. 
 
 A few years since the Council of the Institution 
 made an inquiry into the present system of educating 
 engineers both at home and abroad, and elicited much 
 valuable information ; but in consequence of a feeling 
 among the members that it was better to let things 
 alone, nothing was done. Experts on the Continent, 
 as well as in England, expressed grave doubts con- 
 cerning the advantage of a severe training in the 
 sciences bearing upon the profession before engaging 
 in its actual practice. In true English style, the 
 systems adopted in France and Germany were decried 
 as producing a race of great schoolboys, who knew 
 nothing " practical," were childishly ignorant of 
 mechanical engineering, and displayed at critical 
 moments an utter absence of that fertility of resource 
 which is one of the characteristics of the English 
 engineer. This is all excellently well, but at the same 
 time those Englishmen who have been contaminated 
 by foreign influences may be excused if they decline 
 to consider theoretical knowledge a positive drawback 
 in the engineering or any other profession. Continued 
 insistence on the virtues of the "practical man" is 
 apt to render one weary of that overpraised individual. 
 It is easy to admire his joluck, his resource, bis handi- 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 133 
 
 ness in overcoming difficulties, but it is now and then 
 impossible to resist the conclusion that, if the prac- 
 tical man had possessed a little more scientific know- 
 ledge, he would have found fewer difficulties to over- 
 come. The whole question appears to be mainly one 
 of time. At first sight, it is of course dreadful to 
 think of arriving at manhood without having acquired 
 anything but theory ; but, on the other hand, it is 
 questionable whether the time invested in scientific 
 study is not rapidly recouped when the young theorist 
 is set to practical work. On the one hand is the fault 
 into which the universities of Oxford and Cambridge 
 have fallen, viz. that of keeping men at school till they 
 are twenty-three years old, an age at which a man 
 ought not only to have left school, but have acquired 
 at least the power of doing work in some walk of life ; 
 while on the other is the obvious disadvantage of 
 bringing up a race of half-educated youths, whose 
 only chance of getting on in life is to blunder on 
 from failure to failure, until success is achieved more 
 by force of character than by constructive skill. 
 Possibly the true technical education — like many other 
 things — has yet to be discovered. 
 
 Members, associates, and students of the Insti- 
 tution are alike stimulated to exertion by many 
 premiums and medals, for which ample funds have 
 been provided by the Telford, Miller, and Howard 
 
134 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 bequests, and the Manby donation. Interesting pro- 
 ceedings take place at the ordinary meetings of the 
 Society, which are often protracted over several 
 sittings. The papers read are considered the property 
 of the Institution, and for this or some other inexplic- 
 able reason, the press are severely enjoined not to 
 publish any record of the proceedings beyond the 
 official precis of the original paper presented to them 
 by the Society. In many cases of great public interest 
 this policy of restriction is severely felt. The griev- 
 ance is not so much that only a precis of the original 
 paper may be reported, but that the discussion is 
 entirely reserved for the Transactions of the Society. 
 A notable instance of the inconvenience occasioned 
 by this rule occurred last year. A great debate was 
 expected on a subject of the highest importance — no 
 less than the break of gauge in India. I found the 
 great room of the Institution crowded with eager 
 debaters and anxious listeners. Mr. Thornton's able 
 paper provoked a discussion which will long remain in 
 my memory as one of the most remarkable for interest 
 and vivacity that I have been privileged to witness. 
 For months the public remained in a benighted state 
 on the Indian railway question, simply because the 
 publication of the discussion on the most interesting 
 question before the engineering world was impossible, 
 except through the ordinary official medium. 
 
 I 
 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 135 
 
 As for myself, I enjoyed the proceedings immensely, 
 simply because I was not allowed to write about them, 
 and my appreciation of the argumentative power and 
 the opposite theories of the great engineers who 
 entered the arena was not dimmed by the knowledge 
 that- work was then and there by me to be performed ; 
 but on leaving Great George Street, after each 
 brilliant meeting, I could not help regretting that 
 before the record of the discussions could reach the 
 public eye the heat of battle would have passed 
 away, and the Indian railway question — undergoing 
 the fate of other questions — have crystallized into a 
 lifeless thing of the past. 
 
136 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 V. 
 
 THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 One of the first to recognize the truth that science has 
 in modern times acquired a range not to be comprised 
 by any one institution, the Society of Arts has ever 
 been ready to assist the formation of any association 
 having a special object, and has recently established 
 special sections of its own, such as the Indian and the 
 Chemical Section. Specialty is, indeed, one of the 
 salient features of the nineteenth century. Special 
 knowledge and special power are everywhere in 
 demand. In law, in the arts, and more especially in 
 science, the specialist is looked upon with a peculiarly 
 favourable eye. Mankind gratefully acknowledges its 
 obHgations to the man who devotes his life to the 
 attainment of perfect knowledge within a certain 
 narrow sphere. Never was the " Jack of all trades 
 and master of none" doctrine more implicitly received 
 than at the present moment ; and never was the 
 
THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 137 
 
 " life-view " (as he calls it) of my friend Professor 
 Engestrom so generally accepted. The professor — 
 who is constantly insisting that the aim and object of 
 life cannot be too early decided upon and too 
 rigorously adhered to — is fond of citing the instance 
 of the famous grammarian who devoted his life to the 
 dative case. Doubtless this scheme of life, leaving 
 the world's work to be done by infinite division of 
 labour, does not meet with much sympathy from 
 old-fashioned people, who incline to the idea that 
 more perfect manhood is achieved by a general 
 student than by a narrow specialist. These well- 
 meaning people urge that in olden times men were 
 more many-sided than they now are, and that one 
 individual might be a good soldier, sailor, lawyer, and 
 politician, and therefore enjoy a fuller life than his 
 descendant of to-day ; but it behoves us to recollect 
 that it was not difficult to know all that was to be 
 learned four hundred years ago. The recorded wisdom 
 of the western world might have easily been contained 
 in a hundred tomes, and, with the exception of mathe- 
 matics, science in its exact sense was unknown. 
 Astronomy, struggling in the trammels of traditional 
 cosmogonies, was largely mingled with astrology. 
 Botany was confined to the enumeration of the pro- 
 perties of simples plucked under certain lunar in- 
 fluences. Chemistry was in the alchemical stage, 
 
138 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 busying itself with the elixir vitse ; and the metallurgy 
 of the period consisted of researches into the ima- 
 ginary transmutation of metals and the vain pursuit 
 of the philosopher's stone. 
 
 During the last two centuries more advance in 
 scientific knowledge has been made than during all 
 the thousands of previous years, but it is during the 
 present age that facilities of communicating thought 
 and its results have led to the splitting up of the 
 sciences into minute divisions and subdivisions. As 
 lawyers have divided law until the pursuit of each 
 narrow branch has become a distinct profession ; as 
 doctors have dissected the human body and divided it 
 among them, one taking the eye, and another the ear, 
 the brain, the heart, the lungs, the throat, or the 
 stomach as his peculiar domain of research ; so has 
 the mantle of Friar Bacon or of Schwartz — fit repre- 
 sentatives of the ancient alchemist or astrologer — 
 been cut up into many fragments, and distributed 
 among astronomers, naturalists, physiologists, botan- 
 ists, geologists, physicists, metallurgists, palaeontolo- 
 gists, and chemists. 
 
 The immense development of chemical research in 
 this country by Davy, Dalton, and their contempo- 
 raries very naturally suggested the formation of a 
 society having for its object the advancement of 
 chemical science. It is true that the Eoyal Society 
 
THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 139 
 
 was always ready to welcome the accomplished 
 chemist, and it would argue slight knowledge of the 
 history of chemistry to overlook the brilliant dis- 
 coveries made in the laboratory of the Eoyal Institu- 
 tion, but it was, nevertheless, felt that a special 
 society was needed for the encouragement of chemistry 
 as distinguished from physics and other cognate 
 sciences. It was thought that chemistry had at 
 length grown big enough to have — like the ancestral 
 O'Donoghue — a ^'boat of its own," and the important 
 bearing of the newly-developed science upon the 
 industry of the country was urged as a powerful and 
 tempting argument in favour of stimulating chemical 
 investigation. The honour of the initiative is due to 
 Mr. Eobert Warington, who convened a meeting for 
 the purpose of taking into consideration the formation 
 of a Chemical Society. The meeting was held in the 
 well-known rooms of the Society of Arts on February 
 23rd, 1841. Among those present were the excellent 
 and ubiquitous Mr. Arthur Aikin, W. E. Grove, Lyon 
 Playfair, and Professor Graham, who occupied the 
 chair. The formation of a Chemical Society having 
 been resolved, the objects of the Society were declared 
 to be the promotion of chemistry, and of those 
 branches of science immediately connected with it, by 
 the reading, discussion, and subsequent publication of 
 original communications, and the formation of a 
 
140 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 cliemical library and museum. The annual subscrip- 
 tion of members resident within twenty miles of 
 London was fixed at two pounds, and of those residing 
 beyond that distance at one pound. Thomas Graham 
 was elected the first president ; J. T. Cooper, W. T. 
 Brande, J. F. Daniell, and K. Phillips, vice-presidents. 
 Arthur Aikin — still full of energy — was appointed 
 treasurer ; and Eobert Warington and E. F. Tesche- 
 macher, secretaries. 
 
 A council was appointed, the names of seventy-seven 
 gentlemen who had become members were then read, 
 and the Society adjourned until Tuesday, the 13th 
 April. The Society now continued to meet regularly 
 from time to time, and between 1841 and 1847 pub- 
 lished three volumes of Memoirs and Eeports of 
 Proceedings. At the latter date the members 
 numbered between two and three hundred, and it was 
 therefore considered desirable that steps should be 
 taken for obtaining a Eoyal Charter of Incorporation, 
 which was granted in the following year. In accord- 
 ance with this document, the Chemical Society consists 
 of Fellows, honorary and foreign Members, and 
 Associates. The Fellows elect out of their own body 
 a governing council consisting of a president, four or 
 more vice-presidents, a treasurer, two secretaries, a 
 foreign secretary, and twelve other Fellows. At the 
 present moment the presidential chair is filled by Dr. 
 
THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 141 
 
 Odling, and among the vice-presidents who have filled 
 the office of president are found the familiar names of 
 Brodie, Frankland, Hofmann, Lyon Playfair, and 
 Williamson. Mr. W. H. Perkin and Dr. Enssell are 
 the efficient secretaries ; Dr. Hugo Miller fills the 
 post of foreign secretary, and Mr. Abel acts as 
 treasm-er. Other magnates of the chemical world 
 figure in the list of the council, notably Drs. Eoscoe, 
 Maxwell Simpson, Stenhouse, and Armstrong. The 
 post of librarian and editor of the Society's journal — 
 a duty much increased of late by the incorporation of 
 translations of foreign papers — is ably filled by Mr. 
 Henry Watts, whose tremendous " Dictionary " is a 
 lasting witness to the way in which he jierforms his 
 valuable work. Candidates for admission to the 
 Society are proposed on a form of recommendation 
 subscribed by five Fellows of the Society at least, 
 three of whom recommend the neophyte from " per- 
 sonal knowledge," while the remaining two may 
 recommend from *' general knowledge" — whatever 
 that precise form of knowledge may be worth. After 
 being balloted for and duly elected by three -fourths 
 of the voters, the new Fellow pays an admission fee of 
 two pounds and his first year's subscription or life- 
 composition, and is then received into the bosom of 
 the association by the president, who, taking him by 
 the hand, says, '' Mr. , I do, by the authority 
 
142 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 and in the name of the Chemical Society, admit you a 
 Fellow thereof." At the present moment the Fellows 
 number about eight hundred. Of the Associate — a 
 species of *^ free-list subscriber" — only one instance 
 exists. The number of foreign Members is limited to 
 forty, but on this list are found many of the most illus- 
 trious names in the history of chemistry. First on 
 the roll stands Balard, the discoverer of bromine ; and 
 next to him Berthelot, who contributed to chemical 
 science the Syntheses of Formiates, of Alcohol, and of 
 Acetylene. Boussingault, famous by his researches 
 into the Chemistry of Vegetation, follows next, and 
 precedes the illustrious Bunsen, whose name is 
 rendered dear to the scientific world by the invention 
 of the Bunsen burner, by the perfection of gas analysis, 
 and by the discovery of caesium, and rubidium, and 
 the spectrum analysis. Next follows Cahours, whose 
 researches in potato sj)irit, and determination — in 
 conjunction with Hofmann — of the phosphorus bases, 
 are fresh in the memory ; Canizzaro, made famous by 
 the Synthesis of Aromatic Alcohols, and his considera- 
 tions on Atomic Weights from Specific Heat ; and 
 Chevreul, identified with the Chemistry of Fats and 
 the Theory of Colours. The name of Deville recalls 
 aluminium ; and that of Dumas the Theory of 
 Types and Organic Analysis. Many other famous 
 chemists are on this remarkable list — notably 
 
THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 143 
 
 Wohler, of Gottingen, who, so long ago .as 1828, 
 established the Synthesis of Urea, and Wurtz, 
 the discoverer of Glycol and Ethylamine ; Stas, well 
 known by his researches on Atomic Weights ; and 
 Kekule, of Bonn, identified with Atomicity and 
 Thiacetic Acid. Two great names now challenge 
 attention. Kolbe, of Leipzig, celebrated by the 
 Electrolysis of Fatty Acids — by the Synthesis of 
 Formic Acid from nascent Hydrogen and Carbonic 
 Acid — by the Synthesis of Oxalate of Sodium from 
 Carbonic Acid and Sodium, and by the Theory of 
 Isomeric Alcohols. Pasteur has not only written his 
 name in the history of chemistry by his discovery of 
 optical differences in Amylic Alcohol and in Tartaric 
 Acid, but has become famous in physiological contro- 
 versy by his experiments in biogenesis. Conducted in 
 a truly philosophical spirit, these famous experiments 
 form an epoch in the long contest between the advocates 
 and opponents of the theory of spontaneous generation. 
 From its foundation to the present day, the 
 Chemical Society has done much good solid work. 
 Eecorded among its proceedings are many papers 
 which have left their mark on the history of chemistry. 
 From its earliest days the Society has shown a keen 
 appreciation of Teutonic research, and has devoted 
 much time and pains to the translation of papers by 
 eminent German chemists. In 1841 translations were 
 
144 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 read of the papers on " Cacodyl Compounds," con- 
 tributed by Professor Bunsen, then of Marburg. 
 During the next two years Dr. Stenhouse read many 
 papers before the Chemical Society. Aniline now 
 attracted the attention of Muspratt and Hofmann — in 
 whose laboratory Perkin was destined to discover the 
 commercial value of mauve. Hofmann himself com- 
 municated papers on the Metamorphoses of Indigo, 
 and on Styrole. 
 
 In 1845 Hofmann pursued his researches on aniline, 
 and in 1848, while professor at the Eoyal College of 
 Chemistry, contributed to the Society his researches 
 on the Volatile Bases, including the papers on the 
 " Action of Cyanogen on Aniline, Toluidine, and 
 Cumidine," on the " Action of Iodine on Aniline," and 
 on the " Action of Chloride, Bromide, and Iodide of 
 Cyanogen on Aniline." "While Hofmann was pursuing 
 this line of investigation, Kolbe and Frankland were 
 making researches into the nature of the Organic 
 Eadicals, and Liebig contributed papers from time to 
 time. In 1857 Church and Perkin communicated the 
 results of their study of '' some new colouring matters, 
 Derivatives of Dinitrobenzole, etc.," and Mr. Perkin 
 followed this by a paper on the " Action of Cyanogen 
 on Naphthalamine." At this period Dr. Lyon Play- 
 fair also sent in papers on the '' Nitro-Prussides," and 
 other subjects. 
 
THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 145 
 
 In 1858 Wanklyn communicated a paper on the 
 Synthesis of Propionic Acid, followed at a later date 
 by the Synthesis of Propione, and in 1863, then 
 working in conjunction with Erlenmeyer, produced 
 Hexylic Compounds from Mannite. 
 
 In the pages of the Journal of the Chemical Society, 
 Kopp has recorded his investigations into the Specific 
 Heat of Solid Bodies, and Kolbe his Synthesis of 
 OxaHc Acids and his Prognosis of New Alcohols and 
 Aldehydes. 
 
 The late Ernest Chapman read papers on many 
 subjects — in particular on Limited Oxidation. In 
 
 1867 a paper describing the Ammonia Process of 
 Water Analysis was communicated by Wanklyn, 
 Chapman, and Smith ; and was followed in the next 
 year by the rival system of Frankland and Armstrong, 
 which brought about a vigorous controversy. Dr. 
 Frankland, working in conjunction with the late Mr. 
 Duppa, also produced some excellent papers on Ethide 
 of Boron and on the Eeduction of Oxalic Ether to 
 Leucic Ether by the action of Zinc-Ethyl. The year 
 
 1868 was marked by Dr. Siemens' paper on the 
 Eegenerative Gas Furnace as applied to the manufac- 
 ture of cast steel ; and more recently Isaac Lowthian 
 Bell contributed a valuable paper on the Chemistry of 
 the Blast-furnace. 
 
 The Chemical Society is one of those highly favoured 
 
 L 
 
146 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 bodies wliich, like the Eoyal Society and the Geological 
 Society, are permitted to occupy a portion of Burling- 
 ton House. A magnificent suite of rooms is allotted 
 to it. There is a handsome library, admirably 
 appointed, and enriched by a fine collection of 
 chemical works, and regular files of English and 
 foreign scientific periodicals. Adjoining the library 
 is the inevitable tea-room, without which the domain 
 of no scientific society is complete. Beneath these 
 apartments is the great room of the society, fitted uj) 
 with benches in ascending order, like those of an 
 ordinary lecture-room. Behind a long table, more or 
 less encumbered with chemical specimens and 
 apparatus, sit the president and the two secretaries — 
 the two latter gentlemen being charged with the 
 onerous duty of reading papers in the absence of their 
 authors. The presence of a number of ballot-boxes 
 reveals the fact that several gentlemen recommended 
 on the basis of " personal " or " general " knowledge 
 are up for election ; and the reception of many 
 recently-elected Fellows, according to the form pre- 
 scribed, indicates that the Chemical Society is adding 
 largely to its list of members. This is a cheering 
 sign, but my spirits are slightly dashed when I observe 
 the extreme youth of many among the audience. As 
 the names of the visitors — of whom each Fellow may 
 introduce two — are read aloud, I find that their 
 
THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 147 
 
 number does not account for the remarkable pre- 
 ponderance of young gentlemen. On inquiry I find 
 that these must, therefore, be actual Fellows. I 
 naturally experience some little surprise at this dis- 
 covery, as I was once inclined — in the innocence of my 
 heart — to attribute a certain distinction to the mystic 
 letters F.C.S. Now, no human being is more incKned 
 to encourage youth, and more disposed to regret its 
 loss, than myself. It has long been an article of my 
 creed that when a man is able to do good work, he is 
 old enough to be entrusted with it, and I never lose 
 an opportunity of insisting that in life the '' time " is 
 not, as musicians say, "taken quickly enough," but I 
 find it difficult to resist the conviction that many of 
 the juvenile Fellows of the Chemical Society cannot 
 possibly have attained any higher rank than that of 
 students or of assistants to lecturers. I may be 
 mistaken. The young gentlemen referred to may 
 have attained eminence in the chemical world, or the 
 letters F.C.S. may not be intended to convey any 
 grave significance, but I confess that I am puzzled. 
 
 Elections over, the reading of papers is proceeded 
 with. Many of these are important, and a particularly 
 interesting account of researches in Phenol is read 
 by Dr. Armstrong, the chemical professor of the 
 London Institution. Time passes quickly, and the 
 attention given to the business of the evening is 
 
148 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 perfectly warranted by its engrossing character. 
 Much revolving these things, I at length emerge into 
 Piccadilly admiring the youth of the Fellows of the 
 Chemical Society, and wondering why a powerful 
 body hke this, possessing a fine library, has yet no 
 museum of its own. 
 
( 149 ) 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE DEPAETMENT OF SCIENCE 
 AND AET. 
 
 It would be difficult to find a more curious and in- 
 structive illustration of the growth of English institu- 
 tions than the Science and Art Department of the 
 Committee of Council on Education. In other 
 ignorant countries — such as France, for instance — 
 there is always a Minister of Public Instruction, a sort 
 of chief schoolmaster, who is supposed to look after the 
 education of the million ; but in this country it was 
 long deemed unnecessary to create a minister without 
 any perceptible functions. Five-and-twenty years 
 ago there was little talk about education, and, so far 
 as the many were concerned, there was none. The 
 reports of Government inspectors have clearly demon- 
 strated that the so-called teaching of the National 
 Schools practically amounted to nothing, and could 
 hardly be designated education without provoking a 
 laugh. Since then much has been done in the way 
 
150 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 of educating the loeople, and the Lord President of 
 the Council has been called upon to fulfil in England 
 the duties assigned abroad to the Minister of Public 
 Instruction. This procedure is intensely English. 
 A brand new office, created to supply a fresh and 
 growing want, would hardly have suited the insular 
 genius. We had a Lord President of the Council 
 whose duty apparently was to perform presidential 
 instead of, as was said of the archdeacon, " archi- 
 diaconal" functions. He was paid a good round 
 salary, and should be made to work for it. Hence 
 education is represented in the Upper House by the 
 Lord President, and in the Commons by the Vice- 
 President of the Council, to the great delight of 
 Englishmen, who love to explain to the " intelligent 
 foreigner" that, although they have no special Minister 
 of Instruction, they yet have the thing under another 
 name. 
 
 The Department of Science and Art was formed out 
 of three more or less elementary bodies — the Depart- 
 ment of Practical Art, the Royal College of Chemistry, 
 and the Eoyal School of Mines, whereof the second 
 has been long since absorbed by the third, which, 
 although now included under the General Department, 
 enjoys a distinct existence, a separate constitution, 
 and a clearly defined income of its own. I would 
 fain have discoursed in separate essays on the rise. 
 
THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART. 151 
 
 progress, and ultimate destiny of these several insti- 
 tutions, but this Gordian Imot is all too toughly 
 interlaced to yield to my blunted penknife. So far 
 as my limited powers go I will endeavour to set forth 
 the pecuHar functions of each body, but dissever them 
 I neither must nor may. All are now linked together 
 .under the broad title of the Department of Science 
 and Art. The Department was regularly constituted 
 in 1853 by a Minute of the Treasury, in consequence 
 of the rej)resentations of the Board of Trade (under 
 whose jurisdiction the Department of Practical Art, 
 ^bove alluded to, was at that time included), was 
 j.3laced under the Committee of Council on Educa- 
 tion, and during the first six years of its existence 
 was mainly employed in reorganizing the system of 
 Art Instruction. 
 
 Without going into the particulars of the purchase 
 of the Gore House Estate — bought partly with the 
 surplus funds left in the hands of the Eoyal Commis- 
 sioners for the Exhibition of 1851 — it may be sufficient 
 to state that the late Prince Consort induced the 
 'Government of Lord Palmerston to build the well- 
 known "Brompton Boilers," at a cost of a615,000, the 
 Commissioners giving the land, for the purpose — in 
 the first place — of exhibiting the collection of pictures 
 presented to the country by Mr. Sheepshanks on the 
 iexpress condition that the donor should see a building 
 
152 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 erected to receive his gift. Subsequent additions to> 
 the "Boilers" afforded room for the pictures till then 
 exhibited in Marlborough House, to which the old 
 Schools of Design held at Somerset House and else- 
 where were transferred for a while — ultimately to find 
 their home in South Kensington. A Parliamentary 
 grant of ^910,000 was devoted to this latter purpose, 
 and South Kensington became the fulcrum of the Art 
 teaching of the country. Unwilling that the metro- 
 polis should absorb all the advantages of artistic 
 instruction, Mr. Henry Cole, the Secretary of the 
 Department, undertook the onerous task of extending 
 these benefits to the entire country through the in- 
 strumentality of parish and other local schools. The 
 old Schools of Design had been encom-aged after a 
 peculiar fashion. Grants of money were made to 
 certain towns on the condition that they should them- 
 selves furnish an equal sum to that contributed by 
 the State ; for instance, Manchester received ^600 on 
 condition that that city should add an equal sum. 
 This system was exposed to many disadvantages. In 
 the first place, the Government grants were difficult 
 to get. Kidderminster strove in vain for a grant on 
 the ground that the manufacture of carpets required a 
 School of Design, and Stourbridge pleaded her glass 
 manufactures without success, while in those cities 
 where schools actually existed the Government almost 
 
THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART. 153' 
 
 invariably got the worst of the bargain. Local contri- 
 butions came in slowly. In many cases it was found 
 impossible to keep faith with the Government, and the 
 results were lamentably incommensurate with the 
 outlay of public money. It was at once seen that 
 until a properly organized staff of teachers was formed 
 nothing valid could be done, and energetic measures 
 were taken to supply this need. A body of properly 
 certificated teachers was formed. These instructors 
 received at first a certain salary, coupled with an addi- 
 tional remuneration, according to the results of their 
 teaching, shown by their pupils under examination. 
 Ultimately this plan — which was not without merit of 
 its own— was superseded by the system of " payment 
 for results." 
 
 For the first six years of its existence, from 1853 to- 
 1859, the Department found Art easier to manage 
 than Science, and experienced very great difficulty in 
 organizing the scientific branch. Until the year 1859, 
 elementary instruction in science was hardly attain- 
 able by the artisan. It is true that some of the 
 principal mechanics' institutions scattered over the 
 great towns had from time to time ''popular" lectures 
 on scientific subjects, illustrated frequently by experi- 
 ments, diagrams, or specimens, but these lectures 
 rarely extended to systematic courses. In very few 
 institutions were any classes for collective instruction. 
 
154 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 scarcely any had laboratories, and whatever collec- 
 tions of natural objects existed were almost always 
 ill-arranged and incomplete, even for the pm'poses 
 of very limited instruction. A few exceptions to this 
 description existed in Glasgow, Edinbm-gh, Man- 
 chester, Liverpool, and London, but in the smaller 
 towns, and in manufacturing and rural districts, no 
 instruction was to be acquired. Various attempts 
 had been made to remedy this state of things. The 
 creation of a Central Science School in the metro- 
 polis was strongly recommended, but has not been 
 carried out to this day. Meanwhile attempts were 
 made to kindle into life what were called Trade 
 Schools. 
 
 These proved such a conspicuous failure, that when 
 the late Lord S alisbury became Lord President of the 
 Council, he resolved that he would either abolish the 
 word Science out of the title of the department, or he 
 would cause some science to be given to the country. 
 Accordingly, about the year 1859, certain principles 
 were laid down which enabled the Department to 
 encourage the teaching of certain sciences bearing 
 upon industry. These principles have since been 
 carried much further. Stated briefly and broadly, 
 the system now at w^ork is, that any locality that 
 pleases may establish a Science School or class. It 
 may be held — in the words of Mr. Cole — in a garret, 
 
THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART. 155 
 
 or may be held in a cellar, without concerning the 
 Department in any way, unless a grant in aid of 
 building be asked for — when certain conditions are 
 insisted on. The teachers are appointed by the local 
 committees, and must have proved their competency 
 by examination. The local committee simply notifies 
 the Department that it has constituted itself, and may 
 then proceed to teach any one or all of the twenty- 
 three sciences enumerated in the Science Directory, 
 and may request that at a certain period of the year 
 the students be examined. 
 
 The examination is conducted by papers sent down 
 from the office in London, and on the results the 
 teachers get payments, and the students prizes. Pay- 
 ments are made on behalf of those who are interpreted 
 to belong to the artisan class — clearly defined in the 
 Science Directory — but the prizes are open to all. 
 The theory is that the artisan class pay moderate 
 fees, and the middle classes larger fees. Gratuitous 
 instruction is now abolished, the payment of fees 
 being insisted upon as a qualification for undergoing 
 examination. Teachers are paid by results, that is, 
 80 much per student of the artisan class that passes 
 examination successfully. The payments are in the 
 following proportions : — ^1 for every second class, in 
 either the elementary or the advanced stage ; ^2 for 
 a first class in either of these stages, or for a second 
 
156 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 class in honours, and £4 for a first class in honours. 
 The object of this system of remuneration is to directly 
 encourage the formation of a class of teachers of 
 elementary science, and to stimulate them to activity 
 by granting payment for "results" alone. The suc- 
 cess of this plan has been rapid. In 1860, 500 
 persons were under instruction in nine schools; in 
 1867, 10,230 persons were under instruction in 212 
 schools ; while in 1870, 34,283 persons were taught in 
 799 schools. From 1870 to 1872 the rate of increase 
 slackened, as no more than 36,783 persons are re- 
 ported as having been instructed during the latter 
 year. Fourteen of these obtained gold, twenty silver, 
 and thirty-three bronze medals, while 5931 received 
 prizes. Between 1872 and 1873 a tremendous leap 
 was made, the number reported under instruction in 
 May, 1873, being 48,546, to whom sixteen gold, 
 eighteen silver, and thirty-four bronze medals, and 
 7215 prizes were given. 
 
 The expenditure of the Science and Art Depart- 
 ment during the financial year 1872-73, exclusive 
 of the vote for the Geological Survey, amounted to 
 ^209,117 2s. 2cZ., and with the addition of ^£21,385 Is. 
 granted for that important object, reached the grand 
 total of ^230,502 3s. 2^. In the succeeding financial 
 year 1873-74, the total expenditure reached £262,503, 
 showing an increase of j£32,000 16s. lOd., and in the 
 
THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART. 157 
 
 current year, dating from the 1st April, 1874, to the 
 31st March, 1875, it is proposed to devote an increase 
 of £15,667 to the Department of Science and Art 
 bringing up the estimates to £278,170. This sum, 
 £278,170, is distributed as follows :— 
 
 Administration of Science and Art Department £5,422 
 
 Schools of Science and Art 120,110 
 
 Purchases and Circulation 23,682 
 
 South Kensington Museum ... 38,024 
 
 Services common to the several divisions ... 28,177 
 
 Branch Museum, Bethnal Green ... ... 5,810 
 
 School of Mines and Geological Museum ... 8,998 
 
 Edinburgh Museum 9,824 
 
 Royal Dublin Society 1,823 
 
 Botanic Gardens (Dublin) ... 2,148 
 
 Leinster Lawn (Dublin) 200 
 
 Museum of Natural History ... 1,672 
 
 Library (Dublin) 1,677 
 
 Royal College of Science (Dublin) 6,883 
 
 Royal Hibernian Academy ... 300 
 
 Royal Zoological Society of Ireland ... ... 500 
 
 Geological Survey of United Kingdom ... 22,920 
 
 "Without going into minute details of increase and 
 decrease, it may be said briefly that £168 is saved on 
 the item Administration, £605 on Purchases and 
 Circulation, £372 on the South Kensington Museum, 
 and £445 on the Eoyal Dublin Society. An increase 
 of £877 is devoted to Services Common to both 
 Departments, £240 to Bethnal Green, £592 to the 
 
158 
 
 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 Edinburgh Museum, and ^£253 to the Geological 
 Survey. It is, however, gratifying to record that 
 .-£15,550, or nearly the entire net increase, is devoted 
 to the Schools of Science and Art, raising this item 
 from £104,560 in 1873-74 to ^9120,110 in 1874-75. 
 The total increase under this head is put down at 
 d£15,550, but a saving on the School of Naval Archi- 
 tecture (now removed to Greenwich) of ^0310, and a 
 deduction of £50 from scholarships, bring the net 
 amount disposable for other branches up to £15,910, 
 distributed thus : — 
 
 Schools of Science and Aet. 
 
 Grants in Aid to Schools of Science and Art 
 
 Science ... 
 
 Salaries of National Art Training Schools 
 
 Maintenance of Students 
 
 Public Elementary Schools 
 
 Artisans attending Night Classes 
 
 National Scholarships, etc 
 
 Local Secretaries 
 
 Preparation for Papers, etc., for Ex 
 
 aminations 
 
 Inspection and Examination 
 
 Local Committees 
 
 Prizes 
 
 Scholarships 
 
 Grants for Examples 
 
 Building Grants , 
 
 Increase. 
 
 Total. 
 
 £7,500 ... 
 
 £40,500 
 
 s 300 ... 
 
 2,100 
 
 — 
 
 2,800 
 
 4,000 ... 
 
 15,500 
 
 900 ... 
 
 17,500 
 
 100 ... 
 
 1,600 
 
 300 ... 
 
 1,300 
 
 1,150 ... 
 
 6,750 
 
 960 ... 
 
 12,310 
 
 500 ... 
 
 3,800 
 
 800 ... 
 
 7,800 
 
 — ... 
 
 750 
 
 400 ... 
 
 5,400 
 
 — 
 
 2,000 
 
 £15,910 £120,110 
 
THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART. 159' 
 
 Some of these items may speak for themselves, but 
 others will need some slight explanation. The sum 
 of £6,750 charged under the head of Preparation of 
 Papers, etc., for Examination is distributed among 
 the following gentlemen, of whom the Examiners in 
 Art are Sir F. Grant, E.A., Sir M. Digby Wyatt, 
 C. W. Cope, E.A., R. Eedgrave, E.A., F. E. Pickers^ 
 gill, E.A., H. Weekes, E.A., J. C. Horsley, E.A.,. 
 F. Leighton, E.A., and J. Marshall, F.E.S., with 
 assistants. In Science, the examination papers are 
 prepared by Professors Tyndall, Frankland, Huxley, 
 and Percy, with their able staff of assistants. 
 
 The papers prepared by these high authorities are 
 sent down into the country, and the pupils are examined 
 them in presence of the committee, the teacher being 
 rigorously excluded from the building, and by the 
 result of these papers the pass degrees or honours, 
 gold, silver, and bronze medals and other prizes, are 
 awarded to the pupils, and the capitation fees assigned 
 to the teachers. The sum which has been increased 
 to £40,500 in the present estimates, and is put down 
 as " Science," is entirely devoted to the payment of 
 science teachers "by results." 
 
 Few will cavil at the gross amount distributed 
 among the science teachers of the country, especially 
 when regard is had to the immense amount of work 
 done for it. Capitation fees for successful pupils 
 
160 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 in the proportion of one, two, and four pounds per 
 head, according to the degrees of efficiency exhibited 
 under examination, may be satisfactory enough as 
 ■*' encouragement " to the teachers, but barely answer 
 io the demand for sufficient remuneration for work 
 ■done. As a stimulant to exertion the premium on 
 results is well enough without doubt, but it holds out 
 a prize not always to the swift, nor even to the strong, 
 but often to the lucky. In writing on scientific 
 subjects it is always w^ell to eliminate the element of 
 ■chance, if possible ; but in the case of popular educa- 
 tion it is not always possible to achieve this feat. 
 Into scientific teaching chance enters largely. To 
 begin with, the teacher may have dreary up-hill 
 work. The district wherein he is called upon to 
 lecture may be swayed by adverse influences. Noble 
 pursuits, such as dog-fighting and nurr-and-spell, 
 may hold out superior attractions to some, while 
 cricket and skittles may deflect other pupils from 
 the science class. Admitting that the absorbing 
 influence of these truly British pastimes may be 
 overcome, and a fair class attendance secured, the 
 ieacher still has to contend with numerous disadvan- 
 tages. His pupils may be below even the average 
 level of stupidity. He may talk and he may experi- 
 ment, but if the material of his class be thoroughly 
 dense his labours may prove vain. Another difficulty 
 
THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND ABT. 161 
 
 arises from those indolent or balf-liearted students 
 who, imagining that they have acquired the smatter- 
 ing they deem necessarj^, shirk the examination, the 
 results of which alone entitle their pastor and master 
 to remuneration. 
 
 Laziness and a childish fear of breaking down also 
 help to deprive the master of his fair exhibit. Worse 
 than all of these is a selfish indifferentism, which 
 induces pupils to disregard the master's interests 
 altogether so long as their own turn is served. 
 Against all these adverse influences the Science teacher 
 has to contend, and it therefore hardly seems fair to 
 deny him all remuneration except by '^results." As 
 a i3roof of the injustice that frequently occurs, I may 
 cite the case of a Science teacher who took high 
 honours, and who yet by the "result" system only 
 received £7 for a course of sixty experimental lectures 
 in his first year of teaching, since when — during the 
 last four or five years — he has delivered ninety 
 lectures per annum, and has earned from ^12 to ^26 
 by each com-se. As this is by no means an isolated 
 case, it would appear that the hard and fast Hne of 
 payment "by results alone" may be advantageously 
 departed from by granting teachers a small salary — 
 say of 5OIO or ^12 per annum — as a species of 
 guarantee against actual dead loss of time. The large 
 range of subjects included in the advanced stage of 
 
 M 
 
162 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 chemistry is also j)ointed out by the teachers as a 
 si3ecial source of hardship. They declare that students 
 are unable, within a reasonable time, to master the 
 numerous obligatory subjects sufficiently well to face 
 the examiner, and that therefore a vast amount of 
 care and painstaking on the part of the master never 
 has a chance of being recomj)ensed either by pence or 
 praise. 
 
 In order to set forth clearly what is at first sight 
 not very distinct, I may say at once that the items 
 previously enumerated include all that is done for 
 Science by the Department as such, save and except 
 the courses of instruction given for the express benefit 
 of Science teachers. Art is taught directly to pupils 
 at South Kensington, but Science is not — by the 
 Department. There are laboratories at South Kensing- 
 ton where pupils and " Science Teachers in Training" 
 receive instruction, but these are more particularly 
 devoted to the School of Mines. No Science, then, 
 is directly taught by the Department (which only 
 encourages others to teach), exce^^t to the teachers 
 themselves. Lectures are given in summer by the 
 professors of chemistry, physics, and other branches, 
 with the express object of enabling country teachers to 
 obtain a knowledge of the latest discoveries and newest 
 experiments. These lectures were commenced in 
 1869, were attended with great success, and have since 
 
THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND AET. 163 
 
 l^ecome a regular part of the summer programme of 
 the Department. It has been customary to afford 
 such country teachers as have taught two years con- 
 secutively, and passed not less than thirty students 
 each year, second-class railway fare to London, and 
 £3 towards then* expenses of living while there. 
 For the future this arrangement will probably be modi- 
 fied in order to enable a certain number of teachers 
 to stay long enough in London to undergo a course 
 of instruction in teaching certain special subjects. 
 Should this scheme be carried out, such teachers 
 will receive 305. per week instead of one payment 
 of £S. 
 
 Science teachers, then, enjoy the privilege of attend- 
 ing these lectm-es on condition that they do their 
 work thoroughly. They are required to make notes, 
 to afterwards write out a complete report of each 
 lecture, and also to take part in practical work. The 
 reports are examined by the professors, and marks 
 are awarded in accordance with the merit displayed. 
 No less important is the practical teaching given in 
 the laboratories, especially when it is recollected that 
 the object of these courses is to enable teachers to 
 give practical instruction in the several sciences. 
 This plan has called into existence a system of tuition 
 in practical science which has already borne good 
 fruit. Students, instead of being confined to mere 
 
164 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 listening to lectures, are now taught to perform, and' 
 to assist in performing, experiments with their own 
 hands. This system has produced a promising crop 
 of students, of whom about forty-five are at present 
 prosecuting their more advanced studies in the labor- 
 atories of the Eoyal School of Mines under the title 
 of Science Teachers in Training. Time and space 
 permit — for the present — the extension of this latter 
 advantage to a limited number only, but it has been 
 suggested that a most desirable improvement would 
 be made by permitting such promising pupils as are 
 in the habit of assisting their teachers in experiments 
 to listen to the lectures at South Kensington. 
 
 While at work in their own classes the teachers are 
 subject to visits from the Government inspectors, 
 selected for the most part from the officers of the 
 Eoyal Engineers. There can be no doubt as to the 
 conscientiousness with which these gentleman dis- 
 charge their duties, but it is possible that the number 
 of inspectors is not sufficiently large, inasmuch as I 
 am imformed that certain classes — not of the most 
 obscure order — escape inspection for years together. 
 A Science teacher of some experience tells me that for- 
 five years he was never once honoured with a visit of 
 inspection, although his class is held at a well-known 
 spot in the heart of London. Complaints of this kind 
 indicate distinctly enough that the rank and file of 
 
THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART. 165 
 
 4^cience teachers do not feel very well satisfied at 
 being placed under the inspection of a body of gentle- 
 men who, although possessed of high scientific attain- 
 ments, have had comparatively slight experience of 
 -actual teaching. Perhaps the teachers think that 
 their future inspectors ought to be drawn from their 
 own body — but this by the way. 
 
 Pupils are encouraged by the offer of a large 
 number of Exhibitions, Scholarships, Medals, and 
 Prizes. Among these the Eoyal Exhibitions to the 
 School of Mines, the Whitworth Scholarships, the 
 Pioyal Exhibitions to the Eoyal College, Dublin, and 
 the privileges conferred on the gainer of a gold medal 
 at the May Examinsition are the most important, but 
 these are supplemented by many local and conditional 
 prizes and exhibitions, grants for laboratories, etc. 
 The whole system is now in fair working order, and 
 during the last fifteen years has produced results as 
 important as they were unexpected. 
 
 Having now sketched slightly the past and present 
 of the famous Department of Science and Art, taken 
 in its entirety, I may proceed to advert to those 
 scientific institutions which combined with the Depart- 
 ment of Practical Art to produce the vast network of 
 Art and Science schools with which the country is 
 rapidly becoming covered. It is true that the Eoyal 
 College of Chemistry exists no longer as an actual 
 
166 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 coi'iDoration, but an account of scientific culture in 
 England would, nevertheless, be incomplete without 
 some notice of that institution. 
 
 Travellers down Oxford Street will observe a build- 
 ing now converted into a general Medical Council 
 House, looking grimly enough at its neighbour, the 
 Eoyal Orthopaedic Hospital. This establishment — 
 albeit financially a failure — has left no slight mark 
 on the history of science. It was once called the 
 Eoyal College of Chemistry, and during its short 
 span of existence saw much notable work ]Derformed 
 within its walls. The college was first established by 
 a public meeting held in St. Martin's Place, on the 
 29th July, 1845. Form was given to the new insti- 
 tution by the election of a council and the appoint- 
 ment of certain executive officers. Eooms were next 
 hired in George Street, Hanover Square, as labora- 
 tories, but it was soon found necessary to secure a 
 more convenient and permanent habitation. Ulti- 
 mately premises in Hanover Square, with a frontage 
 to Oxford Street, were secured, and the most eminent 
 architects and chemists were consulted as to the 
 formation of an economical and convenient edifice,, 
 with the most efficient arrangements for the opera- 
 tions of the laboratory. On the 16th of June, 1846,, 
 the first stone of the building was laid by the late 
 Prince Consort, the President of the college, who had 
 
THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART. 167 
 
 already conferred immense benefit upon the college by 
 persuading Dr. August Wilhelm Hofmann to preside 
 oyer it. This celebrated chemist had commenced a 
 brilliant career as assistant in the chemical laboratory 
 of the University of Giessen. He subsequently held 
 the appointment of Professor Extraordinary at the 
 University of Bonn, but in 1845 forsook the banks of 
 the Khine for those of the Thames, and became Pro- 
 fessor of the Pioyal College of Chemistry in London. 
 
 After filling this chair for several years. Dr. Hof- 
 mann — pending whose possible retui-n Dr. Frankland 
 accepted the post of provisional professor — was sum- 
 moned to Germany to preside over the erection of 
 new laboratories at Bonn and at Berlin, and was 
 prevailed upon to remain in the Prussian capital — a 
 resolution which it is dimly rumoured he has since 
 had cause to regret. During his residence in London, 
 Dr. Hofmann added greatly to his scientific reputation 
 by carrying out his classical researches on ammonia 
 — showing the successive replacement of hydrogen by 
 various organic radicals — in the laboratory of the 
 Eoyal College of Chemistry. He also, in conjunction 
 with the eminent French chemist M. Cahours, dis- 
 covered a remarkable series of phosphorus repre- 
 sentatives of the compound ammonias. Meanwhile, 
 a discovery of the utmost industrial importance was 
 made in his laboratory. Perkin, in the course of 
 
168 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 some preliminary investigations into the possibility 
 of producing artificial quinine, discovered the famous 
 Perkin's mauve while oxidizing aniline with chromate 
 of potash. This discovery brought its author into 
 well-merited fame — albeit it was well known at the 
 time — when mauve, if not discovered for the first time 
 as a colour, was at least for the first time made 
 commercially valuable — that the technical knowledge 
 and enterprise of a dyer at the East end of London, 
 who ably seconded the exertions of the chemist, con- 
 tributed largely to the industrial value of these 
 investigations. 
 
 Fortunately, or unfortunately, it was discovered, or 
 thought, that successful philosophical investigation 
 barely compensated for financial failure, and the 
 Eoyal School of Chemistry became a doomed institu- 
 tion; not destined, however, to absolute extinction, 
 but rather to absorption, as tottering principalities 
 are sucked into the vortex of neighbouring empires. 
 Pure science was in this case destined to cede the 
 place to technical education. Again, under the 
 auspices of the late Prince Consort a new and 
 vigorous organization had sprung into active life, 
 and becoming in its vigorous growth too large for 
 its own habitation, acquired that of the dwindlmg 
 College of Chemistry as a sort of scientific chapel of 
 ease. The council of the college, despairing of sue- 
 
THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART. 169 
 
 cess, handed over the building, valued at ^3000, to 
 the Government, on condition of a claim of some 
 ^500 being settled; and thus in 1853 the College of 
 Chemistry became the laboratory of the Eoyal School 
 of Mines, under the condition that it should retain 
 its original designation. 
 
 The origin of the School of Mines lies deep down in 
 the primary strata of technical education, and was 
 due, in the first place, to the enterprise of the late Sir 
 Henry de la Beche, in undertaking single-handed the 
 Geological Survey of the United Kingdom; and, in 
 the second, to the English habit of adapting existing 
 institutions to immediate wants. As is well known, 
 the survey undertaken at first by Sir Henry de la 
 Beche, at his own cost, underwent a gradual expan- 
 sion, and, as the value of the work became apparent, 
 received more and more support from the State. In 
 1837 Lord Duncannon, Chief Commissioner of Woods 
 and Forests, allotted apartments in Craig's Court to 
 receive the collection which has since developed into 
 the Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn Street. 
 In 1851, when the latter building was opened, the 
 sm'vey had assumed imposing proportions. Its work- 
 ing staff contained not only practical geologists and 
 field-surveyors, but a naturalist, a mining surveyor, 
 a mineralogist, a metallurgist, and a chemist. 
 
 In the same year numerous memorials, praying for 
 
170 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 the establishment of a mming school, were addressed 
 to the Government. It was m-ged that — though the 
 value of the annual mineral produce of this country 
 amounted to £28,000,000, equalling four-ninths of the 
 total amount produced by the whole of Europe, and 
 far exceeding that yielded by any other State — "the 
 miners and metallurgists of the United Kingdom were 
 unable to obtain that instruction in the theory and 
 the practice of their calling, which had long been 
 carefully provided for their foreign comjpetitors in the 
 mining colleges of France, Belgium, Prussia, Saxony, 
 Austria, Spain, and Sweden, and the effect of which 
 in all cases had been a marked increase in the 
 economy, efficiency, and safety of mining operations.'* 
 The voice of the representatives of the mining 
 interest was raised at the right moment. Finding 
 ripe and ready to hand the complete nucleus of a 
 mining school in the officers, laboratories, and collec- 
 tions of the Geological Survey, the Government lent 
 a willing ear to the request of the memorialists. In 
 1851 the School of Mines was instituted, all its pro- 
 fessors being, with one exception, officers of the Survey 
 and Museum. The existing establishment was further 
 utilized. Students were taught in the theatres and 
 laboratories appertaining to the Museum ; where, 
 surrounded by specimens and models, they possessed 
 every opportunity of profiting by the prescribed course 
 
THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART. 171 
 
 of instruction. As has already been stated, the 
 laboratories soon outgrew the resources of Jermyn 
 Street and were transferred, firstly, to the Eoyal 
 College of Chemistry, and, lastly, in 1872, to South 
 Kensington. Certain parts of the work, however, are 
 still done in Jermyn Street. Thus, while Messrs. 
 Frankland, Huxley, Guthrie, and Goodeve — the 
 lecturers on Chemistry, General Natural History, 
 Physics, and Applied Mechanics — have transferred 
 their habitat to South Kensington, Messrs. Wariiigton 
 Smyth, Percy, and Ramsay — the lecturers on Mining 
 and Mineralogy, Metallurgy, and Geology — still pursue 
 their labom-s amid the illustratiye specimens with 
 which the Museum of Practical Geology abounds. 
 The School of Mines is governed b}' a Council of 
 Professors, whose resolutions are carried into effect 
 by the Registrar, Mr. Trenham Eeeks. To the 
 lectm*es given by this institution the public are 
 admitted on payment of three or fom* pounds, 
 according to the length of the course, and are granted 
 certificates of attendance, but students wishing for 
 certificates of proficiency are compelled to pass the 
 examinations. Those, however, who desire an official 
 certificate constituting them Associates of the Eoyal 
 School of Mines are required to follow^ a course of 
 study extending over three years, and to pay a sum 
 of thirty pounds on entrance, or to make two annual 
 
172 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 payments of twenty pounds each, exclusive of labora- 
 tory fees. This plan of instruction, combining 
 systematic courses of lectures, written and oral 
 examinations, practical teaching in the laboratories 
 and drawing office, and also — under certain conditions 
 — field excursions, is of a thoroughly scientific and, 
 wdthal, technical character, and is, perhaps, the best 
 extant English representative of the admirable system 
 of technical education in force in Germany, Switzer- 
 land, and France. For the first two years a general 
 training is insisted upon, but after the second year 
 pupils may attach themselves to any one of the three 
 divisions prescribed, and may take a first-class in 
 only one of these divisions if preferred. This very 
 rsound and practical plan of study commences m the 
 first year with inorganic chemistry, with practice in 
 the laboratory, and mechanical drawing. In the 
 second year pupils are taught physics, with practice 
 in the laboratory, applied mechanics with demonstra- 
 tions, mechanical drawing and mineralogy. 
 
 Having completed these courses, pupils may in the 
 third year *'go out" in either of the three following 
 divisions : — The Mining Division, comprising mining, 
 assaying, and geology ; the Metallurgical Division, 
 trained to metallurgy in the laboratory ; or the 
 Geological Division, including natural history, with 
 practice in the laboratory, geology, and palgeonto- 
 
THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART. 173^ 
 
 logical demonstration. Altliougli the course of in- 
 struction is spread over three years, persons may, if 
 possessed of sufficient knowledge or industry, save 
 time by getting through the whole and their examina- 
 tion in a couple of years, while those who have already 
 mastered the subjects set down for the fii'st two years 
 may proceed to the courses of the third year by 
 passing the final class examinations in those subjects. 
 It is hardly necessary to say that those persons 
 who desire the title of Associate are the peculiar pride 
 and care of the Eoyal School of Mines. Among these 
 are the Eoyal Exhibitioners. There are nine Eoyal 
 Exhibitions to the School of Mines, of the value of 
 .^50 each per annum. The holders are entitled ta 
 *'free admission to all the lectm-es and the chemical 
 and metallurgical laboratories " for three years, on 
 condition of compliance with the rules, regular attend- 
 ance, and the passing of the examinations required 
 for the associateship. As a rule, three of these 
 exhibitions become vacant every year, and are open 
 for competition at the May examinations of the 
 Science and Art Department, independently of the 
 other prizes offered by that department. All persons 
 over twenty-one years of age — excepting artisans and 
 such persons as are paid upon under the " Science 
 Directory," that is to say, broadly, persons whose 
 income is under c£200 per annum— are excluded from 
 
174 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 competing for the Eoyal Exhibitions. It is pleasing 
 to record that these exhibitions have produced really 
 ■good fruit. Many young men sprung from the true 
 artisan class have won them well, and worn honour- 
 ably the subsequently acquired title of Associate. 
 
 Apart from the Eoyal Exhibitioners and persons 
 desiring associateship, many others are offered strong 
 inducements to pursue the course of study prescribed 
 by the institution. Those who have taken either a 
 first or second-class certificate in " the advanced stage 
 in any subject in Science at the exhibition held by 
 the Science and Art Department, and who show that 
 they are bond fide Science teachers, may attend the 
 day lectures gratuitously, provided that they be 
 •examined in at least one subject, paying a fee for 
 each examination of one pound per course." Officers 
 of the Army and Navy, Her Majesty's consular and 
 diplomatic officers, officers of the Crown at home on 
 furlough, and acting mine agents and managers of 
 mines are admitted to the lectures at half-price. 
 Moreover, those who obtain a Queen's Gold Medal at 
 the annual May examination of the Science and Art 
 Department receive the privilege of attending all 
 lectures and examinations free. Students of the 
 Eoyal Schools of Mines compete for two scholarships 
 of thirty pounds each, granted by H.E.H. the Prince 
 <of Wales as Duke of Cornwall, and thence called the 
 
THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART. 175 
 
 Cornwall Scholarships. Three Eoyal Scholarships, 
 one of twenty-five pounds, and two of fifteen pounds 
 each, are granted to students who stand highest on 
 the list for first and second years of study. In addi- 
 tion to these prizes are the Edward Forbes, the De 
 la Beche, and the Murchison medals and prizes. 
 
 In a thoroughly broad and cathohc spirit the 
 lectures — instead of being confined to high-class 
 students — are thrown open to the public on payment 
 of the sums previously mentioned, and the chemical 
 and metallurgical laboratories are open to any person, 
 whether attending the lectures or not, on payment 
 of the following fees : — In the chemical laboratory 
 twelve pounds for three months, nine for two months, 
 and five for one month; and in the metallurgical 
 laboratory fifteen pounds for three months, twelve 
 pounds for two months, and seven pounds for one 
 month. 
 
 Although the institution of a School of Mines was 
 loudly enough called for nearly a quarter of a century 
 ago, and since that date the inadequate sujDply of 
 technical education in this country has been a favomite 
 theme with educational reformers, the advantage of 
 undergoing a special course of training with a view 
 to acquiring the associateship of the Eoyal School of 
 Mines — a distinction to which due regard is paid in 
 allotting Government appointments — did not seem for 
 
176 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 nearly twenty years to attract the attention that it 
 merited ; but during the last four years a notable 
 increase has taken place in this as in other classes of 
 students. Thus, in the session 1870-71 the number 
 of ^'Eoyal Exhibitioners and Students entering for 
 one, two, or three years, with a view to become 
 Associates," was only 15. In 1873-74 a great advance 
 was made ; 44 postulants for the degree of Associate 
 having presented themselves. During the four years 
 indicated a corresponding increase has taken place in 
 the number of "students entering for special courses." 
 In chemistry the number has arisen from 24 to 48, 
 in physics from 15 to 40, in metallurgy from 4 to 14, 
 and in applied mechanics from 5 to 14, and the fees 
 X^aid by students rose from ^720 5s. in 1870-71 to 
 £1,554: 16s. in 1873-74. These fees are for the most 
 part distributed among the professors. The account 
 for the past year has not been published, but I find 
 that in 1872-73 the fees amounted to ^61137 3s. 4f?., 
 of which the professors received £995 Os. Id., the 
 balance of £142 3s. M. being paid into the Exchequer. 
 It will at once be recognized that the additional 
 income arising from fees is necessary to afford an}'- 
 thing like adequate remuneration to the able pro- 
 fessors engaged, whose fixed salary as " lectm^ers " is 
 only £200 per annum, except in the cases of the 
 chemist and the metallurgist, who receive £300 each, 
 
THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART. 177 
 
 and in that of Professor Eamsay, who, in addition to 
 the appointment of geological lecturer, holds the 
 directorship of the Geological Survey of the United 
 Kingdom, worth .£800 more. 
 
 Those who wander down Exhibition Eoad become 
 aware of a handsome red-brick building, and — on the 
 principle of taking things upon trust — believe it to be 
 the South Kensington Museum. No belief can be 
 more unfounded, as this structure really contains the 
 lecture-rooms and laboratories of four of the depart- 
 ments of the School of Mines — chemistry, physiology, 
 physics, and applied mechanics. On the several floors 
 reign Professors Frankland, Huxley, Guthrie, and 
 Goodeve. In a spacious theatre, admirably con- 
 structed, lighted, and moreover shielded from the 
 light by a skilful arrangement of blinds, and fitted 
 with well-constructed desks, Professor Frankland 
 delivers his lectures on chemistry. Ascending a few 
 flights of stairs, I discover the large resources at the 
 command of the chemical section. Here are labora- 
 tories indeed. Piooms — many of them as yet far from 
 sufficiently furnished — are set apart for the various 
 departments of the chemical curriculum. Conspicu- 
 ous among these are the " balance-rooms," for ele- 
 mentary and advanced students, rooms specially fitted 
 for gas and water analyses, for combustions, and other 
 processes in advanced chemistry. Strolling through 
 
178 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 these apartments, under the care of that earnest pro- 
 fessor, Mr. Valentin, who gives practical instruction 
 in chemistry, I find in every room evidences of sus- 
 tained industry. Students of gas analysis are busily 
 engaged in marking off metrical tubes, while others 
 more advanced are engaged in the finer niceties 
 of the analysis itself. Nothing is more agreeable to 
 the truly scientific mind than this insistence on actual 
 work. A chemist, or for that matter a physicist — to 
 be worth his salt — must be able to construct his own 
 apparatus. In the active exercise of his profession he 
 will often be compelled to make — out of simple glass 
 tubing — an apparatus for grand combustions, includ- 
 ing the famous five-bulb invention of Baron Liebig. 
 In London he can buy these things, or — at a certain 
 sacrifice of time — have them made ; but the genuine 
 worker will save much time by making his apparatus 
 himself, and besides this advantage will always get 
 exactly what he wants. Passing next into a room 
 devoted to distillation, I find myself in the midst of a 
 busy scene. The professor pauses for a moment to 
 observe that an indiarubber tube is not a proper part 
 of an apparatus for distilling alcohol, and to recom- 
 mend a glass tube deftly bent into the required curve, 
 when we proceed into the laboratory for advanced 
 students. This room is well fitted with quiet, silent 
 workers, each at his table busily engaged in working 
 
THE DEPABTMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART. 179 
 
 out the higher problems of chemistry. One young 
 gentleman is evolving chlorine in a fashion easily dis- 
 tinguishable by the nostrils, and comes in for a few 
 remarks from his pastor and master, who devotes a 
 few minutes to the removal of a cloud from the mind 
 of that painstaking but unlucky student. From the 
 advanced school I pass into the laboratory for young 
 scholars, and am not a little surprised at the extreme 
 youth of many of the occupants. Every place is 
 occupied, and every youth, and a few no longer youths, 
 are busily engaged. Clearly, good honest work is 
 being done here, and on a system, the invention of 
 which is, I believe, due to Mr. Valentin himself. The 
 students are armed with his excellent books, and are 
 working patiently through them. Not only is their 
 work carefully checked by the professor and his two 
 assistants, but the scholars are literally brought to 
 book by an admirably arranged series of questions at 
 the end of each chapter. This precaution is highly 
 necessary, inasmuch as a scholar may blunder — by 
 good luck and deft manipulation — through an experi- 
 ment without thoroughly understanding and grasping 
 its rationale. The plan of cross-questioning effectually 
 disposes of this difficulty. No youth can possibly 
 perform an experiment and stand the subsequent 
 cross-examination unless he thoroughly comprehends 
 what has been done. The students are working well. 
 
180 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 Those who have not enjoyed the advantage of a 
 previous course of lectures are jDut through a proper 
 course of elementary experiments, and as soon as they 
 have exhibited tolerable proficiency in *' qualitative," 
 are at once indulged in the more attractive " quantita- 
 tive " analysis. Professor Valentin is not dissatisfied 
 with his disciples, and is not inclined to include want 
 of earnestness and energy among the defects of Young 
 England. Germans are perhaps more anxious and 
 imaginative by fits and starts, but English youth 
 make up for the want of those qualities by their 
 faculty of sustained exertion. 
 
 In the physical school Professor Guthrie is de- 
 livering a lecture on Electricity to a large class 
 of students. This peculiar section is supplied with a 
 perfect arsenal of appliances for performing experi- 
 ments, many of them of the most costly kind. In 
 this respect Professor Guthrie has enjoyed a certain 
 advantage in being enabled to remove the splendid 
 apparatus, accumulated during a series of years at 
 the School of Mines, to South Kensington. Professor 
 Goodeve's department (applied mechanics) is hardly 
 so well off. The lecture-room is yet in the crude 
 condition which, in the case of the chemical labora- 
 tories, called forth some time since a strong remon- 
 strance from Dr. Frankland. To my great sorrow I 
 find that the physiological course of Professor Huxley 
 
THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART. 181 
 
 IS over for this season ; but although the students 
 have sought other, if not fresher, woods and pastures 
 new, the professor himself is discovered hard at work 
 on some anatomical drawings. He is busy, but not 
 too busy to deliver for the express benefit of Major 
 Donnelly — the Government Inspector of the Science 
 Department — and the writer, his views on '' thorough " 
 scientific teaching. Professor Huxley loves to make 
 his students begin at the beginning. A thorough 
 believer in human ignorance and stupidity, he takes 
 utter and complete ignorance for granted. 
 
 Nothing can possibly be more agreeable for the 
 student, who is not asked to know anything, but is 
 simply required to pay attention to what is set before 
 him. The system of teaching initiated by Professor 
 Huxley is purely and simply after the manner of 
 Euclid. No attempt is made to build an airy and 
 showy superstructure upon a rickety and insecure 
 foundation. Bit by bit, brick by brick, the edifice of 
 2^hysiological knowledge must be reared; and the 
 student is not exhorted but compelled to lay each 
 successive row of bricks for himself. *'My system," 
 saith the professor, "is very much that of Mr. Whack- 
 ford Squeers — w-i-n-d-e-r — winder — go and clean it." 
 Students are lectured and told about a thing, and 
 then are at once set to dissect and prepare the 
 specimen for themselves. Even then they prefer a 
 
182 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 formula, or a drawing to copy from, if they can find' 
 it in their memory ; but Professor Huxley will have 
 none of this. What he demands, and insists upon, is 
 that they shall acquire a clear and distinct idea of 
 "things," not a confused jumble of "hard words." 
 The application of this positive mode of teaching — 
 long since practised in chemistry — is in physiology 
 due to Professor Huxley. Mere listening to lectures 
 and taking of notes will never produce any true 
 scientific knowledge. Students must learn to make 
 the experiment. Carefully and painstakingly they — 
 after the master has shown them the book — must 
 turn over the leaves, and reveal, to their own vast 
 improvement, the secrets of nature. 
 
 Professor Huxley's views on the admission of female 
 students to the" physiological course are sufficiently 
 catholic. The example of Miss McConnish, who has 
 become an accomplished demonstratrix in physiology, 
 inspires the professor with a certain faith in the clear- 
 ness and positivity of the female intellect. The great 
 drawback to the instruction of ladies in the more 
 recondite mysteries of physiology is found in the 
 difficulty of lecturing to a mixed class of young; 
 persons of both sexes. It is no more difficult to 
 lecture to a female than to a male class, but the 
 objections to a mixed auditory will suggest themselves- 
 to all persons of ordinary refinement. 
 
THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND AET. 183 
 
 The physiological department is enriched by many 
 beautiful specimens, and illustrated by a series of 
 fossils culled from the immense repository at the 
 Geological Museum in Jermyn Street, and moreover 
 possesses the advantage of affording a view over the 
 domain of South Kensington. The new Museum 
 of Natural History is rising above its foundations, 
 and from its ground plan appears Hkely to afford 
 ample room for the specimens now crowded together 
 in the British Museum. This latter institution must, 
 as it appears, undergo a gradual process of disintegra- 
 tion. At the present moment it is a vast omnium 
 gatherum of incongruous atoms. A collection com- 
 menced, probably enough, with an Indian god and a 
 stuffed crocodile, has developed into a vast hetero- 
 geneous museum. Books and stuffed giraffes, ele- 
 phants and rhinoceroses, Assyrian bricks, the Elgin 
 marbles, Egyptian papyri, and a mineralogical 
 collection, hardly " hang together," and it is comfort- 
 ing to find that at least one section will find its way 
 to South Kensington. 
 
 One of the most interesting features of the School 
 of Mines is found in the Lectures to Working Men. 
 The institution of these lectures is due to the en- 
 lightened foresight of the Minister under whose 
 instructions the school was founded, and who stipu- 
 lated expressly that the professors should deliver 
 
184 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 annually, at a nominal admission fee, a course of 
 lectures to working men. It was considered — and 
 very properly considered — that an institution subsi- 
 dized by the nation for the express object of affording 
 a certain class of technical education, should con- 
 tribute to a certain extent towards the great "national 
 object of educating those who are prevented by 
 circumstances from educating themselves." These 
 lectures were commenced in 1851, and immediately 
 attracted so large an attendance, and excited so much 
 interest among the class for whose benefit they were 
 instituted, that in the following year the officers of the 
 School determined to increase their labours in this 
 direction. The arrangement then made has continued 
 in force ever since. Each professor gives a course of 
 six lectures in alternate years, thus providing working- 
 men with an average of twenty-four instead of six 
 lectures in each year. 
 
 The fee paid by the artisan is truly nominal. It is 
 simply a registration fee of sixpence for each course 
 of six lectures, giving the working man an opportunity 
 of hearing science of the highest and most recent 
 order discoursed upon in the very plainest English 
 that the subject will admit of, by professors of the 
 first rank, at the rate of one penny per lecture. A 
 certain evening is announced for the distribution of 
 tickets between the hours of seven and ten p.m. 
 
THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART. 185 
 
 Each applicant is required to bring his name, address, 
 and occupation, written on a piece of paper, in return 
 for which, and the sum of sixpence of the lawful 
 money of the realm, he receives his ticket of admis- 
 sion to the particular course given. If any proof were 
 needed of the avidity with which scientific information 
 is coveted by the artisan, the rush for tickets on one of 
 those evenings would amply supply it. Only six hun- 
 dred tickets are or can be issued, the lecture theatre 
 not affording accommodation for a greater number. 
 The whole of these, and many more, are applied for on 
 the evening prescribed ; no chance exists of getting a 
 ticket after that date, on which many a time and oft 
 large numbers of applicants are sent empty away. 
 
 During the late session three courses of these 
 lectures have been delivered. The first on Heat, by 
 Professor Guthrie; the second on Metals, by Dr. 
 Percy; and the third on Natural History, or rather 
 *' On the Phenomena of Life as Motion and Conscious- 
 ness," by Professor Huxley. Feeling anxious to hear 
 how Dr. Huxley will make the complex phenomena of 
 nerve action clear to his auditors, I wend my way to 
 Jermyn Street on one of those charming spring 
 evenings, when a pleasant admixture of rain and hail 
 makes existence delicious, and compels the traveller 
 to warm himself with the reflection that, albeit he is 
 wet and cold, he yet is an Englishman ; that he loves 
 
186 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 the "Wild North -Easter," as Mr. Kingsley has in- 
 structed him to do ; and that in the pursuit of Science 
 he can afford to disregard chmatic asperities, which 
 matter Httle except to inferior beings. It wants 
 twenty minutes to the appointed hour, and the happy 
 possessors of tickets are arriving in great strength. 
 The theatre is abeady nearly full, but the benches 
 appear to possess a certain elastic property, and every 
 corner is occupied. Having, probably, more to do- 
 than the fashionables at the Eoyal Institution, the 
 working men do not arrive an entire hour before the 
 time in order to secure the best seats, but the theatre 
 is completely filled long before the clock strikes. I 
 look around me at the audience, and I am content. 
 He is here, this working man, whom I have so often 
 sought and found not. His place is not usurped by 
 smug clerks or dandy shopmen. In all his various 
 forms and ages, from the keen-eyed apprentice to the 
 experienced artisan, he is here — in force — this handi- 
 craftsman — this maker of things. 
 
 It is a silent audience. These men are evidently 
 fresh from the workshop, striving to overcome the 
 obliterating influences of a week of humdrum every- 
 day occupation, and are burnishing up their memories 
 touching the last lecture — not a few aiding these 
 organs by note books. There is no well-bred high- 
 toned chatter going on. Perhaps the silence is due to 
 
THE DEPAKTMENT OP SCIENCE AND ART. 187 
 
 the absence of Angot caps and red opera cloaks and 
 perhaps to the earnestness of the audience. Be this 
 as it may — as the hands of the clock turn towards 
 eight there is no perceptible rustling, hushing, and 
 settling down. The silence simply becomes, if possible, 
 a degree more profound than before. A burst of 
 applause welcomes the professor, who has undertaken 
 to explain, on this particular evening, '^ The Co- 
 ordination of the Modes of Motion of Living Bodies 
 Avith those of the Surrounding World." This title 
 has, in truth, a tough look, but when manipulated by 
 Professor Huxley proves eminently digestible. With 
 admirable lucidity, and with an utter absence of 
 "hard words," the lecturer proceeds to discourse upon 
 the action of the nerve forces — as a distinct pheno- 
 menon from sensation or consciousness. Confining 
 his remarks mainly to involuntary or — according to 
 the more explicit terminology of Professor Huxley — 
 reflex action, the lecturer dilates upon those mechani- 
 cal movements of the body — such as sudden contrac- 
 tion — which are produced at once by the contact of 
 external objects without any exercise of volition on 
 the part of the patient. Clear, precise, and distinct 
 in his description of nerve mechanics, the professor 
 reserves a rare sensation as a honne louche. Aided by 
 his profound studies in palaeontology and embryology, 
 he plunges, when discoursing of the eye, into those 
 
188 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 remote periods when eyes and vertebrae as yet were not, 
 and Nature had only unfolded the first few leaves of 
 her wondrous volume. During this description of the 
 gradual evolution of the eye out of an infolded portion 
 of the epidermis, by some such process of mutation as 
 that which is held to have produced the rudiment of a 
 spinal column, the attention of the audience is intense. 
 Adroitly concluding a lecture of absorbing interest 
 with this astounding bit of speculative philosophy, 
 Professor Huxley dismisses his audience before giving 
 them time to recover breath. A few stroll about the 
 Geological Museum, lighted up for the occasion, but 
 the larger number, including the writer, march home- 
 wards, thoroughly charmed with a lecture which has 
 given them something to weigh and think over in their 
 leisure moments. 
 
( 189 ) 
 
 VII. 
 THE LONDON INSTITUTION. 
 
 To the present generation of Londoners few loealities^^ 
 are less known than Finsbury Circus. Only a few 
 short years ago, Finsbury altogether was very much a 
 terra incognita. The existence of a square was dimly 
 hinted at by foreign professors, who were supposed to 
 affect that tranquil spot for residential purposes ; the 
 Circus was laid down in maps of the metropolis, but 
 was seldom reached except by the festive members of 
 the Honourable Artillery Company — whose stronghold 
 is not far off — and a market where nobody ever went, 
 and where nothing was ever bought or sold, enjoyed a 
 place on the list of metropolitan commercial centres ; 
 but the entire district maintained but a dim and 
 shadowy entity. Travellers into this silent region 
 found their movements somewhat facilitated by the 
 opening of the Metropolitan Eailway, and easily 
 attained thereby a point of departure for their wander- 
 
190 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 ings, but the Moorgate Street Station has failed to 
 infuse any vitality into the mysterious neighbourhood 
 over the way. The main use of Finsbury has been to 
 show to the adventurous spirits who penetrate into 
 its recesses that there can be a duller place than 
 Bloomsbury, • and that the square of that ilk is the 
 abode of bustling life and boisterous mirth, when 
 contrasted with the dismal region of Finsbury. 
 
 Far away in the dim recesses of this sleeping — if 
 not utterly dead and buried — city, on the dismallest 
 side of the dismal Circus, is a huge building, founded 
 for the best of all purposes, and called the London 
 Institution. The gloom which weighs over the entire 
 district sits heavily on this grim structure. Persons 
 of a ribald turn of mind have long expressed a wish 
 ihat a line of railway would carry away the entire 
 affair, and lift it at once into the superior stratum of 
 dead and gone institutions. Other irreverent beings 
 have taken a fiendish delight in circulating reports 
 of the existence of an enormous fungus destined at 
 some period to lift the house up from its foundations. 
 Nevertheless it looks solid enough and serious enough, 
 .and altogether a most unhkely building to perform 
 any act of a saltatory nature. 
 
 Although the ceremony of laying the first stone 
 of the London Institution was not performed until 
 November 4th, 1815, on which occasion the speaker 
 
THE LONDON INSTITUTION. 191 
 
 ■of the inaugural oration expressed a hope that the 
 Gresham lectures — an equally lively institution — 
 might find a home within its walls — it had been 
 practically founded at a much earlier date. On 
 October 17, 1805, a general meeting of proprietors was 
 held, and laws and bye-laws agreed upon. In 1807 
 it was fm'ther consolidated by a Eoyal Charter of 
 Incorporation. The number of proj^rietors was 
 limited to one thousand, and the qualification of a 
 proprietor was fixed at one hundred guineas — a 
 privilege that at this moment may be secured by 
 transfer for about one-tenth of that sum, and an 
 annual payment of £2 due at Midsummer. In the 
 year 1806 the groundwork of the library was laid 
 by large purchases at the sale of the library of the 
 Marquis of Lansdowne. Among the chief proprie- 
 tors at this period were the late Sir Francis Baring, 
 John Julius Angerstein — the collector of what is now 
 the National Gallery — George Hibbert, and Eichard 
 Sharp. Nearly aG80,000 had already been collected, 
 and, pending the erection of the present building, 
 the mansion erected by Sir Thomas Clayton in 
 1671 was first taken; but in 1811 the library was 
 removed to King's Arms Yard, and a few years later to 
 the present building. Few English libraries possess 
 a finer collection of the historical and topographical 
 literature of England than the London Institution 
 
192 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 Foreign and general history are also amply supplied^ 
 and voyages and travels occupy a considerable space. 
 Theology, law, and medicine are less fully represented,, 
 but in the mathematical sciences the library is very 
 well furnished. A library over which Porson presided, 
 if only for a brief period, should not be wanting in 
 classics, and the London Institution possesses a noble 
 series both in texts and in translations. Among 
 the purchases and presents made to this collection 
 are many of those choice specimens of early printing, 
 which appeal more to the mere bibliograph than to 
 the actual student. Here are the productions of 
 Antonio Verard, the Wechels, the Stephani, the Aldi, 
 the Sessi, and the Giunti, in addition to many choice 
 specimens of early English printing. Great store is 
 set by an " Orosius " without date or place of imprint, 
 a complete series of folio Shakespeares, and a curious 
 Chinese block book, entitled *' Liber organicus Astro- 
 nomia3 Europseae apud Sinas restitutae," printed at 
 Pekin in 1668. A collection of Spanish laws is highly 
 prized from the use to which this copy was turned on 
 the trial of Sir Thomas Picton for putting Luisa 
 Calderon to the torture during his Governorship of 
 Trinidad. 
 
 Between 1806 and 1812 the sum of £16,533 was 
 expended on this library, and numerous additions have 
 since been made. The reign of Eichard Porson, from 
 
THE LONDON INSTITUTION. 193 
 
 1806 to 1808, though short, was not uneventful. 
 Brilliant scholars are not invariably the best possible 
 librarians, and it is recorded by Mr. Maltby, his 
 successor, that the great Grecian received on one 
 occasion a decided "wigging" from the Directors. 
 The censure was conveyed in these very pointed terms, 
 "We only know you are our librarian by seeing your 
 name attached to the receipts for your salary." This 
 \dgorous reproof may, perhaps, have been merited, 
 but certainly did not kill Porson, whose hide was 
 proof against trifles of this kind. 
 
 The present number of volumes exceeds 62,000. 
 The right of admission belongs exclusively to the pro- 
 prietors. Each of these is provided with a trans- 
 ferable medal and card, thanks to which custom the 
 few readers in the library present a juvenile appear- 
 ance, which inclines the casual spectator to think that 
 papa, being busy himself, has sent the boys round. 
 Meanwhile the library, mainly on account of the 
 difficulty of finding out proprietors, and the trouble 
 of obtaining admittance, is practically abandoned by 
 scholars, who far prefer the facilities afforded by the 
 British Museum and the City Library at Guildhall. 
 Originally founded to maintain, in what was once a 
 central position, an extensive general library of refer- 
 ence, comprising works of intrinsic value and utility 
 in all languages, reading-rooms for periodical pubHca- 
 
194 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 tions, daily papers, and interesting contemporaneous 
 pamphlets, and to promote the diffusion of knowledge 
 by lecture and conversazioni, the London Institution 
 started into life with objects sufficiently ambitious. 
 But in addition to the fixed general library, a circu- 
 lating library has been formed or the proprietors by 
 subscriptions paid to Messrs. W. H. Smith and Son, 
 and Eolandi's foreign library. This permanent circu- 
 lating library has assumed proportions possibly un- 
 dreamt of by its founders, inasmuch as it has eclipsed 
 its rivals, the permanent library and the lectures, 
 which latter — albeit occasionally delivered by men of 
 celebrity in the world of science — have shrunk to very 
 narrow proportions. Only two lectures are delivered 
 per week — one at four p.m. on Mondays, and one at 
 seven p.m. on Wednesdays. 
 
 In the synopsis for the past season, the two 
 professors regularly attached to the institution — 
 Professor Bentley (Botany) and Professor Armstrong 
 (Chemistry) — were only down for two short courses of 
 lectures. Professor Armstrong delivered a so-caUed 
 Holiday Course on Oxygen and Carbon during the 
 Christmas holidays, and then disappeared from the 
 synopsis, while Professor Bentley's name was only 
 down for half a dozen lectures on Elementary Botany. 
 It is much to be regretted that the energies of Professor 
 Armstrong should be confined to a few school-boy 
 
THE LONDON INSTITUTION. 195 
 
 entertainments at Christmas-tide, and that Professor 
 Bentley should be compelled to limit his efforts to six 
 lectures on Elementary Botany. Poignancy is added 
 to this reflection by the recollection that the London 
 Institution has — as at present — often secured the 
 services of distinguished scientific men as permanent 
 professors. In the case of the chemistry lectures I 
 need only mention the names of Professors Grove 
 and Wanklyn to prove my position ; but perhaps the 
 reason for a paucity of lectures of a really practical 
 educational character is that the remuneration given 
 to the regular lecturers is very inadequate. At one 
 time the chemical lecturer received fifty guineas per 
 annum, supplemented by a like amount for expenses 
 incurred in the laboratory and for experiments, but I 
 hear with regret that the supplementary allowance 
 has since been withdrawn, and that the chemical 
 lectures, to which Dr. Armstrong could do ample 
 justice, have been curtailed in consequence of this 
 reduction. It is always depressing to find direct 
 teaching set aside in favour of lectures on Art and 
 Poetry, which, however agreeable and entertaining in 
 the hands of Professors Zerffi and Morley, hardly 
 supply the place of positive instruction. Art and 
 Poetry are delightful subjects to talk about, WTite 
 about, and listen to, but it is difficult to see how any 
 human being could learn — by listening to any con- 
 
196 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 ceivable number of lectures — how to draw a figure 
 from the sohd, or how to write a smooth couplet. 
 Music, poetry, and drawing are no more to be 
 acquired by listening to lectures than the mystery of 
 tight-rope dancing is to be learned by witnessing a 
 performance of the accomplished Monsieur Blondin.. 
 My humble remarks on this question by no means 
 apply to the more positive sciences, such as geometry^ 
 astronomy, geology, palseontolgy, and chemistry, all 
 of which, especially the last-named, can — granted the 
 faculty of lucid exposition on the part of the lecturer,, 
 and severe attention on the part of the student — be 
 acquired to a very considerable extent by a rigid 
 attendance at lectures, and, indeed, cannot be per- 
 fectly studied without the demonstration of a pro- 
 fessor, while lectures on the three subjects previously 
 mentioned can only be designated as "pleasant talk,"" 
 conveying very little, if any, positive instruction to 
 audience. Many philosophers incline to the view that 
 there is in these latter days too much of this general 
 talk, and, judging from what I witnessed at a lecture 
 on the Development of Civilization, delivered one 
 Monday afternoon by Dr. Tylor, I am inclined — 
 until better instructed — to agree with the philosophers 
 aforesaid. 
 
 The lecture theatre — spacious enough, but pervaded 
 with a singularly earthy smell, as of a newly-opened 
 
THE LONDON INSTITUTION. 197 
 
 vault — was occupied on the Monday afternoon in 
 question by a miscellaneous crowd, wherein ladies of 
 a tender age and small boys largely predominated. 
 The lecture originally set down for the day, on 
 ''Magnetism and Current Electricity," had, possibly 
 from causes beyond control, fallen through, and Dr. 
 Tylor had obhgingly filled up the gap with a discourse 
 on the ''Development of Civilization" — an exhila- 
 rating subject, but falling, unhappily, under the pre- 
 viously quoted designation of "talk about things." 
 The lecturer held forth ably enough, and was at 
 times, especially w^hen he dwelt upon the influence 
 of female opinion on savage communities — somewhat 
 too noisily applauded. 
 
 He displayed considerable skill in the evolution of 
 his theory of ''animism," or the natural predilection 
 of the savage to invest rivers,- storms, stocks, and 
 stones with a demoniac individuality, and at times 
 made me tremble lest he should be induced to push 
 his theory to the extreme limits which would, under 
 similar ch'cumstances, have been infallibly reached by 
 my friend Professor Hohensziel, of the University of 
 Ausbruch. The lecturer, however, kept on tolerably 
 safe ground, albeit he startled his audience by main- 
 iaining that in rascality and general villainy the 
 savage w^as not so far in advance of his civilized 
 brother as is often imagined. All this was vastly 
 
198 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 entertaining and cheering to the souls of those who* 
 believe that depravity is not a very variable quantity^ 
 and that the ancient highwayman's place is now 
 amply filled by the modern forger. But it was strong 
 meat for babes. Not that in saying this do I intend 
 to impute any fault to Dr. Tylor. Far from it. If 
 the management of the London Institution choose 
 to admit what I am afraid I must call " a parcel of 
 children" to lectures supposed to interest mature, or 
 nearly mature, human beings, no fault can be laid 
 at the door of the lecturer. If, however, that learned 
 gentleman — who is full of ideas — had chosen to write 
 out his lecture fairly before reading it, I should have 
 been happier, inasmuch as I should have been spared 
 the pain of hearing him strive painfully to weave 
 his notes into coherent and concatenated sentences^ 
 Nevertheless, the lecturer exhibited great research and 
 a judicious choice of illustrations, coupled with a 
 power of generalization which compelled me to regret 
 that it had not been my good fortune to hear his dis- 
 course in the finished form of a concio ad clerum.. 
 
 Unfortunately it is difficult to resist the conclusion 
 that, in lectures of a presumedly popular kind, the 
 high priest is, either from a desire to court j)0]3ularity 
 or from a good-natured contempt for his audience, but 
 too often inclined to talk down to their level, and 
 thereby produce in many listeners the conviction that 
 
THE LONDON INSTITUTION. 199 
 
 a good thing has been marred by an ineffectual 
 endeavour to adapt it to the assumed mental capacity 
 — or incapacity — of the listener. I am irresistibly 
 impelled to lift up my voice and cry, " In heaven's 
 name let us have one thing or the other." On the 
 one hand, let us have lectures purely educational, 
 which, beginning from first principles, teach the 
 young idea to seize upon elementary truths, to grasp 
 them firmly, and to advance by degrees to an accurate 
 conception of great problems or great ascertained facts. 
 On the other hand, let us now and then, at least, hear 
 a lecture which takes a certain amount of knowledge 
 for granted, and tells the already educated men and 
 women of the world something they want to know, 
 without descending to minute particulars, small jokes, 
 or homely illustrations. With a few great exceptions 
 the style of lecturing now in vogue is abominable. It 
 is neither one thing nor the other, and lecturers, in 
 the vain endeavour to arrest the attention of un- 
 educated persons, stoop to meretricious arts which 
 weary when they do not irritate those among their 
 audience who, on other subjects, are as weU instructed 
 as themselves. 
 
 Truth to teU, I leave the London Institution a prey 
 to a feeling of depression. The huge lectm-e theatre 
 half fuU of women and children, and the rich library 
 barren of scholars, and only invaded by boys coming 
 
200 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 to change novels at the circulating department, afflict 
 me with sore reflections on the yanity of many human, 
 and especially London, institutions. What is the 
 outcome of eighty thousand pounds ? A gloomy 
 building, a couple of underpaid professors, and a like 
 number of sub -librarians overworked in changing 
 books for children, a few *' popular" lectures, a 
 squadron of discontented shareholders, and an auto- 
 cratic hall-porter. 
 
( 201 ) 
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE BIEKBECK INSTITUTE. 
 
 In the mysterious locality known as "round the 
 corner," the Birkbeck Institution enjoys a vigorous 
 existence. Shrinking back from the rush and roar of 
 Holborn into the quietest nook of Southampton Build- 
 ings, this busy hive of Hterary and scientific bees is 
 hardly so well known by its new title as under its 
 original designation of the London Mechanics' Institu- 
 tion. This, the parent of many hundreds of similar 
 institutions scattered over the whole length and breadth 
 of the country, owed its foundation mainly to the 
 public spirit and Hberality of the distinguished scien- 
 tific man whose name it now bears, and in whose 
 mind the idea of founding an institution for the in- 
 struction of artisans was developed by the following 
 events. During his residence in Glasgow, about the 
 commencement of the present century. Dr. George 
 Birkbeck, needing various scientific instruments and 
 
202 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 apparatus for the lectures he was delivermg at the 
 Andersonian University, found himself embarrassed 
 by the impossibility of finding in Glasgow any com- 
 petent person to whom he could entrust the work» 
 Nothing daunted, Dr. Birkbeck determined to attend 
 the different worksho]3s himself, and to personally 
 direct the construction of the apparatus he required. 
 Greatly impressed by the intelligence displayed by the 
 artisans with whom he was thus brought into contact, 
 and interested by their constant inquiries for the 
 reason of various steps in the work, he became con- 
 vinced of the absolute necessity for affording scientific 
 instruction to skilled workmen, and therefore resolved 
 to commence a course of gratuitous lectures, and to 
 form sj)ecial classes for instructing the artisans of 
 Glasgow in the various branches of Natural Philo- 
 sophy. The first lecture was delivered to an audience 
 of seventy-five, the second was attended by nearly two 
 hundred, the third by three hundred, while at the 
 fourth five hundred artisans availed themselves of the 
 opportunity of obtaining instruction calculated to 
 assist them in their daily employment. So sudden 
 and eager was the appreciation by the Glasgow work- 
 men of the value of the teaching generously offered to 
 them that it became necessary to restrict the issue of 
 tickets, and so satisfied was Dr. Birkbeck with the 
 success of his experiment that he continued to give 
 
THE BIRKBECK INSTITUTE. 203-^ 
 
 these lectures for several years, until his removal to 
 London. 
 
 On settling in the metropoHs Dr. Birkbeck, although 
 actively engaged in his profession, entered heartily 
 into a scheme for the erection of an institution which, 
 by lectures, classes, a reading-room, and a library, 
 should spread literary, scientific, and artistic instruc- 
 tion among the artisans of London. At the present 
 day, when education is more talked about than any- 
 thing else, a movement of this kind would appear 
 simple and natural enough ; but it must be recollected 
 that these events occurred more than fifty years ago, 
 and that too much honour cannot be rendered to him 
 who was the heart and soul of the first great effort in 
 this country to extend to artisans the benefit of that 
 higher education which, until then, had been restricted 
 to the more wealthy classes. 
 
 Public meetings were called on the 11th November 
 and on the 2nd December, 1823, and several hmidreds 
 enrolled their names as members of the proposed 
 institution. Dr. Birkbeck was unanimously chosen 
 president, and continued to hold that post till his 
 decease on the 2nd December, 1841, on the eighteenth 
 anniversary of the establishment of the Institution. 
 By the death of its revered president and founder the 
 London Mechanics' Institution suffered a loss which 
 at the time was felt to be irreparable. His unvarying. 
 
204 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 kindness to the members and his great interest in 
 their welfare had endeared him to their memory, 
 and their gratitude for his noble work is to be seen 
 in the handsome medallion by the late Mr. Foley, 
 which surmounts the platform of the lecture theatre. 
 The public appreciation of the labours of Dr. Birk- 
 beck was shown by the foundation by public sub- 
 scription of the ^'Birkbeck Laboratory" at University 
 College. On the death of the founder the office of 
 president was by the unanimous wish of the members 
 bestowed on his son, Mr. W. Lloyd Birkbeck, who has 
 ^ver since rivalled his distinguished father in devotion 
 to the interests of the Institution. 
 
 In his great work Dr. Birkbeck was zealously 
 supported by the late Duke of Sussex, the Duke of 
 Bedford, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord Althorp, 
 Lord Brougham, Su- Francis Burdett, and many 
 other noblemen and gentlemen distinguished for their 
 scientific and literary attainments. The late Lord — 
 then Mr. Henry — Brougham, took especial interest in 
 the institution, and, amid his multifarious occupations, 
 found time to put in a frequent appearance at the 
 lectures, setting a valuable example to others by his 
 own deep attention. Launched under favourable 
 auspices, the institution was not only a success in 
 itself, but formed a model for all similar establish- 
 ments. Temples of science sprang up all over the 
 
THE BIRKBECK INSTITUTE. 205' 
 
 country, until at the present moment there is hardly 
 a town of any importance in the United Kingdom 
 which is not possessed of its literary or mechanics^ 
 institution. The colonies also have followed the 
 example of the mother country by founding hundreds 
 of organizations modelled upon the parent institution 
 in Southampton Buildings. 
 
 The work achieved by the London Mechanics' 
 Institution has been neither slight nor insignificant ► 
 During the forty-nine years following its foundation,, 
 fifty thousand persons availed themselves of its advan- 
 tages, and many of these have found the education 
 received under these circumstances the stepping-stone 
 to distinguished position. Every branch of art, 
 science, and literature has been recruited from 
 students trained at Southampton Buildings, and 
 owing to the valuable aid afforded by the examina- 
 tions of the Society of Arts and of the Science and 
 Ai-t Department, the practical and immediate value 
 of the instruction afforded has been greatly in- 
 creased. During an existence extending over half 
 a century there have been times when the success of 
 the Institution was less conspicuous than at others,, 
 but since the recent impetus given to education and 
 the application to the Institution of the name of its 
 founder, a great advance has been made. Tho 
 number of students exceeds two thousand seven hun- 
 
'206 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 dred, a result to which the unremitting labour of Mr. 
 George M. Norris, the manager and honorary secre- 
 tary of the Educational Council, has contributed in no 
 slight degree. 
 
 This Educational Council is a noteworthy body, in- 
 asmuch as it presides over and directly manages the 
 educational working of the Institution. Composed 
 13artly of well-known and practical sympathizers with 
 working-class education, and partly of teachers in the 
 Institution, who necessarily have a deep insight into 
 the needs and feelings of the students, the Council is 
 Tieenly aware of the wants and aspirations of the 
 great body of members. A feeling is also growing 
 that, so far as is possible, teachers and members 
 of the Council should be drawn from the ranks of 
 successful scholars, with a view of knitting together 
 still more closely those kindly relations which should 
 always exist between teachers and pupils. 
 
 The terms on which instruction is imparted are 
 exceedingly moderate. An annual subscription of 
 eighteen shillings, dating from the day of payment, 
 secures a free admission to the weekly lectures, enter- 
 tainments, and reading-room, and the free use of a 
 library of 7000 volumes. Another privilege conferred 
 by membership is admission to special classes at about 
 half the price charged to the general public. For 
 instance, French is charged 5s, per term to the general 
 
THE BIRKBECK INSTITUTE. 207 
 
 public, and 3s. to members; and experimental physics, 
 7s. 6cl. to the public, and 3s. to members. For like 
 infinitesimal sums instruction may be had in about 
 fifty subjects, "to enumerate ^Yhich would," as the old 
 saw hath it, "be long." Suffice it to say that teaching 
 may be had in mathematics, including geometry 
 (plane and solid), trigonometry (plane and spherical), 
 the differential and integral calculus, the calculus of 
 finite differences, actuarial computations, navigation, 
 and geometrical conies ; and in applied and theo- 
 retical mechanics — by members for nothing — and by 
 the public for 3s. per session, it having been wisely con- 
 cluded that instruction in these positive branches of 
 knowledge should be granted on the lowest possible 
 terms. 
 
 A perusal of the last report of the Educational 
 Council is highly interesting as affording an index of 
 the comparative popularity of the numerous classes 
 now in actual work. An inspection of this document 
 leads to the conclusion that the muscular young 
 gentleman once depicted in Punch, in the act of observ- 
 ing to a delicate-looking child, "I can't j)lay the piano, 
 and I can't speak French; but I can punch your 
 head," was very much behind the spirit of the age. 
 No less than 450 students attended the French classes, 
 while 727 joined the various music and singing classes. 
 As an attractive language, German comes next to 
 
208 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 Frencli, with 177 students ; Latin follows magno inter- 
 vallo ; after which come Spanish, Italian, and Greek 
 in the order named. The English language, literature, 
 grammar, and composition secure hut 205 names, 
 while elocution draws 124. The mathematical and 
 arithmetical classes are well attended, as are also the 
 classes for experimental physics, chemistiy, and 
 mechanics. Geometrical, model, and ornamental 
 drawing, perspective, building and machine construc- 
 tion, figure and landscape drawing, are popular 
 subjects ; as are also shorthand, writing, and 
 physiology. It is, perhaps, a little disappointing to 
 find the number of students of ''fancy" subjects 
 exceed so largely that of those pursuing the severer 
 branches of knowledge ; but it must not be forgotten 
 that lady scholars are admitted to the Birkbeck 
 Institution, and that the demand for musical instruc- 
 tion is in a considerable degree referrible to this fact. 
 Moreover, a certain amount of consolation may be 
 found in the numbers attending the French and 
 German classes. In no department of knowledge 
 have Englishmen hitherto been so deficient as in 
 modern languages. Many middle-aged Englishmen 
 find it impossible to pronounce a French word in 
 recognizable fashion, and it would not be difficult to 
 find wranglers and first-class men who, albeit loaded 
 to the muzzle with Greek, Latin, and mathematics, find 
 
THE BIRKBECK INSTITUTE. 209 
 
 it impossible to string together half a dozen intelligible 
 French sentences. This, however, like other insular 
 defects, will doubtless be cured in time. 
 
 Wending my way towards the ''Birkbeck," on a 
 fine bright evening, I confess within myself certain 
 doubts as to where it is. A walk along Holborn, how- 
 ever, brings me to Southampton Buildings, and a 
 turn "round the corner" to the institution itself. 
 The ground floor is occupied by the Birkbeck Bank, 
 and this arrangement considerably reduces the small 
 space available for the institution. Cheered by the 
 sound of distant music, I make my way into the great 
 lecture theatre, a structure so ample and commodious 
 as to still further crowd the narrow class-rooms. 
 Here I find a singing class in full operation, under the 
 care of a teacher, who displays much patience and 
 more energy in getting his class of some three hundred 
 persons to sing in tune, and keep together. The sight 
 is agreeable enough. Well-dressed young ladies and 
 smart young men occupy the benches, and exercise 
 their lungs vigorously, but I am a little disappointed 
 at finding among them no trace of the artisan or his 
 helpmate, and come reluctantly to the conclusion that 
 either workmen have taken to dress very elegantly, or 
 that the singing class is mainly composed of clerks 
 and young ladies in similar positions of life. A little 
 dashed at this, I pull myself together for something 
 
210 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 serious, and ask my way to the chemistry class, and 
 after travelhng over many stairs find myself in an 
 apartment which, were it not consecrated to the uses 
 of science, I should not hesitate to designate the back 
 kitchen. Bare white-washed walls throw up the in- 
 evitable black board into strong relief, and a couple of 
 flaring "butchers' lights" illumine a rough deal table, 
 from behind which Mr. Chaloner lucidly expounds the 
 properties of carbonic acid gas. The lecturer and the 
 audience evidently mean business. The students are 
 mostly pale young men — reminding me of the tra- 
 ditional "pale student" who bent over the "midnight 
 oil" Consule Planco — a personage entirely out of 
 fashion since the invention of muscular Christianity, 
 and the growth of a pretty general belief that, although 
 a senior wrangler may be a deserving young man, 
 the stroke oar of the winning eight over the Putney 
 course is a hero. Older men, however, are not 
 absent, and all are busily engaged in taking notes, 
 evidently with a view to standing fire at the next 
 " exam." 
 
 This, now, is refreshing. Here, in this crowded 
 back-kitchen, honest work is evidently being done. 
 But the visitor may not dwell longer even upon 
 carbonic acid gas, and makes his way up a staircase 
 to a reading-room, crowded to an inconvenient degree. 
 Here are young and old, perusing books and periodi- 
 
THE BIRKBECK INSTITUTE. 211 
 
 cals, taking notes, making no noise, and reducing 
 themselves to the smallest possible compass. The 
 library is full of applicants awaiting their turn, and I 
 become convinced that an atmosphere of bustle per- 
 vades the entire institution. Knowledge is sold here 
 at a moderate price, the business is brisk, and the 
 customers many. 
 
 On paying a second visit to the Birkbeck Institute, 
 I find the mathematical class hard at work, the 
 master appearing to be on the best terms with his 
 XDupils, who are working with a will. At this I am 
 not surprised, as no human being would care to trifle 
 or dally with algebra — mere dilettanti students almost 
 invariably selecting some easier subject. Hardly so 
 severe is the attention given to Mr. Wilson's lecture on 
 optics, whereat many ladies are present. Sitting and 
 listening, or mayhap, taking a few notes, put by no 
 means so severe a strain upon the scholar as actual 
 computation. It is possible for reasonable human 
 beings to listen to lectures on physics and enjoy them- 
 selves very much, and this appears to be the case with 
 the present class. Forsaking the lecturer, just as he 
 is proving to his audience — experimentally — that the 
 angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence, I 
 mount more stairs and assist at an animated scene. 
 The elocution class is in full blast, and perhaps 
 <3ombines more amusement with instruction than any 
 
212 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 class I ever attended. The master is perspiring with 
 his exertions in endeavouring to inspire the scholars 
 with some of that energy of which he possesses an 
 ample share. I do not — on mature reflection — think 
 that I should like to be a teacher of elocution. Thi& 
 valuable pursuit may, like other professions, have its 
 peculiar consolations and subtle pleasures, but to the 
 uninitiated it seems but dull work, this striving to 
 inoculate the untutored mind with some little taste 
 and accuracy in speaking or reading a plain sentence.. 
 Nevertheless, elocution is a good thing, if only for it& 
 use in teaching some little respect for the letter //, a 
 hapless aspirate utterly disregarded by thorough-bred 
 Londoners. Only those who discourse daily with all 
 sorts and conditions of men are in a condition to 
 explain their annoyance at being compelled to listen 
 to the absurdly vulgar Cockney dialect. It absolutely 
 flays "ears polite," which could listen with compara- 
 tive pleasure to a rasping '^burr" or a "brogue thick 
 enough to cut with a knife." A distinguished French- 
 man once remarked that in England two distinct 
 languages are spoken : one strongly accentuated and 
 almost painfully distinct — the language of the highly- 
 educated class — and the other, slurred, confused, and 
 mumbled, so as to be almost unintelligible. So by 
 all means let us have elocution, and as much of it a& 
 I)ossible. 
 
THE BIRKBECK INSTITUTE. 213 
 
 Coming downstairs again I step into another cell 
 in this knowledge -hive, and find a botany class in 
 progress, but my time is getting short, and I am 
 compelled to descend once more into the depths, where 
 a large drawing class is hard at it. In a semi-circular 
 cavern, hung round with plaster casts, and lighted 
 with flaring gas, is crowded together a large number 
 of pupils busy over their drawing boards, and apply- 
 ing themselves to their work with the persistence 
 generally observed in those who pay for their instruc- 
 tion out of their own hardly-earned wages. There is 
 no dawdling and no '^larking" visible, and the spirit 
 of work which apparently inspires every department 
 of the ''Birkbeck" is clearly dominant in this ill- 
 lighted cellar, where, in spite of every disadvantage, 
 valuable knowledge and technical dexterity can be 
 acquh'ed by those who seek for them. 
 
 Stepping at length fi*om the heated atmosphere of 
 the busy " Birkbeck " into the cool evening air, I 
 cannot help reflecting on my visit with considerable 
 pleasure. Here is an institution entirely self- 
 supporting, unaided by subventions of any kind. It 
 sells knowledge and good sound practical, technical 
 teaching at a fabulously low price, and yet maintains 
 itself in a solvent condition without assistance from 
 those grumbling shareholders, who sit like an incubus 
 on more than one institution, and groan over the 
 
214 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 daily depreciation of their property. Cooped up in a 
 narrow space, crowded nightly from garret to cellar, 
 the Birkbeck Institute is well enough managed to 
 get through an immense amount of good honest useful 
 work. It is in every respect an important aid to 
 education, and is invaluable to those classes which 
 avail themselves of it ; but, alas ! — the ine\itable 
 amai'i aliquid — I should like to have seen a little more 
 of the genuine mechanic. 
 
( 215 ) 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE GEESHAM LECTUEES. 
 
 Happening to pass along Basingiiall Street, I was 
 attracted by a programme setting forth the Gresham 
 Lectures to be deHvered dming Hilary Term, 1874, in 
 the lecture theatre of the building known as Gresham 
 College. Seven subjects were to be discoursed upon : — 
 Astronomy, Physic, Khetoric, Law, Geometry, Divinity, 
 and Music. The Latin lectures were to be delivered 
 at six o'clock in the evening, and the English lectures 
 at seven. The public were to be admitted gratis. 
 
 I had often heard of the Gresham Lectures, and had 
 been frequently told by troublesome people, who are 
 always worrying about progress and the nineteenth 
 century and similar positive subjects, that the out- 
 come of Sir Thomas Gresham' s bequest had been very 
 small indeed, and that great difficulty had been ex- 
 perienced at various times in getting anything done 
 at all. Little more than a century and a quarter 
 
216 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 after the death of the worthy Knight in 1579, it was 
 found necessary to draw attention to the management, 
 or rather mismanagement, of Gresham College, in a 
 pamphlet entitled, ''An Account of the Eise, Founda- 
 tion, Progress, and present State of Gresham College 
 in London, with the Life of the Founder, Sir Thomas 
 Gresham ; as also of some late endeavours for obtain- 
 ing the Kevival and Eestitution of the Lectures there, 
 with some remarks thereon." This curious produc- 
 tion, after setting forth the terms of Sir Thomas 
 Gresham's will, complains bitterly that the provisions 
 of the trust were not complied with, the number of 
 lectures having been very much reduced from that 
 prescribed by the will. The anonymous writer is 
 inclined to attribute the disuse of the lectures to "the 
 late troubles" — as convenient an explanation of every- 
 thing in the seventeenth century, as was the French 
 Eevolution of everything in the nineteenth. Never- 
 theless, positive evidence exists that, during the pro- 
 tectorate of Cromwell, the attention of that great man 
 was keenly pointed towards the Gresham professor- 
 ships. In a letter preserved in the City Library at 
 Guildhall, the great Puritan intervenes actively in the 
 management of an election. This document is dated 
 from Whitehall, 9th May, 1656, and is addressed to 
 the Gresham Committee of the City of London, as 
 follows : — " Gentlemen, — Wee understanding that you 
 
THE GRESHAM LECTURES. 217 
 
 have appointed an election this afternoon of a 
 geometry professor in Gresham CoUidge, wee desire 
 you to suspend the same for some tyme till we shall 
 have an opportunitie to speak with you in order to 
 that business. — Your louving friend, Oliver P." From 
 this document, it may safely be inferred that the Lord 
 Protector looked sharply enough after the Gresham 
 Committee. At what was called " the Happy Eestaur- 
 ation of King Charles the Second," Gresham College 
 was stirred into unusual activity by the Koyal Society. 
 Dr. Eobert Hooke was at that time Professor of 
 Geometry in Gresham College, and acquired so great 
 a reputation as to induce Sir John Cutler to found a 
 Mechanic Lecture. The Chair of Geometry was also 
 filled by Isaac Barrow, and that of Astronomy by Sh* 
 Christopher Wren. Nevertheless, so great was the 
 cause of complaint in 1706, that a memorial was laid 
 before the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen, 
 setting forth that the subscribers had attended the 
 lectures founded by Sir Thomas Gresham at Gresham 
 College, which were devised by his will to be read 
 ^' every day in the week, for the Instruction of Youth 
 and others of this city in useful knowledge. But the 
 present professors read only in Term Time,'' etc. The 
 writer of the pamphlet, moreover, avers that, although 
 the greatest part of the professors "appear to be 
 Gentlemen of Civihty, Ingenuity, and Candour, yet 
 
218 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 they seemed to discover an unwillingness and re- 
 luctancy to perform so useful a work, because it 
 required some pains and attendance, and were so far 
 from the ambition of being crowded with auditors, 
 that they seemed rather to desire to have none at all ; 
 for though they could not altogether disown their 
 obligation to read the aforesaid lectures (without 
 which acknowledgment they could not be entitled to 
 their salaries), yet they pretended (without the least 
 shadow of authority) to confine themselves to do it 
 only in the Terms, and at those times, to render them 
 more insignificant, they retrenched the first and last 
 weeks of every Term." It also appears that the 
 lecturers, "not content herewith, exemiDted themselves 
 from the duty every holiday that happened in each 
 Term, refusing to read on such a day, even though it 
 W'ere Divinity, by this means they reduced it to what 
 was next to nothing ; and together with the affronts 
 of some on those that come to demand their lectures, 
 the uncertainty of the times and days when they were 
 to be read, the meanness and indifferency of some of 
 them when they did read, being often without method, 
 design, or regular handling a Subject, not confining 
 themselves to their proper province but passing in a 
 desultory manner from one subject to another, without 
 that order and connection as might have been wished, 
 so far discouraged and baulked the expectation of the 
 
THE GRESHAM LECTURES. 219' 
 
 auditory that they almost gained their point," and 
 were very near being abandoned to their own devices 
 and allowed to draw theii' salary without doing any- 
 thing for it at all. Whether the Grand Committee for 
 managing the affairs of Gresham College, which con- 
 sisted then as now of four aldermen and eight com- 
 moners of the City of London and twelve commoners 
 for the Company of Mercers, ever did anything in the 
 matter is not very clear. Things went on more or less 
 lamely in Gresham College — actually the mansion 
 originally inhabited by Sir Thomas Gresham himself, 
 extending from Bishopsgate Street to Broad Street, 
 and which, on escaping from the Great Fire of London, 
 became the Chamber, the Guildhall, the Common 
 Hall, and the Exchange, of the remaining City. On 
 this occasion the lodgings of the Divinity Professor 
 were given up to the Lord Mayor, the reading-rooms 
 were appropriated to the City courts and officers, 
 the quadrangle was allotted to the merchants for an 
 Exchange, and small shops were allowed to be built 
 in the galleries and the piazza, for the accommoda- 
 tion of the poor tradesmen who had been burnt out 
 of their shops at the Eoyal Exchange. " Thus 
 Gresham College became an epitome of this great 
 city, and the centre of all affairs, both public and 
 private, which were then transacted in it." 
 
 In 1768, the College having fallen into a dilapidated 
 
220 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 condition, and the Excise Office in the Old Jewry 
 being also in a tumble-down state, the site of Gres- 
 ham College was selected for the new Excise Office. 
 True reverence for antique monuments was not a 
 characteristic of the latter half of the eighteenth 
 century. The site and buildings were alienated to 
 the Crown on payment to the City and Mercers Com- 
 23any of a perpetual rent of £500 per annum; the 
 City and Company paying £1800 down towards the 
 •expense of pulling down the College and erecting the 
 new office. On this occasion "the collegiate estab- 
 lishment was entirely subverted." In lieu of a college 
 with resident celibate professors, a room at the Eoyal 
 Exchange was set apart for reading the lectures, and 
 the professors were allowed £50 a year in lieu of 
 apartments, over and above the original salary of £50 
 a year for reading the lectures. The evil effect of this 
 total reversal of the condition enjoined by the will of 
 Sir Thomas Gresham was soon made manifest. The 
 lectures were scantily attended, partly owing to the 
 inconvenient hour at which they were held, and 
 partly owing to the advanced age of many of the 
 lecturers, a natural consequence of residence and 
 celibacy being dispensed with. The average number 
 of the audience at the lectures, from 1800 to 1820 
 inclusive, was only ten per English lecture, and 
 thirteen at all the Latin lectures for the whole year. 
 
THE GRESHAM LECTURES. 221 
 
 After the burning of the Eoyal Exchange the Gres- 
 ham Lectures enjoyed a nomadic existence until 1841, 
 when the Joint Gresham Committee jDurchased a plot 
 of ground at the corner of Basinghall Street and 
 Gresham Street, and erected on it the present build- 
 ing, at a cost of ^7000. This was opened on the 2nd 
 of November, 1843. 
 
 From time to time slight modifications have been 
 introduced into the Gresham Lectures, with a view to 
 making them of some intelligible use. After a pro- 
 longed struggle the professors were brought to issue 
 a syllabus of lectures, and as the old hands were 
 slowly gathered to their fathers the hours of lecturing 
 were transferred to the evening, and things were said 
 to be much better managed. 
 
 Still, uncomfortable rumours had reached me and 
 had excited my curiosity. It was reported that persons 
 had vainly striven to obtain admission to the Latin 
 lectures ; that the doors were only o^Dcned for five 
 minutes just before six o'clock, and were then sum- 
 marily closed unless within that short space of time 
 three persons had obtained entrance — no smaller 
 number being considered an audience. It was openly 
 declared that by a careful observance of these pre- 
 cautions the professors, who received £100 per annum 
 for reading at most twelve Latin and twelve English 
 lectures, generally contrived to evade the Latin lecture 
 
222 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 altogether. At any rate, I failed to unearth any- 
 human being who had ever heard a Gresham lecture, 
 and was thereupon moved to make an excursion in 
 search of information conveyed in the vehicle of 
 an ancient language. 
 
 Finding announced for the evening of Friday, the 
 23rd of January, a lecture on Geometry, by the Very 
 Eeverend B. M. Cowie, B.D., Dean of Manchester, I 
 presented myself at Gresham College at five minutes 
 before six. Possibly all people look mean when in 
 search of information; at any rate, I have no doubt 
 I did ; for on slinking into the hall-way I received 
 from a remarkably fine specimen of the British beadle 
 a glance wherein astonishment and contempt were 
 deliciously blended. Escaping as quickly as possible 
 from the awful presence of this magnate, I found 
 myself the solitary tenant of a huge lecture-room, 
 garnished with particularly hard and uncomfortable 
 seats of that peculiar make which is su23posed to 
 'Conduce to the preservation of a vigilant attitude. 
 Fervently hoping that two more victims would turn 
 up before the clock struck six, I sat down on one of 
 the benches, hard as the nether millstone, and glanced 
 aground me in tranquil wretchedness. 
 
 The lecture theatre presented a dreary aspect. 
 A dim religious light revealed the dismal scene. A 
 peculiar atmosphere — suggestive of long-since de- 
 
THE GEESHAM LECTURES. 223 
 
 parted lecturers and of audiences gone ages since to 
 their rest — pervaded the hall of despair. In tho 
 absence of living, breathing human beings, it was not 
 difficult for the imagination to conjure up visions of 
 departed worthies. Seated gravely in the midst 
 appeared the form of Sir Thomas Gresham himself, 
 surrounded by a crowd of knights and scholars clad in 
 doublet, trunk hose, and agonizing ruffs, or in the 
 velvet gowns proper to great merchants and citizens 
 of the chief city of the State. The thoughful yet 
 eager and enthusiastic Ealeigh, yet young, was hold- 
 ing solemn converse with the great merchant, and 
 evidently trying to impress him with the certain 
 success of the Great Eldorado Company, Limited. 
 Lilly and the hero of Zutphen were there, giving a 
 courtly air to the proceedings; while in a remote 
 corner sat "rare Ben Jonson," poet, wit, and scholar, 
 deprecating in his heart of hearts the utilitarian ten- 
 dency of the age, and foreseeing, in the passion for 
 enterprise and greed of gain that had suddenly over- 
 come the nation, a parallel condition of things to that 
 which prevailed in Kome before the smouldering con- 
 spiracy of Catiline burst into the flames of civil war. 
 
 Harvey, still young, with pale, worn face, deep in 
 thought, not having yet lighted on his grand discovery 
 of the circulation of the blood, anxiously awaited the 
 commencement of the lecture, while a choice knot of 
 
224 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 navigators — Cavendish and Frobisher, Drake, and 
 bluff Sir John Hawkins — surrounded by a few of the 
 old crew of that tall ship, the Pelican, discoursed 
 largely on the state of affairs in the Spanish main and 
 the golden sands of remote California. A slight bustle 
 at the door, and in troops a merry crowd of dramatists 
 full of glee, warmed by the generous wine dispensed 
 at that famous hostelry, the "Mermaid." But the 
 clock strikes six, and at that sound the weird spectres 
 vanish, and I become aware that I am not living 
 in the age of Armadas, Manilla galleons, inquisi- 
 tions, and St. Bartholomew massacres, but am sitting 
 on a hard wooden bench, in what is now merely the 
 core of the modern Babylon, and that the date is 
 January 23rd, 1874. 
 
 Looking around in search of an audience I make 
 out, with some difficulty, a total of seven persons, all 
 of the male sex. Two of these cautiously remain 
 near the door, as if uncertain as to the duration of 
 their sojourn, while the remaining ^Ye — adventurous 
 spirits these — boldly occupy the body of the theatre.. 
 No gorgeous doublets or stupendous ruffs adorn the 
 persons of these visitors, the place of those articles of 
 raiment being supplied by seedy overcoats and limj) 
 shirt- collars — serrated as to their edges. Swords 
 they wear none — well-worn umbrellas of sober alj)aca, 
 or modest gingham, assimilating better with the sad- 
 
THE GRESHAM LECTURES. 225 
 
 coloured raiment of the nineteenth century. These 
 men are clearly not youthful students, but, for all 
 that, take no small interest in the proceedings — 
 especially one slender gentleman with a studious cast 
 of features. Another and smaller gentleman with a 
 beard takes notes vigorously, while a burly, bull- 
 necked man struggles desperately to invest his 
 features with a look of attentive intelligence. 
 
 Ushered in by the superb beadle, the lecturer — a 
 bright, pleasant-looking gentleman (by the way, not 
 the Dean of Manchester, who probably has other and 
 bigger fish to fry elsewhere) — puts in appearance. At 
 first I am inclined to sympathize with this victim to 
 empty benches, but on reflecting that he probably 
 clears some four or five guineas by the transaction, 
 I restrain my feelings, which, moreover, undergo 
 singular changes as the evening advances — alternat- 
 ing between calm endurance, nervous irritability, 
 savage fury, and stolid despair. 
 
 Advancing to the table, and casting a glance of 
 patient resignation at the meagre audience, the 
 lecturer proceeds maxima celeritate to — as the French 
 call it — ''execute himself." He is supplied with a 
 manuscript well-thumbed and worn, and exhibiting a 
 marked tendency to dogs' ears. Away he dashes 
 at a tearing pace, as if determined to make short 
 work of the lecture — a singular Latin disquisition 
 
 Q 
 
226 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 written with very little regard to classic grace, 
 albeit abundantly seasoned with lengthy Greek quo- 
 tations clumsily strung together like pearls on rotten 
 twine. The lecture is carried on almost entirely in 
 the language of Plato and Aristotle, who are laid 
 heavily under contribution. Diogenes Laertius is 
 also heavily drawn upon, and the entire composition 
 assumes the appearance of a burlesque on one of 
 those mediaeval disquisitions wherein profuse quota- 
 tion is made to supply the place of original thought. 
 The third Greek quotation makes short work of the 
 man nearest the door, who, evidently recollecting an 
 engagement, beats a hasty retreat. His neighbour 
 exhibits greater powers of endurance, and fights 
 bravely against a crushing sense of fatigue till a 
 huge slab of Diogenes Laertius finally demolishes 
 him, and he retires precipitately a sadder, if not a 
 wiser man. Shortly after this the central phalanx 
 shows signs of disintegration — a quiet gentleman, who 
 had up to this point struggled manfully against a 
 propensity to yawn, being finally killed off by a highly 
 interesting and absorbing investigation into the ques- 
 tion whether Thales did or did not import geometry 
 from Egypt into Greece. The listeners are now 
 reduced to four, evidently determined to be in at the 
 death ; but the most stalwart these of clearly wishes 
 himself awa^^ and is only restrained from executing 
 
THE GRESHAM LECTURES. "227 
 
 a flank movement by a feeling of courtesy towards the 
 lecturer, who still reads on at a rapid pace. Calm 
 despair at length takes possession of the audience, 
 whose countenances indicate four distinct shades of 
 misery when the lecturer, after a rapid rush of words, 
 arrives at the final dixi. Before forsaking the gloomy 
 scene this gentleman addresses a few courteous sen- 
 tences to the audience, deprecating any severe 
 criticism of the Latin lecture. It was invariably so 
 thinly attended, and so frequently not attended at 
 all, that it had been thought unnecessary to devote 
 any particular attention to the writing of the Latin 
 lecture, but if better and more appreciative audiences 
 could be counted upon, better Latin lectures would 
 have been prepared. Moreover, an English lecture 
 on trigonometry would be delivered at seven o'clock, 
 and perhaps might prove more intelligible to an 
 audience presumabty unable to understand Latin. 
 This is all vastly well, of course, but I fail to see why 
 — if a Latin lecture must be delivered — it should not 
 be a good one ; nor is it sun clear why a Latin lecture 
 should consist almost entirely of Greek quotations, 
 and be confined exclusively to the history of ancient 
 geometry. Does a mysterious glamour come over 
 English scholars when they undertake the task of 
 Latin prose composition? Do they feel themselves 
 compelled to ignore all allusion to discoveries in 
 
228 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 mathematical science by the moderns, who, whatever 
 their inferiority to the ancients in other respects, are 
 certainly not behind them in scientific acquirements ? 
 Is it felt that anything less than a couple of thousand 
 years old should not be written of in Latin, or is 
 the whole dreary performance recognized by writers 
 of Latin discourses, as a ridiculous anachronism? 
 If so, they agree with the scanty audience, quorum 
 pars magna fui, and the sooner the whole sham is 
 abolished the better. 
 
 An interval of a quarter of an hour suffices to 
 recuperate my energies sufficiently for the English 
 lecture. The theatre at seven o'clock is, as compared 
 with its condition at six, absolutely crowded. Nearly 
 forty persons must be present, and among them are 
 several ladies. The lecture lasts an hour, and is in 
 many respects a curious production, conveying the 
 idea that an attempt is being made to teach trigo- 
 nometry to persons entirely ignorant of even the first 
 book of Euclid. This difficulty hampers the lecturer 
 sadly, and in the endeavour to grapple with it much 
 time is cut to waste. To begin with, the fourth- 
 proposition of the first book requires a lengthy ex- 
 position. A knowledge of the proposition that if in 
 any two triangles, two sides of similar length enclose 
 similar angles, the third sides shall also be equal each 
 to each, and enclose similar angles — although indis- 
 
THE GRESHAM LECTURES. 229 
 
 pensable as a stepping-stone to the i^ons aslnorum, and 
 necessary to a proper comprehension of trigonometry 
 — might surely be assumed in a lectm^e on the latter 
 science. 
 
 An acquaintance with the nature of a right-angled 
 triangle, and the division of the circumference of a 
 •circle into 360 degs., might also, I should think, be 
 safely assumed in persons ambitious to acquire the 
 useful science of trigonometry. 
 
 By a desire to teach this pretty branch of mathe- 
 matics without pre-supposingthe slightest mathematical 
 knowledge, the lecturer constantly finds his progress 
 arrested by the necessity for recurring to the primary 
 truths of geometry. The effort is laudable because 
 well meant, but can hardly prove either interesting or 
 instructive to any class of auditors. Those ignorant 
 of the first book of Euclid can hardly be taught the 
 propositions necessary to a comprehension of trigo- 
 nometry within the limits of a lecture, while those 
 to whom elementary mathematics are familiar are 
 simply tired and bored to death by twice-told tales. 
 The whole attempt is just like trying to teach children 
 to read without making them learn their ABC. 
 Thanks to recent improvements in the method of 
 teaching mathematics, Euclid has been made easy to 
 minds of the slenderest capacity. There is thus no 
 excuse for those who, wishing to take a short cut to 
 
230 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 trigonometry, find it, without a slight acquaintance 
 with geometry and algebra, the longest way round. 
 
 It is disappointing to find that, in an age when so 
 much talk is heard about education, no better emx3loy- 
 ment can be found for the Gresham bequests than in 
 lectures from which no human being can possibly 
 learn anything. Lectures may either be addressed to 
 students who are supposed to know something, or to 
 the public who may — if it please the lecturer — be 
 supposed to know nothing ; but Latin lectures on the 
 purely historical aspect of a science, and English 
 lectures which profess — if they profess anything — to 
 teach trigonometry to persons totally ignorant of the 
 first principles of mathematics, can only be regarded 
 as anachronisms and blunders. The concio ad clerum 
 is simply ridiculous — the concio ad pojmlum utterly 
 impracticable and useless. 
 
( 231 ) 
 
 THE SOCIETY OF TELEGEAPH 
 ENGINEEES. 
 
 Speinging from the recesses of the human mind at 
 the period of that great upheaval of intelHgence 
 known as the "Eenaissance," the stream of scientific 
 knowledge — like a mountain torrent newly issued 
 from its parent glacier — for a while jDrogressed by 
 leaps and bounds — diverted hither and thither by 
 the rocks of superstition and scholasticism, and bore 
 with it the opaque particles of tradition. Acquning 
 strength in its progress, the turbid flood b}^ degrees 
 assumed the proportions of a majestic river, which 
 having undergone purification by its passage through 
 the lake of Time, emerges at length comparatively 
 bright and pure only to undergo subdivision into a 
 myriad of minute rills, narrow indeed, but clear 
 and well defined. Nature-knowledge, once comprised 
 under the heads of alchemy and of astrology, has 
 
232 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 given birth to almost innumerable subdivisions of 
 scientific thought. Forces once undreamt of have 
 one by one been revealed to the patient investi- 
 gator. The powers of steam, of water, and of elec- 
 tricity have by turns occupied the attention of the 
 scientific world, and their practical application to 
 the wants of mankind has engaged the energies of the 
 engineer. For a while this great artificer of modern 
 times essayed to hold in one hand and in one brain 
 the art of making nature the handmaid of man ; but 
 the rapid development of scientific discovery and the 
 exactions of modern life have, within our day, now 
 compelled engineers — like other men of science — to 
 devote themselves exclusively to one groove of their 
 profession. Thus we now have the hydraulic, the 
 railway, the mechanical, the mining, and lastly, the 
 telegraph engineer. 
 
 Electric telegraphy, now second in importance to 
 none of the great inventions which have given this 
 country a practical character peculiarly its own, is, in 
 simple English, a thing of yesterday. It is true that 
 many of the properties of electricity had long been 
 known, but the earliest discovery that it was possible 
 to transmit electricity through considerable distances 
 was made in 1727 by Stephen Gray, the first Copley 
 medallist of the Eoyal Society, and afterwards — a 
 pensioner of the Charter House ! Various electricians 
 
THE SOCIETY OF TELEGRAPH ENGINEERS. 233 
 
 repeated and improved upon his experiments, but the 
 idea of transmitting inteUigence by electricity was 
 slowly evolved. The first person upon whom it 
 dawned appears to have been Charles Marshall, who 
 wrote a letter signed " C. M.," in the Scots Magazine, 
 of the 1st of February, 1758, describing a perfectly 
 practical system of electric telegraphy which could, if 
 better systems were not in oi^eration, be advantageously 
 used at the present day. At the period just referred 
 to, frictional electricity, the kind least adapted for 
 telegraphic purposes, was the only electricity known. 
 Owing to this and other reasons, the electric telegraph 
 remained for a long time in an embryonic state, albeit 
 the late Sir Francis Eonalds, prior to 1816, made 
 many interesting experiments, and ultimately erected 
 a complete electric telegraph on his lawn at Hammer- 
 smith. In his endeavours to obtain recognition of his 
 invention by the Government of the day, he was not 
 more fortunate than the inventor who propounded a 
 somewhat similar scheme to Napoleon. He received, 
 in reply to his note pressing the electric telegraph 
 upon the notice of the Admiralty, the following 
 thoroughly official letter from Mr., afterwards Sir 
 John, Barrow : — 
 
 " Mr. Barrow presents his compliments to Mr. 
 Eonalds, and acquaints him, with reference to his note 
 of the 3rd inst., that telegraphs of any kind are now 
 
234 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 wholly unnecessary, and that no other than the one 
 now in use will be adopted." 
 
 Sir Francis Eonalds was not a man to be dis- 
 heartened by an official rebuff, and pursuing his 
 experiments, published in 1823 his " Description of 
 an Electrical Telegraph," in which occurs the follow- 
 ing prophetic passage : — 
 
 "Why has no serious trial yet been made of the 
 qualifications of so diligent a courier ? And if it should 
 be proved competent to the task, why should not our 
 kings hold councils at Brighton, with their ministers 
 in London ? Why should not our Government govern 
 at Portsmouth almost as promptl}^ as in Downing 
 Street ? Why should our defaulters escape by default 
 of our foggy climate ? And since our piteous inamorati 
 are not all Alphei, why should they add to the 
 torments of absence those dilatory tormentors, pens,, 
 ink, paper, and posts ? Let us have electrical conver- 
 sazione offices, communicating with each other, all 
 over the kingdom, if we can." 
 
 Meanwhile an immense advance in electrical science 
 was made by (Ersted, who in 1819 discovered that a 
 magnetic needle could be moved by an electric current. 
 On this principle — on Sturgeon's discovery that a 
 piece of iron surrounded by electric currents becomes a 
 magnet, and on the discovery by Sir Humphry Davy 
 and others of the chemical decomposition occasioned 
 
THE SOCIETY OF TELEGRAPH ENGINEERS. 235 
 
 by electrical currents — depends the modern science of 
 telegraphy. An important contribution was also made 
 in 1827 by Professor Ohm, who determined the laws 
 which govern the passage of electric currents through 
 conductors. Electricians, now able to move needles, 
 to attract armatures, and to produce telegraphic signs 
 on chemically -j)repared paper, made a vast number of 
 experiments. Perhaps the nearest approach to a 
 practical application of newly-discovered powers was 
 made by Baron Schilling in 1832, and by Steinheil in 
 1837. About this latter date the feasibility of electric 
 telegraphy was not only admitted, but largely com- 
 mented on in scientific lectures. 
 
 Many independent investigators were at work, and 
 the usual race took place for the prize of praise or 
 profit awarded to the first adaptation of principles to 
 necessities. In the case of the electric telegraph, as 
 in that of railways, the prize was destined to fall to 
 England. In March, 1836, the present She William 
 Fothergill Cooke was studying anatomy at Heidelberg, 
 and, on attending Monck's Experimental Lectures on 
 Physics, was so much struck with the power of 
 electricity, and its obvious applicability to telegraphic 
 purposes, that he relinquished his former pursuits and 
 devoted his entire energies to the production of an 
 electric telegraph. Eeturning at once to England, he 
 made the acquaintance of John Lewis Pdcardo, Piobert 
 
*236 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 Stephenson, George Parker Bidder, and other wealthy 
 .and enterprising men, and laid his ideas hefore them. 
 In February, 1837, he obtained an introduction to Sir 
 Charles Wheatstone, who had attracted great attention 
 by the lectures which he had previously delivered at 
 King's College, and whose brilliant demonstration of 
 the extreme velocity of electricity had astonished and 
 •delighted the scientific world. The meeting of Cooke 
 and Wheatstone was destined to have a most important 
 influence on the progress of telegraphy, which now 
 became rapid. A partnership was formed, a patent 
 granted, and the first practical telegraph was laid 
 down for the London and Birmingham Kailway, 
 between Euston and Camden Town, within the space 
 of a few, months. This parent line consisted of five 
 •'Copper wires embedded in a triangular piece of wood. 
 
 Several lines were now laid down, and in 1846 the 
 Electric Telegraph Company was incorporated. At 
 first the venture was very unsuccessful, and the com- 
 pany was on the verge of ruin, when the arrest of 
 Tawell, the Beading murderer — the first culprit 
 '' arrested by telegraph " — drew public attention to the 
 value of the new messenger, and the electric telegraph 
 became a commercial success. 
 
 While Cooke and Wheatstone were, in 1837, laying 
 ■down their first line in England, Professor Morse was 
 iit work in America, and not only discovered a tele- 
 
THE SOCIETY OF TELEGRAPH ENGINEERS. 23T 
 
 graph, but the admirable system of notation which 
 bears his name, and which, with sHght modification, 
 has held its ground ever since. In other respects the 
 original English lines have undergone considerable 
 modification. At first, five wires and five needles 
 were used, but it was soon discovered that by repeating 
 the right and left movements of the needle, the 
 alphabet could be sent equally well on two needles, or 
 even on one. 
 
 In America, preference was given to the Morse 
 system of registration, which consists in embossing: 
 dots and lines upon a strip of paper, and a modified 
 form of the Morse instrument, by which the marks are 
 made with ink, rapidly came into use in England, and 
 now prevails throughout the world. In spite of the 
 general success of this plan, other systems have at 
 times obtained considerable popularity. In 1838 a 
 patent was taken out by Mr. Edward Davy for a 
 chemical marking telegraph. In 1846 Mr. Alexander 
 Bain invented another system of chemical telegraphy, 
 and also a method of perforating messages upon slips 
 of paper, which on being dra\^Ti through a machine- 
 enable the operator to transmit intelligence at an 
 enormous speed. Although these inventions remained 
 in abeyance for a while, they have been recently 
 revived by Wheatstone and others, and to the idea of 
 using perforated slips is due the recent development- 
 
238 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 of automatic telegraphy, a process by which 500 words 
 per minute can be transmitted. 
 
 During the spread of terrestrial telegraphy, the idea 
 that submarine cables could be laid gradually gained 
 strength. In 1850 the first submarine cable was laid 
 between Dover and Cape Grisnez. This consisted 
 simply of a copper wire surrounded by gutta-percha, 
 and enjoyed but a brief existence, owing to the inter- 
 ference of some fishermen, who, mistaking it for an 
 obstinate and objectionable species of seaweed, hauled 
 it up and cut it. In the following year a stronger 
 cable was laid. This was made of four wu-es encased 
 in gutta-percha surrounded with hemp — the whole 
 being surrounded by spiral iron wires. The main 
 features of this typical cable have since been closely 
 adhered to, and the success of this and other lines pro- 
 duced the project of laying a cable across the Atlantic. 
 This scheme was brought into public notice mainly by 
 "the exertions of Mr. Cyrus Field, who induced a 
 number of London and Liverpool capitalists to sub- 
 scribe ^1000 apiece for the purpose of carrying it out. 
 In 1857 the' cable was laid, but, owing to the imperfect 
 •state of electrical science at that period, proved a 
 failm^e. In consequence of this untoward event, a 
 committee was appointed to inquire into the best form 
 of submarine cable, an event in the history of science, 
 dihe importance of which it is difficult to exaggerate. 
 
THE SOCIETY OF TELEGRAPH ENGINEERS. 239 
 
 Many witnesses were examined, and the outcome of 
 the investigation was the laying of another cable in 
 1865. Misfortune still i^ursued the scheme. The 
 second cable broke in deep water, but in 1866 a third 
 cable was laid, and that of 1865 was cleverly picked up 
 by Sir Samuel Canning. In the mean time a great im- 
 provement had been introduced into the construction 
 of submarine cables by Mr. Latimer Clark (who had 
 previously acquired celebrity by the invention of the 
 double bell insulator). His plan consisted in encasing 
 the cable in a covering of hemp, asphalte, and silica, 
 applied over the iron wires so as to prevent their 
 corrosion by the action of sea-water, an invention to 
 which the commercial success of ocean telegraphy is 
 in great measure to be attributed. Cables made on 
 this plan were laid to the Isle of Man, in the Persian 
 Gulf, and between Malta and Alexandria. Ultimately 
 the whole Eastern world was brought into connection 
 with England by cables stretching from Suez to Aden 
 and Bombay, and thence to Singapore, China, and 
 Port Darwin. 
 
 Pending the introduction of telegraphic communica- 
 tion between San Francisco and China, for which 
 surveys are now being made, and which will complete 
 the telegraphic girdle of the world, the Southern 
 Atlantic has been crossed by a cable from Madeira to 
 Brazil, thus bringing South America in direct com- 
 
240 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 munication with Lisbon, Falmouth, and London. In 
 the work of developing the telegraphic system of the 
 world. Englishmen have taken a prominent position. 
 It is almost invidious to signalize a few among the 
 many eminent engineers who have distinguished them- 
 selves in this department of their profession. Suffice 
 it to say that in addition to those already mentioned, 
 Sir WilHam Thomson, Mr. Fleeming Jenkin, Mr. C. 
 F. Varley, and Sir Charles Bright have left their mark 
 on the history of telegraphy. 
 
 At the commencement of the present decade it was 
 felt by many eminent electricians and members of the 
 Institution of Civil Engineers that the department to 
 which they had devoted themselves had at length 
 assumed such imposing proportions as to demand a 
 separate and special organization. Far from opposing 
 the development of a new body, the parent society 
 in Great George Street at once extended a help- 
 ing hand to the scheme, and offered the free use 
 of its handsome room for the meetings of the new 
 society. To Major Frank Bolton and to Major 
 Webber, E.E., is due the inception of the idea of a 
 Society of Telegraph Engineers ; and these gentlemen 
 were warmly supported by Messrs. Kobert Sabine, 
 Latimer Clark, and Dr. C. W. Siemens. Between 
 1871 and 1872 sixty members were enrolled, among 
 wdiom were Dr. C. W. Siemens, president ; Lord 
 
THE SOCIETY OF TELEGRAPH ENGINEERS. 241 
 
 Lindsay and Mr. Scudamore, vice-presidents ; Pro- 
 fessor Foster, Captain Malcolm, and Captain Colomb. 
 In the inaugural address delivered by the president, 
 the necessity for a Society of Telegraph Engineers 
 was eloquently insisted upon. It might have been 
 urged against the new society that its objects were 
 amply provided for by the institutions then in exist- 
 ence. In the words of the president, it might have 
 been asked, " Is telegraph engineering not a branch 
 of civil engineering, and do not all our proceedings, 
 therefore, fall within the legitimate sphere of action of 
 the Institution of Civil Engineers ? Or, if we meet 
 with difficult questions in physical or mathematical 
 science, is not the Koyal Society or Section A of the 
 British Association open for us to discuss them, or 
 may we not go before the Institution of Mechanical 
 Engineers with any purely mechanical question ? Is- 
 it desirable, indeed, it may be urged, to take a branch 
 from the parent stem and to cultivate it sejDarately ? 
 Shall we not degenerate thereby into ' specialists,' or 
 what may be called ' fractional quantities of scientific 
 men,' and this in the face of the patent fact that the 
 further we advance in scientific knowledge (whether 
 pure or applied) the more clearly we perceive the 
 intimate connection between its different branches, 
 and the impossibility of cultivating one without con- 
 stantly reverting to the others ? " 
 
 R 
 
242 • SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 These possible objections were disposed of in the 
 following admirable apology for specialism : — " If it is 
 impossible for one man to master the special know- 
 ledge accumulated in different branches of engineering 
 science, it would be equally impossible for one society 
 to cultivate all those branches in detail; thus the 
 Eoyal Society can only entertain questions involving 
 general principles of science, and is obliged to leave 
 questions of exhaustive research to special societies; 
 questions of minute chemical investigation are 
 assigned to the Chemical Society ; questions regarding 
 the orbits of celestial bodies to the Astronomical 
 Society ; and by the same rule of limitation the Eoyal 
 Society would refuse to receive, for instance, a paper 
 on testing the joints of insulated wire, which would be 
 a subject peculiarly suited for our Society. The 
 Institution of Civil Engineers has, on the other hand, 
 received, at certain intervals of time (varying from 
 two to three years), a general paper on the progress 
 of telegraph engineering; but it is self-evident that 
 such an occasional paper must be quite inadequate to 
 constitute a record of the progress of a branch of 
 engineering which gives daily proof of its public 
 importance, which is distinguished for its rapid 
 development, and which comprises within itself a 
 wide range of scientific inquiry; nor would there be 
 time, on such rare occasions, to discuss questions of 
 
THE SOCIETY OF TELEGEAPH ENGINEEKS. 243 
 
 detail which are of special interest to the telegraph 
 engineer." 
 
 It was at once felt that it was most desirable to 
 secure the support of men occupying influential 
 positions in the great telegraphic systems of the 
 world. As the world was already bound together by a 
 great network of international telegraphy traversing 
 deserts and mountain chains, the deep plateau of the 
 Atlantic, and the more dangerous bottoms of tropical 
 seas, it was very properly deemed necessary that the 
 Society of Telegraph Engineers should be made a 
 cosmopolitan institution — a focus into which the 
 thoughts and observations of all countries might flow, 
 in order to be again radiated in every direction, for 
 the general advancement of science. To carry out this 
 view, the practice of admitting foreign members — 
 which has shed no little glory on many cognate 
 societies — was adopted. Among the first to respond to 
 ihe invitations of the Society were General von Liiders, 
 Director- General of the Imperial Eussian Telegraphs ; 
 Signor D'Amico, Director- General of Telegraphs in 
 Italy ; M. Ailhaud, Inspector-General of Telegraphic 
 Lines in France; M. Vinchant, Inspector-General of 
 PubKc Works in Belgium ; M. Hippolyte Aranjo, of 
 Spain ; and Professor Campanena, the Director- 
 General of Brazilian Telegraphs. 
 
 In pursuance of this wise policy — imitating that of 
 
244 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 tlie Institution of Civil Engineers— the new Society 
 now proceeded to enrol honorary members, notably 
 Sir George Airy, K.C.B., Astronomer Eoyal, General 
 Sir Edward Sabine, and Professor Weber. The 
 pubhcation of a journal embodying the proceedings of 
 the Society was the next object of solicitude. It wa& 
 at first hoped that this important record of telegraphy 
 might be published in the three most important 
 languages of Europe ; but this idea — admirable in 
 itself — was subsequently abandoned, and the Journal 
 now appears, like those of other learned societies, 
 simply in English. The Society went to work with a 
 will. So early as the session of 1872 was read a 
 paper on " Automatic Telegraphy " — a subject now 
 engaging the earnest attention of the telegraphic world 
 — by Mr. E. S. Culley. During the same session an 
 interesting discussion on ''Sea Telegraphy" was- 
 induced by an able paper read by Captain Colomb, 
 K.N. Army telegraphs were also discoursed upon by 
 Captain Malcolm, and the a^Dplication of Colmar's 
 calculating machine to electrical computation was 
 explained by Mr. C. Bruce Warren. 
 
 During the session 1872-73 many papers of great 
 interest were read, among which may be cited the 
 following : — '' On Military Telegraphs in connection 
 with the Autumn Manoeuvres," " On Lightning and 
 Lightning Conductors," " On the Application of Iron 
 
THE SOCIETY OF TELEGRAPH ENGINEERS. 245 
 
 to Telegraph Poles," and on "Earth Currents." The 
 ^' Block System" also came in for a large share of 
 attention, the reading and discussion of papers on 
 this important subject having occupied several meet- 
 ings of the Society. 
 
 The proceedings of the Society are recorded in the 
 Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, which 
 contains, moreover, much valuable matter in the form 
 of abstracts, translations, and original communica- 
 tions, and is admirably edited by the hon. sec. Major 
 Prank Bolton, and the secretary, Mr. G. E. Preece. 
 Among other valuable matter contained in its pages 
 will be found copies of the photographic records of the 
 various magnetic disturbances in the great magnetic 
 storm of February 4th, 1872, contributed by the 
 Astronomer Koyal, and a "Piegister of the Computed 
 Force and the Direction of Earth Currents observed 
 at Yalentia during 78 Days — from March 6th to May 
 22nd, 1871, upon 1850 nauts of cable." This table is 
 not only curious and valuable in itself, but is remark- 
 al)le as an instance of ingenious editing. Mr. Preece 
 considering that in printing a table containing 3744 
 numerical statements — encumbered moreover by stars, 
 dots, and dashes — the chances of error were very 
 great, cut the knot by having the original document 
 photographed and the prints inserted in the Journal. 
 
 The Society of Telegraph Engineers has grown as 
 
246 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 rapidly as the science it reiDresents. The original sixty 
 members have now increased to 580. These consist 
 of Members, Associates, Students, Foreign Members,, 
 and Honorary Members, governed by a Council com- 
 posed of the president — Sir Wm. Thomson — the 
 two past presidents — Mr. Scudamore and Dr. C. W. 
 Siemens — four vice-presidents, twelve other members, 
 and three Associates. In the case of any person 
 desiring to become a full Member, certain qualifications 
 are very properly insisted on. He must have been 
 regularly educated as a telegraph engineer, and have 
 had subsequent employment for at least five years in 
 responsible situations ; or have practised on his own 
 account as a telegraph engineer for at least two years,, 
 and have acquired a certain degree of eminence in the 
 profession ; or be so intimately associated with the 
 science of electricity or the progress of telegraphy that 
 the Council consider his admission to membership 
 would conduce to the interests of the Society. 
 
 Less rigid conditions are exacted in the case of 
 Associates, who need only to be persons of more than 
 twenty-one years of age whose pursuits constitute 
 branches of electrical engineering, or who are in- 
 timately associated with the science of electricity or 
 the progress of telegraphy. 
 
 Studentship is accorded to pupils under eighteen 
 and not over twenty-one years of age. Foreign and 
 
THE SOCIETY OF TELEGRAPH ENGINEERS. 247 
 
 Honorary Members are admitted on the conditions 
 common to other scientific institutions. 
 
 Apphcants for admission to the Society having been 
 proposed and seconded in writing, and the application 
 having been first submitted by the secretary to the 
 Council, are elected by ballot — two-thirds of the 
 members voting being required to secure election. 
 Honorary Members only are elected by the Council 
 without appeal to the general body. Every Member 
 contributes two guineas, every Associate one guinea, 
 every Foreign Member one pound, and every Student 
 half-a-guinea annually to the Society. The session 
 commences in November and ends in June, and the 
 meetings still take place — thanks to the courtesy of 
 the parent institution — in the great room of the 
 Institution of Civil Engineers, Great George Street, 
 Westminster. These meetings resemble so closely 
 those of the Civil Engineers, that it is needless for me 
 to dwell upon the details of procedure. The discus- 
 sions are always lively and suggestive — as might be 
 expected at a meeting of the professors of a youthful 
 science, marvellous enough in its akeady revealed 
 power, but doubly interesting from its magnificent 
 possibilities. 
 
248 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 XI. 
 
 THE MUSEUM OF PEACTICAL 
 GEOLOGY. 
 
 Extending from Jermyn Street to Piccadilly is a 
 handsome and commodious building which affords, 
 perhaps, the best example in this country of what a 
 museum ought to be. To begin with, it was built for 
 a special purpose, and is not a conversion or adapta- 
 tion of a structure originally intended for something 
 else. Although containing objects which, from their 
 industrial importance alone, are interesting . to all 
 sorts and conditions of men, the Museum of Practical 
 Geology is really and truly a museum in the highest 
 and best acceptation of the word. It is not a mere 
 collection of geological specimens prettily arranged to 
 catch the eye and tickle the fancy of fashionable 
 dabblers in the 'ologies, but is a superbly organized 
 exhibition of the minerals of the British Islands, 
 arranged with direct reference to their employment in 
 
THE MUSEUM OF PKACTICAL GEOLOGY. 249 
 
 manufactures and to the instruction of students in 
 their geographical distribution, geological formation, 
 chemical and mineralogical character, and metal- 
 lurgical treatment. This educational element is 
 strengthened by metallurgical laboratories, and by 
 the combination of the Eoyal School of Mines, to a 
 certain extent, with the Museum. Mr. Pennethorne's 
 handsome structure might, indeed, be described in 
 the manner of Mrs. Malaprop as '* three institutions 
 at once." The Eoyal School of Mines has been dealt 
 with in a previous paper, and the Mining Eecord 
 Office, a most valuable institution, may be described 
 in a few words. The objects to which it is devoted are 
 the collection, arrangement, and preservation of all 
 sections of mines and collieries now in work or aban- 
 doned, the collection of every kind of information 
 connected with the mineral formations of the United 
 Kingdom, and the collection and publication of mining 
 statistics. It is unnecessary for me to descant upon 
 the importance of these functions, or on the admirable 
 manner in which they are performed, as the public 
 is perfectly familiar with the Annual Statistical 
 Eeturn of the mineral produce of the British Islands, 
 prepared by Mr. Eobert Hunt, F.E.S., Keeper of 
 Mining Eecords, and author, in conjunction with Mr. 
 F. W. Eudler, of an admirable descriptive Guide to 
 the Museum of Practical Geology. 
 
250 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 The triple institution in Jermyn Street is the direct 
 outgrowth of the Geological Survey of the United 
 Kingdom, commenced at first on his own account by 
 Sir Henry Thomas de la Beche, and afterwards 
 adopted by the Government. Having induced the 
 Government to undertake this important work, Sir H. 
 de la Beche lost no time in suggesting that the survey 
 itself would supply means for collecting specimens of 
 the applications of geology to the useful purposes of 
 life. The importance of a museum which should 
 illustrate the mineral productions of the country and 
 show their commercial value was immediately recog- 
 nized, and apartments at No. 6, Craig's Court, 
 appointed to receive the nucleus of the present 
 splendid collection. At first called the "Museum of 
 Economic Geology," the collection soon became im- 
 portant enough to need the services of a curator, and 
 in 1839 Mr. Eichard Phillips, F.E.S., was appointed 
 to that office. Being an able chemist, Mr. Phillips 
 was induced to unite analytical investigations with 
 his duties as curator. No sooner was a laboratory 
 established and regular work commenced, than stu- 
 dents sought admittance. At first only a limited 
 number could be favoured, but the ultimate result of 
 this wise addition of scientific demonstration to a 
 special museum was the establishment of the Eoyal 
 School of Mines. 
 
THE MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL GEOLOGY. 251 
 
 The museum in Jermyn Street was opened on May 
 14th, 1851, by His Koyal Highness the late Prince 
 Consort, and in its construction was made to illustrate 
 some of the objects in view. The Piccadilly front is 
 of Anston (Yorkshire) dolomite, or magnesian lime- 
 stone, and the Jermyn Street front is composed partly 
 of the same stone and partly of Suffolk bricks ; the 
 steps at the entrance are of red Peterhead granite, at 
 the doorway is a slab of Penrhyn slate, the pavement 
 and steps leading into the hall are of Portland stone, 
 the base of the sides of the vestibules is of Irish 
 granite, the upper portion of polished Derbyshire 
 alabaster, and the pilasters of grey Peterhead granite. 
 
 The specimens are admirably arranged in separate 
 lines of cases placed in such juxtaposition that the 
 progress of any one metalliferous mineral may be 
 traced from the geological stratum whence the ore is 
 extracted through the various processes of manufac- 
 ture till the metal ultimately assumes the forms 
 required for use or ornament. Thus, the natural 
 materials may be studied as to their lithological 
 character, their geological order, or their mineralo- 
 gical constitution ; the artificial productions, exhibit- 
 ing the results of labour and science, may be investi- 
 gated in a commercial, scientific, or artistic spirit; 
 the models of mechanical appliances reveal the means 
 by which industrial results are attained ; while a 
 
^52 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 yaluable collection of foreign and colonial minerals 
 affords opportunities of comparing these with native 
 13roduce, and a selection of historical specimens illus- 
 trates the progress of metallurgy and the art of work- 
 ing in metals in all countries and in all ages. 
 
 To that most important of all metals — iron — much 
 space is naturally devoted. Among the many speci- 
 mens of British iron ores, the valuable red hsematite 
 is represented by samples from Ulverstone and White- 
 haven, where the development of the iron industry 
 has, within a short space, enriched and populated a 
 region previously remarkable for picturesqueness and 
 poverty. The crystallized variety called s^Decular ore, 
 or iron-glance, is illustrated by specimens from Cleator 
 Moor, where it occurs in cavities in the compact ore, 
 and the micaceous iron ores of Devon and Anglesey 
 ^re also well illustrated. 
 
 The abundant and widely-diffused limonite or brown 
 iron ore is also represented. From the earliest times 
 this well-known mineral has been raised in the Forest 
 of Dean, which, however, is only one of the many 
 localities in which it is found in this country. From 
 Cornwall come magnificent specimens of a variety of 
 brown ore, called gothite — a crystallized hydrous 
 peroxide of iron. Many fine samples appear of the 
 brown iron ores of the secondary strata, especially 
 those of the lias and the overlaying oolites. 
 
THE MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL GEOLOGY. 253 
 
 These ores have, within the last quarter of a century, 
 acquired immense importance. Among the most 
 celebrated is the Cleveland ironstone, the main body 
 of which is a carbonate of the protoxide of iron, the 
 upper part of the deposit passing into brown ore. 
 This famous stratum — upon which the industry of a 
 now wealthy and thickly-populated district depends — 
 was discovered in 1848-49 on the north-eastern coast 
 of Yorkshire. ''From Eedcar.to Middlesborough-on- 
 Tees, there crops out a solid stratum no less than 
 fifteen feet thick. This remarkable ironstone seam 
 extends over a region of some hundreds of square 
 miles. It is capped by sandy shales containing 
 scattered nodules of ironstone, and ultimately — above 
 the marlstone series to which it belongs — by the upper 
 lias shale, so well known along the Whitby coast for 
 its fossils, jet, and the application of some of the beds 
 to the manufacture of alum." The Northamptonshire 
 and Lincolnshire ironstones are also extensively 
 w^orked. The first-named occurs in the Northampton 
 Sand, at the base of the Great Oolite, while the 
 Lincolnshire ironstone — like that of Cleveland — is 
 found in the Marlstone or Middle Lias. 
 
 In carbonates of iron England is less rich than 
 many foreign countries, but fine specimens of spathose 
 ore come from the Brendon Hills, in Somersetshire, 
 and from Weardale, in Durham. When associated 
 
254 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 ■with certain argillaceous impurities impeding its 
 crystallization, this carbonate of iron becomes the 
 well-known clay ironstone, which, although hardly 
 entitled to rank as a distinct mineralogical species — 
 and therefore destitute of purely scientific interest — 
 is of great commercial value from its distribution 
 through South Wales, North Wales, Shropshire, 
 South Staffordshire, Warwickshire, North Stafford- 
 shire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and the northern 
 counties. Among these clay ironstones are samples 
 of the famous carbonaceous ironstone known as 
 *' black band," from which the largest quantity of 
 Scotch iron is made. This ore, which was discovered 
 in 1801 by Mr. Mushet, is frequently called " Mushet 
 stone." 
 
 Among the foreign and colonial iron ores are the 
 Canadian bog ore, the richer magnetic ore, and 
 titaniferous iron, which occur in large quantities in 
 the Dominion. Of great interest also are numerous 
 specimens of the magnetic u^on ores of Sweden. These 
 are distributed over an area of 16,000 square miles. 
 The best iron is obtained from the Dannemora mines, 
 and large quantities are exported to England, where 
 they are employed at Sheffield and other places for 
 making steel. Beautiful specimens of specular iron 
 ore are contributed by the Isle of Elba, where enormous 
 deposits occur. This ore, famous even in remote 
 
THE MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL GEOLOGY. 255 
 
 antiquity, has long been worked by large open excava- 
 tions. Elba also possesses rich veins of magnetic ore, 
 associated with haematite, at the famous Loadstone 
 Mountain, or Monte Calamita. Specimens of brown 
 iron ore come from many countries, but more 
 interesting than these are the blocks of spathose from 
 Dauphine, Styria, Carinthia, and last, but not least, 
 from the neighbourhood of Siegen, in Ehenish Prussia, 
 including the celebrated Stahlberg, near Miisen. 
 During the last few years the importance of these 
 spathic ores has enormously increased, owing to the 
 growing demand for spiegeleisen — indispensable to 
 the manufacture of Bessemer steel. 
 
 Proceeding from the geology, chemistry, distribu- 
 tion, and value of the raw material, to the varied 
 j)rocesses employed in reducing iron from the ore, the 
 visitor finds this part of the subject profusely illus- 
 trated. The metallurgical specimens in the East 
 Indian cases are full of interest. " Wootz," or Indian 
 steel, is manufactured by the natives chiefly from 
 magnetic ores. The smelting apparatus is very rude 
 — consisting of a small open furnace, in which the ore 
 is disposed in layers of smaU pieces alternating with 
 layers of charcoal. The blast is provided by two 
 small bellows made of goat-skins, and the metal when 
 reduced falls into a hole at the bottom of the furnace 
 and forms a cake of malleable iron. *' To convert 
 
256 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 this into ^wootz,' a small wedge is cut from the iron 
 cake and placed with pieces of dry wood in a clay 
 crucible, which is heated in a rude furnace until the 
 iron becomes carbonized." On breaking open the 
 crucible the steel is found at the bottom in the form 
 of the small conical cakes exhibited in case 38. The 
 quantity of iron 2')roduced in this primitive way would 
 provoke a smile from the lords of many blast-furnaces. 
 In Oldham's Eeport on the Damoodah Valley, 1852, 
 when East Indian iron-making was more actively 
 pursued than at the present time, it is stated that the 
 whole district employed 70 furnaces, producing nearly 
 2380 tons of pig-iron per annum ! 
 
 After the model-room, containing models of blast- 
 furnaces and blowing engines, has been inspected, the 
 numerous specimens of English pig-iron demand 
 attention. Here are samples of hot and of cold 
 blast pig — grey, mottled, and white — from the White- 
 haven Works in Cumberland, from the Lowmoor, 
 Bowling, and Farnley Works in Yorkshire, from the 
 Kussell's Hall Works in South Staffordshire, from the 
 Plymouth, Dowlais, and Maesteg Works in Glamorgan- 
 shire, and from Monklands, Lanarkshire. 
 
 The interesting process of steel-making may be 
 studied to great advantage at the Museum of Practical 
 Geology. At the north end of the museum is a model 
 of a Shefdeld steel manufactory, including furnaces,., 
 
THE MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL GEOLOGY. 257 
 
 rolling mills, and forge ; and not far from this is one 
 of the most beautifully executed models in existence. 
 It represents the whole apparatus employed in making 
 Bessemer steel, and, previous to its presentation to the 
 Museum by Mr. Bessemer, was exhibited at the Inter- 
 national Exhibition at Paris, in 1867, where it gained 
 a prize. This model alone would repay a visit to 
 Jermyn Street. Numerous specimens of mild steel 
 are exhibited, and one stand contains specimens of 
 every variety of steel sent into the market. Every 
 stage of manufacture is illustrated. There is the 
 puddled and rolled iron bar — recarbonized by "cement- 
 ation " — and then known as "blister steel," while 
 near at hand are specimens of blister steel, which, by 
 various welding processes, have been advanced to the 
 condition of "half shear," "single shear," "double 
 shear," and "faggot steel." Fine blocks of cast steel 
 revive the agreeable thought that the very difficult 
 trade of making cast steel has at last revived. The 
 manufacture of sheet and bar steel is not overlooked, 
 nor are specimens wanting to indicate the various 
 processes of hardening and tempering. In case 41 is 
 found an interesting series of specimens of steel at the 
 different colours for tempering. Beautiful samples of 
 steel springs are shown. One of these — a miniature 
 spring for a tiny watch — weighs but 0*125 of a grain 
 — and being commercially worth about 25s., was used 
 
 s 
 
258 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 by Babbage as an illustration of the value of labour. 
 Here is indeed an instance of an inappreciable and 
 almost invisible quantity of material acquiring a high 
 value simply from the time and labour spent in its 
 production. 
 
 Whitworth's screws and plates are also wonderful 
 examples of technical skill. The celebrated plates are 
 of considerable weight, but when the two iron planes 
 are brought together, and the air between them 
 expelled by simple pressure, the cohesive force of the 
 two surfaces is so great that the plates may be lifted 
 from the ground by the handle of the upper one — a 
 conclusive proof of the correctness with which the 
 surfaces have been formed. Near these triumphs of 
 accurate workmanship are some fine examples of 
 Berhn iron castings. Many beautiful specimens also 
 come from the ironworks of Count de Stolberg- 
 Wernigerode, at Ilsenburg, Hartz Mountains. One 
 large ornamental casting is exhibited with the sand 
 attached as it was taken from the mould. 
 
 In table-case 48 is a fine collection of ancient and 
 modern Oriental and Western sword-blades. Swords 
 and daggers from the Punjaub, Ispahan, and Borneo 
 repose peacefully side by side with the blades of 
 Damascus and Toledo, and the masterpieces of sword- 
 making said to have been tempered by Andrea Ferrara 
 in the remote solitude of a Highland glen. From the 
 
THE MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL GEOLOGY. 259 
 
 ■earliest periods Oriental sword-blades have been justly- 
 celebrated. Among these the Damascus blades held 
 the first rank and were remarkable for their keenness 
 of edge, great flexibility, a peculiar waviness or flecki- 
 ness always observed on the surface, and a musky 
 odour said to be given out on the blade being bent or 
 rubbed. 
 
 Without attempting to cut the knotty arguments 
 with which the Damascus question is involved, I may 
 simply say that the excellence of Eastern blades is 
 easily accounted for. In the East people are not in a 
 hurry. Over their wonderful textile fabrics and on 
 their hammered metal, they are content to forget that 
 there is such a thing as time. Even unto this day 
 the excellent iron ores of Asia are reduced by char- 
 coal, and, although I know this remark to be absurd 
 from a commercial point of view, I am not afraid to 
 say that things made singly and by hand — without 
 regard to time — are very likely to be better in quality 
 than those turned out by the thousand. The system 
 does not "pay," I suppose; but I have my doubts 
 whether work of the best kind, honestly, con- 
 scientiously, and thoroughly performed, does often 
 actually "pay" in immediate hard cash. I have 
 seen two or three specimens of metal-work, produced 
 in these latter days, which have occupied ten years of 
 a man's life to complete. The artifex was paid an 
 
260 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 immense price, but let us think of the time occupied 
 in earning the money ! The result is work unequalled, 
 unapproachable, but whether it literally, and in a 
 vulgar sense, ''paid" the patient toiler for the time 
 and genius expended is very doubtful. 
 
 In case 13 is shown the modern process of sword 
 manufacture as practised at Birmingham. From 
 Sheffield comes a large quantity of bars of steel called 
 " sword-moulds." To the mould is fastened the tang, 
 which is of iron. The result of the different stages of 
 forging is very clearly shown, and also the effect of 
 tempering the blade by drawing it through the fire 
 several times until the surface exhibits a bluish 
 oxidation. Another very interesting case is that 
 illustrating the development of a first-class gun-barrel 
 from a heap of horse-shoe nails. Great care is devoted 
 to the arrangement of this case, and the advance of 
 nails to bars, the twisting of these on a mandril, and 
 the subsequent welding and boring operations are 
 beautifully illustrated. 
 
 Less important metals than iron have received 
 equally conscientious treatment at the hands of Mr. 
 Hunt, Mr. Trenham Eeeks, and Mr. Eudler, who are 
 deservedly proud of the masterly arrangement of the 
 Museum. Copper may be traced from the yellow, 
 purple, and grey copper ores through all the complex 
 processes of smelting to the evolution of bar copper,. 
 
THE MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL GEOLOGY. 261 
 
 .and the conversion of this into sheets. The malle- 
 ability of copper is also well shown in a fine series of 
 examples of the gradual development of a copper vase 
 of elegant form from a disc of metal. A magnificent 
 mass of native copper is also to be seen. The frequent 
 occurrence of virgin malleable copper has been 
 advanced by many writers on metals as a reason why 
 •copper was employed for many ages before iron. 
 
 Unfortunately for this theory it has recently been 
 shown that iron was in use in Egypt at the time of 
 the Pharoahs, and in India from time immemorial; 
 while an Assyrian tripod ring in the Museum of 
 Practical Geology (case 20) demonstrates, to the satis- 
 faction of Dr. Percy, that the bronze had been cast 
 round a support of iron, by which means the appear- 
 ance of lightness was attained, and great strength 
 was ensured. Advocates of the new theory assert, with 
 great plausibility, that the rapid oxidation of iron 
 explains its absence from very ancient monuments. 
 
 In like manner the processes employed in the 
 reduction of other metals are profusely illustrated in 
 a series of cases. Superb specimens of the raw 
 material are shown, among which I may cite a very 
 instructive piece of a lead vein from the Grassington 
 mines in Yorkshire, and a portion of a vein of gold- 
 bearing quartz from Grass Valley, Nevada County, 
 •California. 
 
262 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 A large horse-shoe case in the first gallery con> 
 tains a classified collection of the minerals once desig- 
 nated non-metalliferous. Chief among these rank the- 
 diamond and the *' black diamond." A superb snuff- 
 box, presented to the late Sir Eoderick Murchison by 
 the Emperor Nicholas of Eussia, and bequeathed by 
 the recipient to the Museum, occupies a place of 
 honour among many other specimens of pure carbon. 
 Less beautiful, but far more important than the 
 diamond, is the great modern motive power — coal. The 
 varieties of coal form a regular series, commencing 
 with hard coal, or anthracite, and passing through 
 the ordinary bituminous coals to the more recently- 
 formed lignite. Here are numerous specimens of true 
 anthracite, of cannel coal, lignite, and jet, of the 
 curious mineral known as Bog-Head cannel, and of 
 Kimmeridge coal and other hydro-carbons, such as 
 asphalt, elaterite, and amber. Considerable space is- 
 devoted to coal and to the method of "winning" it- 
 There are models of the " surface workings of a 
 Newcastle coalpit," of the " Shipley Colliery in Derby- 
 shire," and of the different modes of working and 
 ventilating coal mines. In addition to these are 
 found one of Eidley and Co's coal-cutting machines,, 
 and siDecimens of the tools employed in various 
 mining districts. Immediately above the coal-cutting, 
 machine is an interesting collection of ancient. Saxon 
 
THE MUSEUM OF PBACTICAL GEOLOGY. 263 
 
 mining axes, richly ornamented. These formed the 
 badges of office among the chief miners, and were 
 only carried on State occasions. It is curious to trace 
 the gradual steps by which a miner's axe became by 
 degrees more highly ornamented and reduced in 
 weight, until at length the ancient axe shrank to the 
 dimensions of a practicable walking stick — a mere 
 wand of office. 
 
 In case 5, in the model room, is a complete collec- 
 tion of mining lamps, showing the inventions of Davy 
 and Stephenson, and the improvements subsequently 
 made in them, among which is the remarkable 
 magnet-lamp invented to prevent the miner from 
 opening his lamp to light his pipe. 
 
 In the upper gallery is a fine collection of British 
 fossils, admirably arranged for the use of students; 
 but it is impossible to do more than allude to the 
 numerous objects of interest in the Museum of Practi- 
 cal Geology. Several cases in the haU are filled with 
 polished cubes of British ornamental stones, collected 
 to assist the deliberations of the Building- Stone Com- 
 missioners appointed to select the best possible stone 
 for building the present Houses of Parliament. An 
 immense deal of trouble was taken in testing the 
 physical and chemical properties of the various stones, 
 but the selection arrived at can hardly be designated 
 a success. Another most interesting relic is a portion 
 
264 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 of the boulder-stone used for the sarcophagus of the 
 late Duke of Wellington. A huge boulder had long 
 lain supine in a field in Cornwall, to the despair of the 
 farmer, who on several occasions proposed to blow it 
 up, but was deterred by the menaces of the country 
 folk, who, by addressing him thus — "If thee shoots 
 that, we'll shoot thee," succeeded in preserving the 
 stone to fulfil its great destiny. A series of handsome 
 busts adorns the hall of the Museum. Appropriately 
 carved in stone are the counterfeit presentments of 
 great geologists. An important addition to the busts 
 of Smith, Playfair, De la Beche, Buckland, and 
 Murchison, has recently been presented to the Museum 
 by a generous lady. This is a magnificent marble 
 bust of the late Professor Sedgwick, by Woolner — one 
 of the happiest efforts of that eminent sculptor. Out 
 of the main track of the visitor is a curious and 
 valuable collection, illustrative of the progress of fictile 
 industry in this country and abroad. The ceramic 
 and vitreous series contains specimens of Bovey clay, 
 Poole clay, China stone, and the famous Kaolin, China 
 or Cornish clay, to the introduction of which the 
 beauty of porcelain is mainly to be attributed. Speci- 
 mens of raw material and of various kinds of porce- 
 lain and pottery, in different stages of manufacture, 
 are arranged on the symmetrical plan carried out in 
 every other department; but, albeit proud of their 
 
THE MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL GEOLOGY. 265 
 
 lianclsome collection of china and glass, tlie courteous 
 officers of the institution confess with sorrow that 
 perhaps their well-meant efforts have contributed to 
 excite the present absurd mania for crockery. 
 
 The Museum is open gratuitously to the public on 
 Mondays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., 
 and on the other days of the week (Friday excepted) 
 during the usual hours. There is one month of 
 vacation, from the 10th August to the 10th September, 
 when the Museum is entirely closed. 
 
 The edifice contains a library of 15,000 volumes, 
 devoted to the sciences taught in the School of Mines. 
 These are available for the use of students in the 
 School, and also, ui^on special application, stating the 
 object in view, may be consulted by other inquirers. 
 
 Taken altogether, the institution in Jermyn Street 
 is admirable. As a " show "it is full of interest and 
 entertainment, but considered in its more important 
 aspect as an engine of direct instruction, it not only 
 excites admiration at its perfect arrangement, but 
 wonder that no greater haste is made to follow the 
 excellent example set by the Museum of Practical 
 Geology. 
 
266 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 XII. 
 
 THE BEITISH ASSOCIATION FOE THE 
 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 Forasmuch as the British Association is only con- 
 spicuous in London by its absence, and holds its meet- 
 ings everywhere but in the metropolis, it can hardly 
 be included under the title of " Scientific London." 
 Still, when I reflect that much of the work of this 
 important body is done on the banks of the Thames, 
 and that committee meetings take place in Albemarle 
 Street, while the great holiday gatherings are reserved 
 for the provinces, I cannot refrain from mentioning a 
 society of special type, which has exercised enormous 
 influence in disseminating and fostering a natural 
 taste for every branch of science. 
 
 With the advent of the spirit of scientific investiga- 
 tion arose the idea that while the formation of special 
 societies would assist the development of particular 
 branches of study, some great catholic association 
 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 267 
 
 should promote the general advance of science in this, 
 country. For a long while this duty was fulfilled by 
 the Koyal Society. From the collection of detached 
 facts and observations this august body advanced at 
 length to the pursuit of knowledge of all kinds, and 
 accepting communications on every branch of science, . 
 filled the important position of supreme arbiter of the 
 scientific circles of England. 
 
 But in time the limbs grew too numerous and too 
 ponderous for the parent trunk, and were lopped off 
 one by one. The Society of Antiquaries disposed of 
 one class of communications, and the Linnsean 
 Society, the Geological and Eoyal Astronomical 
 Societies successively reduced the area of the Royal 
 Society's work. Meanwhile scientific knowledge ad- 
 vanced and entirely new sciences sprang into existence. 
 
 At the commencement of the present century the 
 brilliant discoveries and attractive lectures of Davy 
 had forced from society a species of recognition, while 
 the extraordinary development of the steam-engine, 
 and the increasing trade in dyes and other " chemi- 
 cals," had brought home to the commercial mind the 
 importance of scientific knowledge. It became recog- 
 nized that the very existence of England depends on 
 her being second to no other nation in the prompt 
 application of scientific discoveries and scientific 
 method to the gigantic industries for which this little 
 
268 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 island is celebrated. For a while the antagonistic 
 influence of two widely separated sections of society- 
 was severely felt. On the part of the great Univer- 
 sities a positive dislike was shown to the introduction 
 of science into education. At the University of Oxford, 
 the elegant — but utterly useless — trick of composing 
 Greek and Latin verse was considered of sufficient 
 importance to occuj^y several of the most valuable 
 years of a man's life; while at Cambridge — invested 
 with scientific glory by the immortal Newton — 
 although mathematical science enjoyed a certain 
 prominence, its study was almost exclusively regarded 
 as a mere training of the understanding, a species of 
 mental gymnastics fitted to harden the logical facul- 
 ties as practice in the eight-oar hardens and develops 
 the muscles. As an instrument for the discovery of 
 new truths, mathematics were entirely disregarded, 
 and Cambridge was content to let science be where 
 it was left by the great philosopher who described 
 himself as a child picking up shells by the shore of 
 the ocean of truth. Those impressed with the value 
 of a scientific education, groaned over the Oxford 
 graduate, whose proficiency in the dead languages was 
 compensated by complete ignorance of the elementary 
 principles of a telescope, a barometer, or a steam- 
 engine, and declared that unless scientific study were 
 made compulsory as an integral part of an university 
 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. '269 
 
 education, neither Oxford nor Cambridge would ever 
 become the scene of scientific investigation. 
 
 We all now know how science has triumphed over 
 her foes in the Universities, but it is deeply interest- 
 ing to consider how much progress has been retarded 
 on the other hand by the so-called "practical man." 
 Whether a general officer or a blacksmith, the 
 "practical man" sternly opposed any application 
 of theoretical knowledge to his peculiar profession. 
 The natural buU-headedness of Englishmen made the 
 English practical man peculiarly offensive. It was 
 often asked, " Of what use is science ? " and the head 
 of a great military department once declared openly 
 that he "hated scientific officers," while it was but 
 too well known that in his own department more 
 money had been wasted and more lives lost — from sheer 
 ignorance of science — "than any one could think of 
 without shame and sorrow." Another general officer 
 — as if to justify Fielding's remarks on the military 
 cranium — gave it as his opinion that "theoretical 
 knowledge was not necessary in the army. An officer 
 might be a good officer without any education at all."" 
 
 In the industrial world a like feeling j)revailed. 
 Dr. Lyon Playfair declared that the title of "practical 
 man" was erroneously used by Englishmen to envelop 
 their ignorance, and that reliance on the "practical 
 or common sense of our population is the sunken 
 
'270 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 rock directly in the course both of our agriculture 
 and manufactures." Dr. Lyon Playfair continued 
 in the following terms: — "If England keeps pace 
 with other countries as a manufacturing nation, it 
 must be by her sons of industry becoming humble 
 disciples of science. Now that the progress of human 
 events has converted the competition of industry into 
 a competition of intellect, it will no longer do to 
 plume and pride ourselves on our power of mere 
 practical adaptation. It is miserable to see our 
 industrial population glorying in their ignorance of 
 the principles on which their manufactures depend, 
 and vaunting their empiricism, or, as they term it, 
 their practice." 
 
 The importance of applying the faculties of observa- 
 tion and reasoning to the problems of nature is also 
 proclaimed by Sir John Herschel, who says, "The 
 abstract sciences are the concentration of what has 
 been established as true in the operations of nature — 
 they are so much of certainty acquired in the midst 
 of uncertainty. When sufficiently advanced to be 
 directly applicable to the industrial and other arts 
 they convert the crawl of improvement into a race." 
 Theory may, then, be defined as a species of rule of 
 ■which practice is merely the example; but, for all 
 that, is yet at a discount in this country, where people 
 love to ignore their obligations to such " theorists " as 
 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 271 
 
 Newton, Watt, Stephen Gray, and Davy, and to exalt 
 to the skies the ''practical men" who blundered and 
 muddled on for thousands of years without achieving 
 any great improvement, and would probably have 
 gone on stumbling for ever had not the gloomy regions 
 of practice been illumined by the light of theory. 
 
 The influence of the numerous learned societies in 
 encouraging observation and diffusing a philosophical 
 spirit, the efforts of the Eoyal Society to excite interest 
 in purely scientific subjects, and the excellent work 
 done by the Society of Arts in showing the intimate 
 connection between science and industry, failed to 
 secure national appreciation until steam communica- 
 tion and the rapid transmission of news by degrees 
 made men aware of the enormous losses of life and 
 property annually suffered from sheer want of 
 scientific knowledge. Pending the more general 
 appreciation of the advantages of scientific culture, a 
 discussion arose, between the years 1826 and 1831, on 
 the low state of science and scientific men in England. 
 
 To Sir David Brewster is undoubtedly due the 
 origin of the British Association, but the original con- 
 ception of a Scientific Parliament is purely German, 
 and was simply imported into this country by the great 
 northern philosopher. In 1822 Dr. Oken, of Munich, 
 originated the idea of an annual congress of scientific 
 men, with the object of bringing them into personal 
 
272 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 contact. The first meeting was held at Leipzig, and 
 was attended by only thirty-two persons, of whom 
 twenty were resident in the city. The meetings, how- 
 ever, rapidly increased in importance. That of 1827, 
 held in Mmiich, was warmly patronised by the King^ 
 of Bavaria, and in the following year the philosophers 
 assembled at Berlin, on which occasion they were 
 warmly welcomed by the King and presided over by 
 the illustrious Von Humboldt. Babbage was the only 
 Englishman present, and communicated an interesting 
 account of the Scientific Congress to the Edinhurgh 
 Journal of Science. 
 
 Intelligent foreigners had long remarked the slender 
 estimation in which science and its votaries were held 
 in England, and by the efforts of Sir Humphry Davy,. 
 Sir John Herschel, Sir David Brewster, and others, the 
 upper stratum of national feeling was stirred up. It was 
 set forth that foreign scientific institutions were greatly 
 superior to those in existence in England, and the 
 decline of scientific studies among the aristocracy was 
 vigorously pointed out by Davy, who remarked that, 
 *'in looking back to the history of the last five reigns in 
 England, we find Boyles, Cavendishes, and Howards, 
 who rendered their great names more illustrious by 
 their scientific renown, but we may in vain search the 
 aristocracy now for philosophers ; and there are very 
 few persons who pursue science with true dignity ; it 
 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 273 
 
 is followed more as connected with objects of profit 
 than those of fame, and there are fifty persons who 
 take out patents for supjDOsed inventions for one who ^ 
 makes a real discovery." In like spirit, Babbage 
 exposed the prevailing ignorance of the more difficult 
 and abstract sciences, and declared that mathematics 
 and, with it, the highest departments of physical 
 science had gradually declined since the days of 
 Newton. These shortcomings were attributed to the 
 abuses then existing in the management of our 
 scientific institutions — the imperfect system of in- 
 struction in public schools and universities — the 
 ignorance of public men — and the culpable indiffer- 
 ence of successive Governments to the intellectual glory 
 of the country. Babbage' s onslaught was supported 
 by Sir David Brewster, who, in the Quarterly Revieir, 
 drew a comparison between the existing state of 
 science at home and abroad, very much to the dis- 
 advantage of England. At the conclusion of this 
 important article, the writer — whose philosophic in- 
 vestigations had extended through every branch of 
 physical science — mentioned the best method for 
 reviving and extending science in the British 
 Islands: — ''An Association of our nobility, clergy, 
 gentry, and philosophers can alone draw the attention 
 of the Sovereign and the nation to this blot upon its 
 fame." In 1831, through the instrumentality of Lord 
 
274 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 Brougliam, the state of science and its followers was 
 brought before Lord Grey's Government, and some 
 important objects relative to the Association suggested 
 by Sir David Brewster were secured. 
 
 Early in 1831 Sir David Brewster set vigorously 
 to work to establish a British Association of Men of 
 Science, similar to that which had existed for eight 
 years in Germany. The principal objects of the 
 Society were to make the cultivators of science 
 famiHar with each other, to stimulate one another to 
 new exertions, to bring the objects of science before 
 the public eye, and to take measures for advancing 
 its interests and accelerating its progress. York was 
 selected by Sir David Brewster as the locality for the 
 first meeting, on the ground of its being a central 
 town already provided with a Philosophical Society of 
 its own. The local philosophers as well as the mayor 
 and magistrates of York took up the project heartily, 
 and the first meeting was attended by more than 
 three hundred persons, who responded to the invita- 
 tions issued by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. 
 Prominent among the organizers of the movement 
 were Sir Eoderick Murchison, Professor Phillips, and 
 Eev. W. Vernon Harcourt in London, and Messrs. 
 Eobinson, Johnston, and Forbes in Edinburgh, while 
 the learned and venerable Archbishop of York entered 
 warmly and hospitably into the scheme. Under the 
 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 275 
 
 presidency of Lord Milton the inaugural meeting was 
 held at the Museum of the York Philosophical Society, 
 the British Association was duly organized; and so 
 well was the important task of planning and arranging 
 performed that few variations have been made from 
 the original sketch. 
 
 Thoroughly maintaining the idea of catholicity, the 
 British Association contemplates no interference with 
 the ground occupied by other institutions. Briefly 
 stated its objects are: — To give a stronger impulse 
 and a more systematic direction to scientific inquiry — 
 to promote the intercourse of those who cultivate 
 science in different parts of the British Empire with 
 one another and with foreign philosophers — to obtain 
 a more general attention to the objects of science, and 
 a removal of any disadvantages of a public kind 
 which impede its progess. The Association meets 
 annually for at least one week in some town decided 
 upon two years in advance. During the forty-three 
 years of its existence the members of the Association 
 have indeed seen men and cities. Not only the great 
 commercial centres of the kingdom, but seats of 
 learning and fashionable watering-places have been 
 visited. Thus Oxford, Dublin, Liverpool, York, Cam- 
 bridge, Bath, Glasgow and Cheltenham, Brighton and 
 Bradford, have in turn welcomed the British Associa- 
 tion. On the occasion of these visits ample prepara- 
 
276 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 tions are made by the local authorities, and much 
 hospitality dispensed. At Bradford last year, for 
 instance, the city expended some i£3,000 in receiving 
 and entertaining the philosophers. 
 
 After the general meeting, at which the president- 
 elect delivers an address, the general committee takes 
 the business of the meeting in hand, while particular 
 departments are discussed in the sections by special 
 committees. The sections into which the business of 
 the British Association is divided are — A. Mathe- 
 matical and Physical Science. B. Chemical Science. 
 C. Geology. D. Biology — subdivided into three depart^ 
 ments — Anatomy and Physiology — Zoology and Botany 
 — Anthroj)ology. E. Geography. F. Economic Science 
 and Statistics. G. Mechanical Science. 
 
 In these sections the proceedings of the jprevious 
 annual meeting, the recommendations adopted there, 
 and the action since taken upon them, are reviewed.. 
 Suggestions are also made by the members, and 
 definite points of research to which individual or 
 combined exertion may be usefully directed, are care- 
 fully selected after due discussion. Many interesting 
 papers are read, and of these the most interesting 
 are published in extenso in the annual report, while 
 those of less importance receive the slighter honour of 
 an extract. 
 
 During the annual celebration two evenings are 
 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 277 
 
 <levotecl to lectures, and one other lecture is specially 
 given for the benefit of the operative classes. These 
 working-man's lectures were initiated by Professor 
 Tyndall, the president-elect, who at Dundee, in 1867, 
 delivered a lecture on Matter and Force — an example 
 followed the next year at Norwich by Professor Huxley, 
 who discoursed on a Piece of Chalk in that lucid and 
 charming style which endears him to the working 
 classes of this country. At other meetings Sir John 
 Lubbock lectured on " Savages ; " Mr. W. Spottis- 
 woode on "Sun, Sea, and Sky;" and Dr. C. W. 
 Siemens on "Fuel." The operatives' lecture has 
 become a prominent feature of the annual meeting, 
 and affords one philosopher per annum an opportunity 
 of exhibiting his skill in the art of lucid exposition. 
 
278 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 Statistics, often defined as that branch of political 
 science which has for its object the collecting and 
 arranging of facts bearing upon the condition of a 
 nation, may, perhaps, be more accurately described as 
 the true basis of all political science — worthy of the 
 name. Despite the denunciation of political economy 
 — which is nothing if not statistical — as the "dismal 
 science," and the unlovely portrait drawn of Mr. 
 Gradgrind, the lover of facts — the errors into which 
 the human intellect has been led by that great 
 *' parent of error a priori," have been in modern times 
 abundantly exposed by the stern logic of facts. It 
 would, indeed, be difficult to exaggerate the influence 
 exercised by statistics at the present moment over 
 every department of human thought. Not only 
 the physical but the moral peculiarities of mankind 
 have been carefully observed and regularly tabulated. 
 
THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY. 279 
 
 Events once imagined to be the result of pure accident, 
 and therefore most capricious and uncertain in their 
 recurrence, have been, by the patient labour of the 
 statist, arranged under their proper heads, with the 
 result of proving that the apparent " fortuitous con- 
 course of atoms " occurs in obedience to a fixed law, 
 and in sympathy with certain conditions. Strangely 
 enough, the Science of Facts, that which above all 
 other sciences is realistic, dry, and hard, has, accord- 
 ing to the late Mr. Buckle, " thrown more light on the 
 study of human nature than all the other sciences put 
 together." Thus, while astronomy — perhaps the least 
 erring of all sciences — has taught us to predict the 
 existence of an unknown planet from the pertm-bations 
 of one already known ; while physical geography has 
 registered the phenomena of climate, and the dis- 
 tribution of continents, oceans, and rivers — chemistry 
 has weighed and analyzed the food of man, and the 
 air that he breathes; and political economy has 
 scientifically grappled with the difficulties presented 
 by the unequal distribution of wealth ; Statistics, the 
 youngest born of the sciences, has been so zealously 
 cultivated, that we have already the most extensive 
 information, not only respecting the material interests 
 of men, but also resjDecting their moral peculiarities 
 — such as the proportion of different crimes, and the 
 influence exercised over them by age, sex, and educa- 
 
280 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 tion. Witliout attempting to predict the immense 
 results which must ultimately accrue to the human 
 race from this careful arrangement of facts, I cannot 
 refer without a renewed feeling of astonishment to the 
 grand and comprehensive inferences concerning the 
 actions of men which have already been drawn from 
 purely statistical sources. The statistics of crime 
 in particular reveal much that is extraordinary. It 
 would require no very profound philosopher to discover 
 that the quantity of robbery perpetrated on the earth 
 is tolerably constant. It changes in form, but the 
 plundering is done all the same. The "high toby- 
 man" of past days has shrunk into the skulking 
 garotter ; Jack Sheppard and Bill Sykes know how to 
 read and write, wear fine clothes, forge cheques, and 
 make abortive attempts to "bolt with the swag" to 
 the countries, if any, which have yet no extradition 
 treaties. Large operators such as Eobin Hood and 
 Johnny Armstrong are " in the City." They take the 
 chair at board meetings, sport thick gold watch- 
 chains, come down heavily with subscriptions to 
 charities, and exhibit a rare public spirit, coupled 
 with a princely liberality. Somebody suffers for this, 
 of course; but the predatory instincts of man must 
 be satisfied. All this is comprehensible enough, and 
 fortifies a belief in the inherent rascality of the 
 himana ; but murder might weU have been supposed 
 
THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY. 281 
 
 to be one of the most arbitrary and irregular of all 
 crimes. In point of fact, it is nothing of the kind. 
 Murder is commited with as much regularity, and 
 bears as uniform a relation to certain known chxum- 
 stances as do the movements of the tides and the 
 rotations of the seasons. In the words of the greatest 
 statist whom the world has yet seen, "in everything 
 which concerns crime, the same numbers re-occur 
 with a constancy which it would be impossible to 
 misunderstand, even in the case of those crimes which 
 seem quite independent of human foresight, such for 
 mstance as murders, which are generally committed 
 after quarrels arising from circumstances apparently 
 fortuitous. Nevertheless, experience proves that not 
 only the same number of murders takes place every 
 year, but that even the instruments by which they 
 are committed are employed in the same proportion." 
 This language was used in 1835 by the illustrious 
 thinker who spent his useful life in collecting and 
 methodizing the statistics of different countries. Later 
 inquiries have confirmed these generalizations so 
 completely as to have induced the observation that 
 *'the uniform reproduction of crime is more clearly 
 marked and more capable of being predicted than are 
 the physical laws connected with the disease and 
 destruction of our bodies." Suicide, apparently the 
 most eccentric of crimes, and that w^hich depends 
 
282 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 more than any other upon individual will, and less 
 upon surrounding circumstances, has been shown to 
 be merely the product of the general condition of 
 society: "All appears to depend upon predetermined 
 causes. Thus we find yearly almost the same number 
 of suicides, not only in general, but in distinguishing 
 sex, age, and methods of self-destruction. One year 
 reproduces so faithfully the figures of the year which 
 preceded it that it is possible to predict what will 
 happen the year after." But it is not only the graver 
 crimes of mankind that are marked by a terrible 
 uniformity of sequence. Minor indiscretions follow 
 the same iron law. Marriage was once supposed to 
 be determined by the temper and caprice of indi- 
 viduals, but the statist has shown that the number of 
 marriages annually contracted is determined not by 
 Jack and Jill but by large general facts over which 
 obscure units exercise slight authority. 
 
 Marriages are now known to bear a fixed and 
 definite relation to the price of corn, and "the ex- 
 perience of a century has proved that, instead of 
 having any connection with personal feelings, they 
 are simply regulated by the average earnings of the 
 great mass of the people ; so that this immense social 
 and religious institution is not only swayed but com- 
 pletely controlled by the price of food and the rate of 
 wages." Another curious instance is the necessary 
 
THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY. 283 
 
 and invariable order of aberration of memory. Twenty 
 years ago the post-of&ces of London and Paris pub- 
 lished returns of the number of letters which the 
 T\Titers, through forgetfulness, had omitted to direct, 
 and the result has been a proof that, year after year, 
 the same proportion of letter-writers forget this simple 
 act; so that, for each successive period, we can 
 actually foretell the number of persons whose memory 
 will fail them in directing a letter, with a near 
 approach to the accm-acy with which we can predict 
 the occurrence of an eclipse or the advent of a comet. 
 To statists, then, belongs the merit of first disclos- 
 ing the action of great general laws upon the moral 
 as well as on the physical world, by bringing to bear 
 upon it that powerful engine for eliciting truth — the 
 science of numbers. Mainly emplo3^ed in investi- 
 gating the condition of man himself, the statist 
 leaves the distribution of land and water to the geo- 
 grapher, the constitution of the earth's crust to the 
 geologist, the description of man, as an individual 
 organism, to the physiologist, his position in contrast 
 to that of other animals to the anthropologist, his 
 relation to other races of men to the ethnologist, and 
 concerns himself with man, viewed as a citizen and a 
 proprietor. The principle lying at the foundation of 
 statistics is, then, that the laws which govern nature, 
 and more especially those which determine the moral 
 
284 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 .and physical condition of mankind, are constant, and 
 are to be discovered by the accurate and patient 
 investigation and comparison of phenomena extending 
 ■over a large number of instances. Accidental diver- 
 -sities diminish in importance as -the area of investiga- 
 tion is increased, and if this be sufficiently extended, 
 they so nearly disappear altogether as to be unworthy 
 of serious regard. Two familiar instances may be 
 c[uoted of the application of these truths — the theory 
 ■of probabilities, based on an accurate observation of 
 gambling, in which luck is supposed to inhere ; and 
 the construction of life insurance tables, based upon 
 calculations wide enough to reduce the proverbial 
 uncertainty of life to an actual and negotiable com- 
 modity. 
 
 The word "statistics" was first employed in the 
 middle of the last century by Professor Achenwall, of 
 Gottingen, who is considered by some the founder of 
 the science, but before his time separate branches of 
 statistics had been ably treated by various writers. 
 From an early date the "dismal science" had attracted 
 the attention of the " gloomy English." Towards the 
 .close of the seventeenth and at the commencement 
 -of the eighteenth century Eeynolds, Child, and Pretty 
 published valuable information relating to the com- 
 merce, manufacture, and finance of this country. At 
 -a later period Price, Arthur Young, and Chalmers 
 
THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY. 285' 
 
 treated tlie subject of population with great ability. 
 Young left a monument of his talent^ and industry in 
 his various publications relating to agriculture, and 
 Playfair's work on commerce has a high reputation. 
 Within the space of a year the claims of John Howard, 
 the philanthropist, to high rank as a statist have been 
 eloquently advocated by Dr. Guy. Howard's fame as 
 a philanthropist and martyr is deservedly so great 
 that we are apt to overlook the means by which he 
 succeeded in impressing an obdurate generation with 
 the wrongs of prisoners. In 1773, when he was 
 appointed Sheriff of Bedford, the prisons of this 
 country were a disgrace to a nation with any pre- 
 tension to civilization. Prisons were private pro- 
 perty, and gaolers lived by fees levied with sublime 
 impartiality on the innocent and on the guilty. In 
 the same patient persevering spirit with which, seven- 
 teen years before, he liberated his fellow-cax^tives in 
 France, and reformed the treatment of prisoners of 
 war, Howard set about improving the condition of tlie^ 
 deplorable creatures then imprisoned in the ''bride- 
 wells" of England. It is more than probable that 
 had he contented himself with investigating one or 
 two especially flagrant cases he might have succeeded 
 in creating a "passing sensation," even in the languid 
 public opinion of his day, but it is clearly impossible 
 that a mere statement of a few aggravated cases would 
 
286 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 have had sufficient influence to stimulate legislative 
 action. With the mind of a statist, as well as the 
 heart of a philanthropist, he set about collecting that 
 mass of evidence which produced the two Acts of 
 1774. He started on a new tour of inspection into the 
 counties he had lately visited, and examining, not the 
 bridewells only, but the houses of correction, and the 
 city and town gaols, made acquaintance with the 
 terrible gaol distemper, and its scarcely less formid- 
 able associate, confluent small-pox. Fortified by a 
 mass of frightful details, he was prepared, the year 
 after his shrievalty, to give that evidence before a 
 Committee of the House of Commons which, by its 
 tremendous accumulation and arrangement of facts, 
 •startled a horror-struck Legislature into immediate 
 action. Complete inquiry, and the consequent number 
 of facts, carried the day ; and the victory which might 
 have been denied to the philanthropist, was achieved 
 with comparative ease by the statist, who, armed at 
 •all points, bore down opposition by sheer weight of 
 -evidence. 
 
 Strange to say, the success of the good man who 
 achieved the greatest single-handed victory in the 
 j)arliamentary history of England failed to awake the 
 national mind to the value of method. Detached 
 efforts were made from time to time, among which 
 may be cited Sir John Sinclair's '' Statistical Account 
 
THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY. 287 
 
 of Scotland," and Colquhoun's "Treatise on the 
 Wealth, Power, and Kesources of the British Empire," 
 but the systematic arrangement of facts required the 
 magic imprint of the genius of generalization before it 
 could take rank as a regular science. 
 
 This work of crystallizing scattered rows of figui-es 
 into a solid science was performed by one great mind. 
 On the 22nd of February, 1796, was born at Ghent, 
 Adolphe Quetelet, who, after living to construct the 
 Science of Statistics, died full of years and honour, in 
 the corresponding month of the present jeai. At an 
 early age he became Professor of Mathematics in his 
 native town, and in 1820 was admitted to the Brussels 
 Academy of Sciences and Letters, which, chiefly owing 
 to his endeavours, expanded into the Pioyal Academy 
 of Belgium. From an early period, he devoted 
 himself to the study of numbers, and produced, at 
 different times, works on the theory of probabilities, 
 the Statistique Criminelle and the Physique Morale. In 
 these famous works, which appeared before 1835, he 
 announced opinions which astounded the world, but 
 have since been amply verified by constant investiga- 
 tion. By a masterly aiDplication of the inductive 
 system to moral and social problems, he educed, from 
 a vast collection of isolated facts, generalizations 
 which amazed the world of his day to the full as much 
 as the conclusions of physical philosophers had 
 
288 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 startled and terrified preceding generations. Striking 
 boldly at the barren province of metaphysical specula- 
 tion, he reduced the most incomprehensible acts of 
 human bemgs to a fixed law. 
 
 Immediately before the appearance of his great 
 works the theories of Quetelet were bruited abroad, 
 and the attention of the thinkers of England was 
 awakened to the value of the new science that he had 
 created. The British Association at once perceived 
 the importance of figures scientifically handled, and 
 suggested, with excellent insight, the formation of a 
 society which should devote itself to the study of 
 statistics. One of the earliest to identify himself with 
 the movement was the veteran Malthus. This 
 singularly clear and powerful thinker, who had 
 startled, if not shocked, England a quarter of a 
 century before by his able "Essay on the Principles 
 of Population as it Affects the Future Improvement 
 of Society," at once saw that he had lived long enough 
 to encounter a generation capable of appreciating him. 
 During the travels in which his early manhood was 
 passed, he — struck by Hume's "Essay on the Popu- 
 lousness of Ancient Nations" — had perceived the 
 importance of applying numbers as a test of historical 
 truth. From remote periods vague statements had 
 been made as to the vast multitudes of human beings 
 subsisting in certain places, or wandering from spot 
 
THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY. 289 
 
 to spot in the course of their periodical migrations. 
 On testing the means of subsistence at the disposal 
 of these peoples, many calculations, previously re- 
 ceived with implicit faith, proved devoid of reasonable 
 foundation. The application of the food test to 
 ancient populations produced a similar effect to the 
 application of chemistry to organic matter. From the 
 materials at his disposal Malthus argued with irre- 
 sistible logic, nor could he — when he anticipated the 
 poverty of England, for the reason that the population 
 increased in geometrical while the food-producing 
 power of the country only increased in arithmetical 
 progression — be expected to anticipate the enormous 
 revolution destined to be brought about by free trade, 
 and increased facilities for communication. 
 
 Perceiving at once the potency of a science which 
 fused scattered and apparently discordant elements 
 into one harmonious whole, Charles Babbage, the 
 famous inventor of the calculating machine, threw 
 himself warmly into the project for founding the new 
 society. Impressed with the idea that what formerly 
 had been done by the unaided work of human brains 
 could be accomplished by machinery, he had devoted 
 not only a great part of his valuable life, but ^620, 000 
 of his own money, to the perfection of the remarkable 
 engine which bears his name. At this time at the 
 zenith of his fame, he perceived, with that broadness 
 
290 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 of view which so eminently characterized him, the 
 importance of the budget of facts which Quetelet had 
 communicated to the British Association, and for 
 which no place could be found in any section. At the 
 instance of Babbage, the committee of the Statistical 
 Section of the British Association met at his house, 
 and at once determined on the establishment of a 
 society devoted to the collection and elaboration of 
 Statistics alone. 
 
 On the 15th March, 1834, was founded the Statisti- 
 cal Society of London, for the purpose of procuring, 
 arranging, and publishing "Facts calculated to illus- 
 trate the condition and prospects of society.'* The 
 Statistical Society considered it to be the first and 
 most essential rule of its conduct to exclude carefully 
 all opinions from its transactions and publications, to 
 confine its attention rigorously to facts, and, as far as 
 might be found possible, to facts stated numerically 
 and arranged in tables. By the provisional committee 
 — composed of Henry Hallam, Charles Babbage, 
 Eichard Jones, and John Elliot Drinkwater — was 
 endorsed the opinion previously expressed by the 
 Statistical Section of the British Association at Cam- 
 bridge — that the whole subject admitted a division 
 into four great classes — (1) economical statistics ; (2) 
 political statistics ; (3) medical statistics ; (4) moral 
 and intellectual statistics. Further analysis revealed 
 that — 
 
THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY. 291 
 
 Economical statistics comprehend — (1) the statistics 
 of the natural productions and the agriculture of 
 nations ; (2) of manufacture ; (3) of commerce and 
 cm-rency ; (4) of the distribution of wealth, or all facts 
 relating to rent, wages, and profits, etc. 
 
 Political statistics furnish three subdivisions — (1) 
 the facts relating to the elements of political institu- 
 tions, the number of electors, jurors, etc. ; (2) legal 
 statistics ; (3) the statistics of finance and of national 
 expenditure, and of civil and military establishments. 
 
 Medical statistics, strictly so called, require at least 
 two subdivisions, and the great subject of population 
 may also be conveniently classed as a subdivision of 
 medical statistics. 
 
 Moral and intellectual statistics were held to include 
 — (1) the statistics of literature ; (2) of education ; 
 (3) of religious instruction and ecclesiastical institu- 
 tions ; (4) of crime. 
 
 To these four great divisions and their fourteen 
 subdivisions the various departments of statistics were 
 declared to be referrible, but it is also stated that in 
 all probability more would be required. 
 
 The provisional committee, who did their work in a 
 style worthy of their great reputation, added to the 
 analysis just quoted a large number of valuable 
 suggestions, which have all been adopted from time 
 to time by Fellows of the Society. It was recom- 
 
292 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 mended that immediate communication should be 
 opened with the statistical department established by 
 Government at the Board of Trade. Inquiry was 
 to be stimulated both at home and abroad, and 
 relations were to be cultivated with all societies 
 having objects bearing upon statistical research. It 
 was suggested that not only new, but old statistics 
 might advantageously be collected, arranged, con- 
 densed, and published. The archives of the East 
 India Company were indicated as a storehouse whence 
 immense quantities of valuable material might be 
 drawn, and the pursuit of statistics in the Colonies 
 and other countries, wherein society was starting from 
 a tabula rasa, was warmly recommended. 
 
 The work of the Society being thus somewhat 
 limited and defined, the committee proceeded ta 
 consider the best means, fi.rstly, of collecting fresh 
 statistical information, and secondly of arranging, 
 condensing, and publishing that already in existence.. 
 On the method of collecting information, the com- 
 mittee expressed itself in the following luminous and 
 suggestive paragraph : — " Towards collecting fresh 
 statistical information, the first step, in order both of 
 time and importance, would be the arrangement of a 
 good set of interrogatories, to be drawn up under the 
 superintendence of the sub-committees, and afterwards 
 examined, sanctioned, and cii'culated by the CounciL- 
 
THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY. 293 
 
 'The careful execution of this task is essential, both to 
 .afford guidance and aid to individual inquiries and 
 to protect the Society against the influx of imperfect 
 or irrelevant statements. Willing agents of inquiry 
 exist in abundance quite ready to aid in collecting 
 materials ; but few of these agents take a very wide 
 view of all the objects of statistical inquiry, and indeed 
 few have very distinct notions about the precise inform- 
 ation the Society may wish to collect, even as to any 
 one object. To sketch, therefore, by means of inter- 
 rogatories carefully and succinctly drawn, the whole 
 outlines which it is wished to fill up, is the only way 
 to secure to the Society the full benefit to be expected 
 from their zeal. It is difficult to overrate the import- 
 ance of the step which will be made towards the 
 accumulation of statistical knowledge from all quarters 
 of the globe, by the publication of such a set of ques- 
 tions ; but the operation will be as laborious as it is 
 important. It properly may, and probably will, form 
 the chief object of the exertions of the Council during 
 the first year of the Society's existence." 
 
 Immediately on its foundation the Society presented 
 an imposing appearance, due not only to the number 
 - — 398 — of original Fellows, but to the important 
 names figuring on the list. The Marquis of Lans- 
 downe was the fii'st president ; Lord Fitzwilliam, Lord 
 ;Sandon, Sir Charles Lemon, and Lieutenant-Colonel 
 
294 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 Sykes, vice-presidents ; the immortal historian of the* 
 Middle Ages figured as treasurer, and Messrs. Drink- 
 water, Greig, and Maclean as secretaries. Among the 
 Council are the names of Charles Bahbage, John. 
 Buckle, the Bishop of London (Blomfield), Samuel 
 Jones Lloyd (afterwards Lord Overstone), G. E- 
 Porter, John Tidd Pratt, George Poulett Scrope, 
 Nassau Senior, Thomas Tooke, and "William WhewelL. 
 One foreign Fellow only appears on the first list of the 
 Statistical Society, but this one was no other than 
 the illustrious Adolphe Quetelet. Many names which 
 were at that time, or have since become, famous,, 
 follow those great pioneers of statistical science 
 Among these may be cited the late Baron Alderson, 
 Eichard Bethell (afterwards Lord Westbury), the late 
 Lord Brougham, Mark Isambard Brunei (afterwards 
 knighted), I. K. Brunei — the champion of the broad- 
 gauge, and designer of the Great Eastern steamship — 
 John Bonham Carter, Edwin Chadwick, Francis 
 Chantrey, the late Lord Denman, William Ewart 
 Gladstone, George Grote, Joseph Hume, Charles 
 Knight, Lord Jeffrey, Charles Shaw Lefevre, J. E. 
 McCulloch, Sir Francis Palgrave, the late Baron 
 Parke, John Murray, Ashurst Majendie, Lord Minto^ 
 Sir Harris Nicolas, Sylvain Van de Weyer, E. Yernon 
 Smith, M. Eicardo, Lord John (now Earl) Eussell^, 
 Henry Ker Seymer, and the Duke of Somerset.. 
 
THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY. 295 
 
 In addition to a long roll of remarkable men, the 
 Statistical Society now numbers among its Fellows 
 two most distinguished ladies — whom, in despite of 
 custom and prejudice, it has deemed worthy of elec- 
 tion. The names of Florence Nightingale and of the 
 Baroness Burdett Coutts add no small lustre to the 
 Society, which has by their election vindicated its 
 claim to stand foremost in the van of progress. 
 
 As might have been expected, a body backed by a 
 superabundance of brain power increased rapidly in 
 numbers and importance. The labours of Quetelet 
 cast a halo of glory about the new Society, and the 
 steady toil of its members supplied admirable papers 
 and discussions. Throughout the whole course of an 
 eminently successful career the Society has never 
 sought either Government subsidy or Eoyal patronage, 
 except in the case of the late Prince Consort, himself 
 a pupil of Quetelet. Following the steps of his illus- 
 trious father, His Eoyal Highness the Prince of Wales 
 is now the Honorary President of the Society, the 
 actual presidential chair having been recently occupied 
 by Lord Houghton, Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Newmarch, 
 and Dr. Farr. At the present moment this dignified 
 position is admh'ably filled by Dr. Guy. Owing to 
 the independent attitude of the Society it has never 
 been incorporated by Eoyal Charter, and does not 
 enjoy, like many learned bodies, the advantage of 
 
296 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 sumptuous apartments in Burlington House. Not 
 long since the Society, feeling crippled in its narrow 
 precincts in St. James's Square, set on foot a project 
 for building a stately edifice at Westminster, to form 
 a home for learned societies, but so many of these 
 have found accommodation at Burlington House, that 
 the " Statistical " is left almost alone in its glory, and 
 has migrated from St. James's Square in company 
 with its faithful ally, the "Institute of Actuaries," to 
 the house in King's College recently vacated by the 
 principal of the College, Canon Barry. The last 
 session was marked by the action of the Council in 
 giving effect to the views of the President, Dr. Guy, 
 regarding John Howard and his claim to be considered 
 as much a statist as -a philanthropist, by establishing 
 the Howard medal — a bronze trophy — to be given 
 every year to the author of the best essay on some 
 subject in social statistics. 
 
 The subject of the essay for which the medal will 
 be given in 1874 (the centenary of the year in which 
 Howard achieved his parliamentary triumph) is " The 
 State of Prisons, and the Condition and Treatment of 
 Prisoners in the Prisons of England and Wales, during 
 the last half of the eighteenth century, as set forth 
 in Howard's ' State of Prisons,' and his work on 
 * Lazarettos.' " 
 
 The subject for 1875 is " The State of the Dwel- 
 
THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY. 297 
 
 lings of the Poor in the Eural Districts of England, 
 with special regard to the improvements that have 
 been made since the middle of the eighteenth century, 
 and their influence on the health and morals of their 
 inmates." 
 
 The "Proceedings" are embodied in the Journal of 
 the Statistical Society, where also are found papers 
 read at important gatherings, such as statistical con- 
 gresses, and at the annual meeting of the British 
 Association. Obituary notices and reviews are also 
 included in the Journal, which on great occasions, 
 such as that of the discussion on the Purchase of 
 Piailways by the State, requires the addition of an 
 extra number. 
 
 In addition to this famous argument, which occupied 
 three entire evenings, many interesting subjects have 
 been discussed during the past two years, among 
 which may be mentioned the price of coal, the recent 
 progress of national debts, the statistics of legal 
 procedure in England, the Bengal census, the income 
 and property tax, the statistics of suicide among 
 British troops, the elections of 1868 and 1874, local 
 government, and co-operative land societies. At the 
 discussion on the Purchase of Eailways by the State, 
 it was my good fortune to be present. For three 
 successive Tuesdays the old room in St. James's 
 Square was crowded to excess. Crammed together in 
 
298 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 a stifling atmosphere — suggesting that philosophers, 
 however much they may care for sanitary laws when 
 a]3plied to the masses, are indifferent to them so far 
 as they personally are concerned — the statists fought 
 the great battle between Imperialism and private 
 enterprise. An admirable paper by Mr. Biddulph 
 Martin, advocating the propriety of the State purchase 
 of Eailways, was the apple of discord thrown among 
 the great authorities present. The Imperial theory 
 was supported by Captain Tyler, and ably contested 
 by Mr. William Newmarch, who vigorously opposed the 
 scheme on purely financial grounds, and declared that 
 the value, or rather the prospective value, of English 
 Eailways had been grossly underrated at six hundred 
 millions, and that a thousand millions would more 
 accurately represent the sum the country would be 
 called upon to pay for the privilege of becoming its 
 own carrier. On this memorable evening the dis- 
 cordant estimates of rival statists filled the souls of 
 visitors with amazement. Millions — ay, hundreds of 
 millions — flew about the room like the " chunks of old 
 red sandstone " at the famous meeting of the Geological 
 Society on the banks of " the Stanislow." At the last 
 meeting on this great subject Mr. AUport, the veteran 
 manager of the Midland Eailway, distinguished him- 
 self by a horse, foot, and artillery attack upon the 
 theorists who propounded uniform fares, and was 
 
THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY. 299' 
 
 combated with equal ability by Mr. Hammond Chubb, 
 who, in a vigorous speech, revived the falling fortunes 
 of the Imperial Eule of the Eoad. In the hands of 
 these learned gentlemen enormous sums were manipu- 
 lated with such extraordinary facility that I became 
 abashed at my own insignificance, and on reaching 
 the cool air of St. James's Square found myself unable 
 to bring my mind down from the contemplation of 
 millions to the consideration of a humble cab-fare. I 
 verily believe that cabby got much the better of me on 
 that memorable evening from my inabihty to reduce 
 my calculating power to the level of sixpences. 
 
 But the lively and pleasant, if stuffy, evenings in 
 the old room are over now, for the Society is weU. 
 bestowed in its new dwelling by the banks of the 
 Thames almost within speaking distance of the 
 Eegistrar-General, and within a stone's-throw of the 
 old haunts of the Eoyal Academy, and of the Eoyal 
 and other Scientific Societies which now find shelter 
 in Burlington House. The rapidly-increasing number 
 of Fellows has long demanded increased accommoda- 
 tion, and the Society has at last acquired ample scope 
 for its lively debates — in connection with which I will 
 add only one aspiration, — that when the members 
 again discuss a subject with the animation, vigour, 
 and skill expended on the Eailways, may I be there to- 
 see, to hear, and to learn. 
 
300 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE EOYAL GEOGKAPHICAL 
 SOCIETY. 
 
 The study of geography has been pursued at various 
 epochs from very different motives. Love of adventure 
 — in other words, the hope of getting something or of 
 escaping from a condition too grievous to be endured — 
 was doubtless the parent of geographical science, the 
 observations and itineraries of those who travelled for 
 piratical or other purposes being gradually systema- 
 tized by map-makers and cosmogonists. From the 
 earliest periods theories of the universe existed, most 
 of which were abolished as bit by bit the true figure 
 of the globe was revealed. Perhaps this perpetual 
 destruction of old and construction of new systems 
 formed one of the chief fascinations of geography 
 in the many centuries during which mankind was 
 occupied in chasing the Unknown from the face of 
 the earth. At the i3resent moment little remains to 
 
THE KOYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 301 
 
 be discovered and described — as, excepting the polar 
 regions, Central Asia, Inner Brazil, Central Africa, 
 Australia, and the islands of Borneo and Madagascar, 
 the world is depicted and understood with a very fair 
 approach to accuracy. 
 
 It was not always so — and there are few more 
 instructive and humiliating occupations than that of 
 comparing the cosmogonies and geographical systems 
 of various periods. In one particular the most 
 ancient world- systems agree. The world was a flat 
 disc or a parallelogram, suiTOunded on all sides by the 
 ocean, from beyond which sprang the vast blue dome 
 of the heavens. To the Chaldean shepherd, living and 
 dying within fifty or a hundred miles of one central 
 spot, or to the early Greek voyager, who thought a 
 trip to the Black Sea a desperate undertaking, there 
 was little either in the earth beneath his feet or in the 
 azure vault overhead to indicate that the world was of 
 globular form. To him, then, the earth was shield- 
 like, with the ocean stream representing a rim — the 
 whole being surmounted by a canopy ; or, in other 
 words, the world was a circle of earth, more or less 
 raised in the centre, and covered by a crystal tent, 
 around which flowed a moat. In the centre of this 
 world was either the abode of the primaeval geographer 
 or the chief seat of divine worship. Thus Olympus, 
 and at a later date Delphi, were the Greek centres of 
 
302 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 the world, and geographers of the Middle Ages invari- 
 ably place Jerusalem in the centre of their curious 
 maps. Homer, like many of his successors, never 
 dreamt of a spherical world, but imagined it to be a 
 flat circular body, round which flowed the ocean 
 stream ; while over it, resting on Caucasus and Atlas, 
 stretched the heavenly dome. This conception becomes 
 more intelligible when we recollect that the world of 
 Homer did not extend beyond the Mediterranean, the 
 Caspian Sea, the Eed Sea, and the Persian Gulf. Out 
 of ocean, or perhaps rather on the other side of its 
 stream, the sun rose in the morning and sank at 
 eve, and the two points where it appeared to touch 
 the water formed the cardinal points in Homeric 
 geography ; the world being thus divided into halves, 
 one towards the rising and the other towards the 
 setting sun. Far to the west — beyond the setting sun 
 and across the ocean stream — were the shadowy 
 realms of Hades, while under the earth were the 
 regions of Tartarus, the abode of punished gods. A 
 glance at a map will show that Hellas is the centre of 
 the countries enumerated by Homer. 
 
 At a later date — the comforting conclusion that the 
 temple at Olympus was the centre of the world, and, 
 therefore, of the universe, received many shocks. The 
 well-known attempt of the Phoenicians to circum- 
 navigate Libya, the voyage of Hanno, and the expedi- 
 
THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 303 
 
 tion of Scylax, had opened the minds of men to the 
 possibiHty of the world being something more than a 
 mere fringe around the Mediterranean, and the ex- 
 tensive commerce of the Ionian cities had served to 
 explode mythical accounts of the earth's form and 
 extent, and to prepare the way for more rational, though 
 hardly more correct, theories. To Thales of MiLetus 
 is ascribed the introduction of scientific geography. 
 He is said by some to have asserted the sphericity of 
 the earth, but others describe this theory of sphericity 
 as applied to the universe rather than to the world. 
 Thus, according to Thales, the heaven was a hollow 
 ball, in the midst of which the earth, in form like a 
 tambourine, floated, as a cork floats in water, or 
 rather, as the yolk of an egg is contained within the 
 white and the shell. Anaximander was also of opinion 
 that the earth was cylindrical in form, and neither he 
 nor any philosopher of the Ionian school appears to 
 have had any inkling of the spherical form of the 
 earth. The origin of the spherical doctrine can be 
 clearly traced to the Pythagoreans, who derived the 
 idea from astronomical observations, and their views 
 obtained general acceptance by the time of Plato. To 
 Pythagoras himself has been frequently ascribed the 
 idea of a pyrocentric Kosmos — with worlds revolving 
 round a central sun — according to the Copernican, 
 or, to speak more accurately, the Newtonian scheme. 
 
304 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 Be this as it may, the belief that the world is only one 
 of many planets made no progress in the ancient 
 world. It was far more consonant with the dignity 
 of man to place his abode in the centre of the universe, 
 and to make all things subsidiary to his honour and 
 comfort. 
 
 Herodotus inclined towards none of these views, 
 and seems to have preferred the Xenophantic theory 
 that the world is at the bottom of the universe, firmly 
 rooted in infinite space. The extent of country visited 
 and described by the most important of ancient 
 travellers induced him to ridicule the idea that the 
 world was circular. According to him it would be 
 rather of an oval shape, having its extension east and 
 west, surrounded, in all probability, by water like a 
 huge island. In justice to Herodotus it may be ob- 
 served that this plan of the world exactly coincided 
 with his experience, the known world being longer 
 from east to west than from north to south. This 
 oval or oblong theory received a great accession of 
 strength from the conquests of Alexander in the east, 
 and the expedition of Pytheus of Massilia to the north- 
 west coasts of Europe. This famous voyager followed 
 the coasts of Spain and Gaul, passed up the British 
 Channel, and thence along the east coast of England 
 and across the Northern Ocean to Thule. 
 
 While the dimensions of the known world were thus 
 
THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 305 
 
 rapidly expanding, philosophy was paving the way for 
 a more correct and scientific system of geography. 
 P}i;hagoras, or his followers, and at a later date Plato 
 and Aristotle, perceived the spherical form of the 
 earth, and subsequent observations confirmed the 
 truth of this important discovery ; but, oddly enough, 
 the Epicureans still adhered to the primitive notion of 
 a shield. Towards the end of the third century e.g., 
 Eratosthenes of Cyrene raised geography to the 
 dignity of a science. He constructed maps on mathe- 
 matical principles, and invented parallels of latitude 
 and longitude. He taught that the earth was spherical 
 in form, surrounded by a firmament of similar shape, 
 both of which revolved about one and the same 
 axis. He also performed the feat of measuring the 
 circumference of the earth by an ingenious method. 
 He ascertained by astronomical observation that the 
 arc between Alexandria and Syene was l-50th part 
 of the earth's circumference ; he then measured the 
 distance between these two places, and found it to be 
 5000 stades, whence the total circumference would 
 be 250,000 stades, or 28,800 miles. His method was 
 correct, but some inaccuracy in his observations 
 involved an error of nearly 4,000 miles. Dividing the 
 earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres 
 by the imaginary line called the Equator, he pro- 
 ceeded to draw eight parallels of latitude at unequal 
 
306 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 intervals. These parallels were crossed at right 
 angles by seven meridians. Considering that only a 
 portion of the northern hemisphere was inhabited, 
 equal in extent to one-eighth of the globe's surface, he 
 compared the plan of the habitable world to a Mace- 
 donian chlamys. From the days of Eratosthenes to 
 those of Strabo and Pliny, no very great advance was 
 made in geographical science. By the Komans the 
 philosophical was neglected for the practical element, 
 both Pomponius Mela and Pliny giving a very good 
 account of the countries with which they were ac- 
 quainted, and only falling back on "fancy geography," 
 sphynxes and griffins, when touching the borderland 
 of the Unknown. 
 
 Ancient geography was destined to attain its 
 highest perfection under Claudius Ptolemy, an Alex- 
 andrian philosopher of the second century after 
 Christ, and to his influence the blundering geography 
 of the Middle Ages is often unjustly assigned. Ptolemy 
 does not claim the merit of originating a system of 
 geography, but amply acknowledges his obligation to 
 Marinus of Tyre, whose writings are embodied in the 
 work of the Alexandrian. The latitude and longitude 
 of famous places was arrived at with greater certainty, 
 and Ptolemy further improved his maps by drawing 
 his parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude at 
 equal intervals — a great advance on the system of 
 
THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 307 
 
 Eratosthenes. Further improvements were also made 
 by drawing the meridians, not in parallel hut con- 
 verging lines, and in adding parallels of latitude south 
 of the equator. So far, then, had the science of 
 geography advanced, under Ptolemy — a spherical 
 world formed the centre of the universe, and around 
 it revolved, in their crystal spheres, the sun, moon, 
 and ignes minores. The globe had been divided in 
 two by the equator, and equal parallels of latitude and 
 meridians of longitude had been laid down. The 
 outlines of Europe had been ascertained with tolerable 
 accuracy, and the greater part of Asia and Africa 
 roughly sketched out. 
 
 So far geography had steadily, if slowly, advanced, 
 but a period had now arrived when that and every 
 other science — together with art and literature — were 
 doomed to be arrested by an extraordinary determi- 
 nation of the human mind towards theology, to the 
 exclusion of all positive studies. For nearly eight 
 hundred years the human intellect was plunged in 
 utter night. What little mental activity existed was 
 exerted in one particular direction, and the adventures 
 of an illiterate friar or the insane ravings of an 
 unwashed recluse were considered more worthy of 
 record and criticism than the observations of travellers 
 or the deductions of mathematicians. The discourses 
 of Eoman orators and Grecian sages were ignomini- 
 
308 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 ously expunged from the parchment required for 
 miraculous hiographies and apocryphal histories.. 
 That this pecuHar phase of superstition should have 
 seized upon barbarians was perhaps not to he 
 wondered at, but the enslavement of the Greek mind 
 will ever present a melancholy problem to the student 
 of psychology. 
 
 The effect on geography of this eclipse of the 
 human understanding was immediate and complete. 
 Within three hundred years of the death of Ptolemy 
 his system had fallen into general discredit, and the 
 spherical theory of the earth was sneered at as ridicu- 
 lous and condemned as blasphemous. Curious maps- 
 appeared, in which all the errors of the most ancient 
 systems were reproduced, and the world was held to 
 be a mountain surrounded by water, situated at the 
 bottom of the universe, and shut in by crystal walls, 
 and a crystal vault, or double heaven. With logic 
 unanswerable in the sixth century it was urged that 
 if the world were not the base and centre of the uni- 
 verse it would fall down, and the idea of a globe 
 inhabited by antipodes was demonstrated to be as 
 absurd as it was impious. From the maps of this 
 and several succeeding centuries all traces of equator, 
 parallels, and meridians disappeared. The world was 
 an oblong hill, round which flowed the ocean, and the 
 ancient fallacy that the Caspian Sea was an inlet of 
 
THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 309 
 
 the ocean was revived. Men went back to original 
 conceptions, and despising the experience and thought 
 of ages as mere heathen learning, disdained to en- 
 cumber themselves with facts. 
 
 The site of the terrestrial paradise was an enormous 
 difficulty, and the course of the four rivers which 
 flowed from it also exercised the ingenuity of medigsval 
 geographers. It is impossible to refrain from sym- 
 pathizing with these martyrs to science and supersti- 
 tion. They were bound, on pam of fire and faggot, 
 to find a place on their maps for the terrestrial 
 paradise, and in their despau' "dashed it in" some- 
 where. Paradise was sometimes beyond the ocean 
 altogether, but this theory involved the expedient of 
 conducting the four rivers under the ocean stream, 
 and was abandoned in favour of a more eligible site 
 in the highest part of the world. Sometimes this is 
 in Central Asia, sometimes in Armenia, and occasion- 
 ally in the fabled Mountains of the Moon, but is 
 always described as an inaccessible spot. For some 
 unexplained reason the oblong maps went out of 
 fashion about the eleventh century, and were sup- 
 planted by the old shield-like circle surrounded by 
 water, but now having Jerusalem instead of Delphi 
 for the central point. Between this period and the 
 end of the fourteenth century a great advance was 
 made. The mariner's compass was invented, the 
 
310 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 astrolabe came into general use, the spherical form of 
 the earth was insisted on by Mandeville, and the map 
 of Marino Sanuto and the famous Carte Catalane 
 were produced. 
 
 While the East was becoming daily better known 
 by the travels of Marco Polo, Eubruquis, and 
 Mandeville, the Portuguese and Spaniards were fight- 
 ing the Moors in the West, but it was not till 1418 
 that the capture and colonization of the Canaries 
 prepared the way for the circumnavigation of Africa. 
 Dim traditions of ancient voyages around Libya had 
 reached Prince Henry of Portugal, and a great impulse 
 was given to African exploration. Bit by bit the west 
 coast was explored, until, standing southward, and 
 being driven eastward by heavy gales, Bartholomew 
 Diaz rounded the Cajpe of Good Hope and came to in 
 Delagoa Bay, an exploit followed by the successful 
 voyage of Vasco de Gama round the Cape to India. 
 Pending this expedition Christopher Columbus made 
 the most important geographical discovery of ancient 
 or modern times. Columbus was not only a practical 
 sailor, but a skilled theoretical geographer, and found 
 much employment at Lisbon in making maps and 
 globes for the Portuguese expeditions. Believing in 
 the reported great extension of Asia to the eastward, 
 and believing also the world to be much smaller than 
 it really is, the great Genoese thought that he had 
 
THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 311 
 
 only to sail across an island- studded ocean to reach 
 the empires of Chipangu and Cathay. In most of the 
 maps of the period immediately preceding that of 
 Columbus, islands are laid down, but no idea of another 
 continent had occurred to any one. Nothing can be 
 more ridiculous than the attempt to ascribe the dis- 
 coveries of Columbus to *' information received " from 
 the Northmen during a supposed voyage to Iceland. 
 On the contrary, he firmly believed that the first conti- 
 nent he came to would be Eastern Asia, or rather 
 Japan. The state of knowledge at his time fully 
 warranted this belief. Ptolemy, whose works appear to 
 have been preserved from utter loss by the Arabs, had 
 extended Asia far to the eastward of its proper position, 
 and the discovery of countries beyond the India known 
 to him had brought the eastern coasts of Asia, as 
 described by Marco Polo, still further eastward of their 
 real longitude ; and as Chipangu was represented to 
 be 1500 miles distant from the mainland, it is not to 
 be wondered at that on a globe of the fifteenth centmy 
 the east coast of Japan is j^la-ced within seventy 
 degrees of the Azores, and " India beyond the Ganges " 
 within ninety, instead of at more than double those 
 distances. The persistence with which Columbus 
 clung to the idea that he had all along been navi- 
 gating in an ocean fuU of islands is proved by the 
 declaration made by him just before his fourth voyage 
 
312 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 — that the passage westward to the Indies lay between 
 the lands discovered by him in his second and third 
 voyages. 
 
 The history of American discovery induces the 
 feeling often arrived at by those who study the history 
 of great inventions and discoveries — that if Columbus 
 had not discovered the Western world just when he 
 did, somebody else would have been before him, as 
 Vespucci trod upon his heels. The reassertion of the 
 spherical form of the earth was the real cause of the 
 great outbreak of marine exploration. The revival of 
 this important truth set mariners to planning the 
 circumnavigation of the earth in good earnest. Thus 
 Columbus and Cabot both pursued independent in- 
 vestigations, and arrived at the same conclusion 
 respecting the propinquity of India, but in the mag- 
 nitude of their [new discoveries ultimately lost sight 
 of their original design. These two great Italian 
 navigators drew their inspiration from pure science, 
 acted on their knowledge of the sphere, and calculated 
 the effect of great circle sailing. 
 
 After this date the most distant seas were furrowed 
 by European keels. Spain, Portugal, France, and 
 England vied with each other in pushing into strange 
 countries, and while the literature of travel received 
 many rich additions, the Eastern and Western worlds 
 were rapidly mapped out. England was conspicuous 
 
THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 313 
 
 by her endeavours to discover a north-west or north- 
 east passage to India, and has during the last 300 
 years expended much money and many lives in a 
 pursuit which has hitherto proved barren. Mean- 
 while the less scientific than practical men of Devon 
 sailed forth in tall ships, and enlivened the pursuit of 
 geographical knowledge by leading the Spaniards a 
 terrible life. Hawkins, Drake, Oxenham, and Frobisher 
 had a keen eye for a Spanish galleon, and enriched 
 the records of maritime discovery and themselves at 
 the same time. From that to the present time the 
 progress made has no longer been so brilliant, for the 
 simple reason that there was so much less to discover, 
 although the voyages of Cook, Tasman, and La 
 Perouse disclosed islands and continents where their 
 existence had been previously undreamt of. 
 
 For about a century and three-quarters after its 
 incorporation the Eoyal Society was, with the excep- 
 tion of its early offshoot, the Eoyal Astronomical 
 Society, the only body which gave a scientific impulse 
 to geographical investigation. At rare intervals, and 
 in a grudging, half-hearted, reluctant way, the State 
 — I cannot say, " came forward," but allowed to be 
 extracted from its coffers a small sum of money — 
 generally ridiculously inadequate to the purpose for 
 which it was intended. When a grant was made the 
 usual practice was to confide its administration to a 
 
314 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 special committee of the Eoyal Society, who thus to a 
 considerable extent regulated the distribution of such 
 crumbs as were occasionally thrown to science. Even 
 at such a recent date as 1830 the claims of science 
 and scientific men received scant recognition in this 
 country, and while the savans of France and Germany 
 were decorated with endless stars, crosses, and 
 ribands, and sate familiarly at the table of kings, our 
 own philosophers were contemptuously neglected by a 
 nation caring for nothing but politics, religion, and 
 commerce. Thanks, however, to the exertions of 
 Brewster and Babbage, and in a considerable degree 
 to the spirited advocacy of Brougham, the British 
 mind became aware that an attitude of indifference 
 towards science was indicative of a barbarous nation. 
 An immediate and permanent reaction took place, 
 and the fashionable taste for science — first developed 
 by Davy — soon assumed serious proportions, while 
 the exertions of Birkbeck contributed to spread a taste 
 for physical science among the great body of the 
 people. At this period of transition in popular feeling 
 three bodies sprang into existence, all of which have 
 since exercised an important influence upon scientific 
 research. These were the British Association for the 
 Advancement of Science, the Statistical Society, its 
 immediate outgrowth, and the Eoyal Geographical 
 Society. 
 
THE EOYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 31^- 
 
 The latter important organization, in common with 
 the Geograi)hical and Kosmos Clubs, is the offspring 
 of the Ealeigh Travellers Club, the idea of which was 
 first suggested by Captain Arthur de Capell Brooke to 
 Captain Mangles, E.N., Lieutenant Holman, the 
 famous blind traveller, Colonel Leake, and Mr. Leigh 
 in the autumn of 1826. Great quaintness character- 
 ized the original plan. The club was to consist of 
 eighty-five members, and the globe was to be mapped 
 out into divisions corresponding to the number of 
 members, so that each division should be represented 
 by a member, and the club collectively have visited every 
 known part of the globe. Captain Brooke addressed a 
 cu'cular letter to the most distinguished travellers of 
 the day, and the originators of the movement, joined 
 by Mr. John Kennie, Mr. C. E. Cockerill, and Captain 
 Corry, E.N., held their first dinner at Grillon's Hotel.. 
 At the second meeting the name of " The Ealeigh " 
 was adopted by the club, and thenceforward its regular 
 meetings were held at the Thatched House until its 
 dissolution in 1854. New members came in rapidly. 
 Eastern travellers were represented by Mr. Colebrooke,, 
 Mr. Marsden, and Mr. Baillie Fraser ; African, South 
 American, and European wanderers by Captain Coch- 
 rane, E.N. (afterwards Earl Dundonald), Mr. John 
 Cam Hobhouse, and Mr. J. Eennie ; surveyors, by 
 Captain Owens, E.N. ; and the bold explorers of the 
 
316 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 Arctic Eegions, by Sabine and Brooke, Parry and 
 Franklin. Sir John Barrow also joined the club 
 shortly after its inauguration, and presided at the 
 second and third dinners. The second meeting, in 
 1827, was presided over by Mr. Marsden, author of 
 that excellent edition of Marco Polo which rehabilitated 
 the great traveller's reputation, and preceded the 
 thoughtful edition of M. Pauthier and the elaborate 
 and exhaustive work of Colonel Yule. On this occa- 
 sion, Captain Brooke proposed that a permanent 
 union should be established between geography and 
 gastronomy, and that to this end members should be 
 invited to present any scarce foreign game, fruits, 
 fish, wines, etc., as a means of adding to the interest 
 of the dinners, " not merely from the objects of luxury 
 thus afforded, but for the observations they will be 
 the means of giving rise to." This was successfully 
 carried into effect — the members on various occasions 
 •discussing haunches of reindeer venison from Spitz - 
 bergen, Swedish brandy, rye-cake baked at the North 
 Cape, Norway cheese, cloudberries from Lapland, 
 Heshbon bread from the Dead Sea, capercailzie from 
 Sweden, and hams from Mexico. 
 
 After extending hospitality for many years to all 
 distinguished travellers, "dining and wining" Boss, 
 from the North ; Chesney, from the Euphrates ; 
 D'Abbadie, from Abyssinia ; Vigne, from Cashmere ; 
 
THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 317 
 
 Schomburgk, from Guiana ; Wellsted, from Arabia ; 
 and Captain Shakespeare, from Asia ; the Ealeigh 
 Club was dissolved in 1854, in order that a new club 
 might be formed in closer connection with the Eoyal 
 Geographical Society. 
 
 This child of the old Ealeigh Dining Club was born 
 on the 24th of May, 1830, when a numerous meeting 
 took place at the Thatched House. The gathering 
 was not confined to the members of the club, but 
 was attended by many other gentlemen of a scientific 
 turn, and the chair was taken by Mr. (afterwards 
 Sir John) Barrow. It was then stated that among 
 numerous literary and scientific societies established 
 in the metropolis, one at least was wanting ta 
 complete the circle of scientific institutions, whose 
 sole object should be the promotion and diffusion 
 of that important and entertaining branch of know- 
 ledge — geography. The interest excited by this, 
 department of science was universally felt, and its 
 advantages to mankind in general, and to a maritime 
 nation like Great Britain, were at once acknowledged. 
 To promote geographical investigation a Society was 
 formed with the several objects of collecting, register- 
 ing, digesting, and printing, for the use of the 
 members and the public, in a cheap form and at 
 certain intervals, any new and interesting facts which 
 might come into the possession of the Society. The 
 
■318 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 Koyal Geographical Society proposed also to accumu- 
 late a library of the best books on geography, and a 
 complete collection of maps and charts from the 
 earliest period of rude geographical delineation to the 
 present time. It was also proposed to open communi- 
 cation with all literary and scientific societies whose 
 objects include or sympathize with geography, and it 
 was "hoped" that the Society would ultimately be 
 enabled from its funds to render pecuniary assistance 
 to such travellers as might require it, in order to 
 facilitate the attainment of some particular object of 
 research. At a meeting of the young Society, held at 
 the rooms of the Horticultural Society in the following 
 July, it was announced that in the short intervening 
 time 400 members had been enrolled, and an enlarged 
 programme was presented embracing almost every 
 variety of geographical knowledge. It was urged, 
 and with much good sense, that the age of great 
 discoveries was nearly — if not quite — past, and that 
 minute exactitude must for the future take the j)lace 
 of brilliant conception and daring adventure. Sir 
 John Barrow quoted, and enlarged u^Don the quotation, 
 "that the man who points out, in the midst of the 
 wide ocean, a single rock unknown before is a bene- 
 factor of the human race." 
 
 The progress of the Society was rapid. In 1832, 
 King William had been secured as Patron; the late 
 
THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 319 
 
 Duke of Sussex as Vice-Patron; and Lord Goderich 
 as President. Five hundred and thirty-five members 
 were enrolled, and beyond this number was an illus- 
 trious roll of foreign honorary members, among whom 
 shines conspicuously the name of Alexander Von 
 Humboldt. Encom'aged by the receipt of £4495 in 
 the first year, and a probable income of ^91200 a year 
 at least, the Council proceeded at once to publish a 
 Journal — to be presented gratuitously to members — in 
 addition to the " Proceedings," which are sent to every 
 member within the United Kingdom. The Eoyal 
 Patron had, moreover, encouraged the Society by a 
 donation of fifty guineas, and some 400 volumes — the 
 nucleus of the present splendid library — were presented 
 to the Society by a few members. The Eoyal Geo- 
 graphical Society now began to assist discoverers with 
 grants, and to reward them with premiums. The first 
 j)remium was awarded to the unfortunate Kichard 
 Lander — one of those adventurous travellers who have 
 fallen sacrifices to the object of penetrating Central 
 Africa — and a subsidy was granted to the Arctic 
 Expedition, conducted by Captain Back, in search of 
 Captain Eoss. Schomburgk's Guiana Expedition also 
 received great assistance from the Society. 
 
 In 1834 the Eoyal premium was awarded to 
 Lieutenant Alexander Burnes, afterwards murdered, 
 with Sir William MacNaghten, by Akhbar Khan at 
 
320 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 Kabul — *'for having navigated the Indus, and com- 
 municated much new and important information 
 regarding that river ; for important observations made 
 in a route hitherto unknown to Europeans, from Kabul, 
 across the Indian Caucasus, to the ancient cities of 
 Balkh and Bokhara ; for new and interesting inform- 
 ation regarding the upper course of the Oxus," etc, 
 etc. During the next year the Council, encouraged by 
 the flourishing state of the finances, launched out 
 boldly, and voted .£500 towards the outfit and main- 
 tenance of the two expeditions already subsidized — the 
 Land Arctic Expedition and the Quorra Expedition — 
 and, moreover, laid siege to the late Lord Monteagle, 
 then Secretary of State for the Colonies, with such 
 excellent effect as to extract dGlOOO from the national 
 purse. In 1836, the progress of an African Explor- 
 ing Expedition from Delagoa Bay having been put a 
 stop to by the outbreak of a Kaffir war, the Society 
 devoted £900 to the Guiana Expedition. Grey's 
 Australian Expedition was also patronised by the 
 Society, and in 1838 an historical name turns up in 
 its annals. Five hundred pounds were voted, in 
 conjunction with the Society for the Promotion of 
 Christian Knowledge, for an expedition to Kurdistan 
 to look up the Nestorian Christians, who for many 
 centuries had found homes in nooks and corners of 
 Central Asia. The mission was conducted by Mr. 
 
THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 321 
 
 Ainsworth and by a Nestorian Christian — a certain 
 Mr. Eassam — since the teterrima causa of the success- 
 ful, but useless and costly, Abyssinian war. The 
 attention of the Society now became again turned 
 towards African exploration, and a small subsidy was 
 voted to Dr. Beke to assist him in his investigations. 
 
 Having, during the first few years of its existence, 
 given fair promise of an eminently useful career, the 
 Society — between the years 1840 and 1848 — lapsed 
 into that inertness which occupies a certain part of 
 the history of almost all societies. These institutions 
 start vigorously, but after a while, from causes on 
 which it is unnecessary to dilate, sink into dulness 
 and insignificance, from which they require to be 
 aroused by the touch of a master hand. The sudden 
 improvement in the income of the Society — which 
 rose from £696 10s. 5d. in 1848 to ^62584 7s. in 1855 
 — was due mainly to the new life infused into the 
 Society by Admiral Smyth, whose presidency was 
 followed by the active reign of Sir Eoderick Murchison, 
 while the efforts of these invaluable presidents were 
 ably seconded by Dr. Norton Shaw, at that time 
 secretary of the Society. From a miserably low ebb 
 the finances, which had been heavily drawn upon by 
 the questionable policy of starting original expeditions, 
 were restored to a healthy condition. Owing to the 
 energetic advocacy of Sir Eoderick Murchison, whose 
 
322 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 distinguished rank as a geologist lent additional 
 weight to his recommendations, and whose tact in 
 offering the inducement of a public map-room had no 
 slight influence on the negotiation, her Majesty's 
 ministers felt justified, in 1854, in offering "to submit 
 annually to Parliament, in the Civil Service Esti- 
 mates, a grant of d6500 to the Eoyal Geographical 
 Society, to enable the Society to hire a house or rooms 
 for its meetings, and for the deposit and exhibition 
 of its maps, upon the distinct understanding that 
 the Society will bind itself to provide a public hall 
 or suitable rooms where every person from town or 
 country may go free of charge to obtain the informa- 
 tion he might require." Their lordships also required 
 that in making the annual application for the grant, 
 the Society should furnish a short report of its 
 proceedings, detailing the additions made to its 
 maps or geographical knowledge, and specifying the 
 number of persons who have visited the collections 
 of the Society for the purpose of study or inspection 
 during the preceding year — the report to be printed 
 with the estimate laid annually before the House of 
 Commons. 
 
 Under the presidency of Sir Eoderick Murchison 
 the Society first acquired that importance which it 
 has since maintained and increased. The career of 
 this remarkable man commenced in the army, but at 
 
THE KOYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 323 
 
 the conclusion of the war in 1815 he — by the advice 
 of Sir Humphry Davy — turned his attention to 
 physical science. In 1825 he wrote his first geological 
 paper, and from that time to his death was one of the 
 most successful cultivators of geological science that 
 this country has ever seen. His discovery of the 
 " Silurian " system made his name famous, and his 
 subsequent exposition of the Devonian, Permian, 
 and Laurentian systems confirmed and increased 
 his reputation. He was proud of his share in 
 founding the Koyal Geographical Society in 1830, 
 when, in conjunction with Mountstuart Elphinstone, 
 the late Lord Broughton, and Eobert Brown, he 
 assisted in drawing up, under the guidance of Sir 
 John Barrow, the laws by which the Society has since 
 been governed. During the latter part of his life his 
 history is the veritable history of the Society. From 
 the year 1843, when he first occupied the presidential 
 chair, he occupied it at intervals, but for the last nine 
 years of his life his tenure of office was continuous. 
 As I have already shown, the Society was much 
 indebted to this distinguished philosopher, who im- 
 mortalized himself by predicting, in 1844, the golden 
 future of Australia. Mmxhison, who had then 
 just returned from examining the Ural Mountains, 
 was greatly impressed by the resemblance between 
 their geological formation and that of the great 
 
324 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 Australian chain, which had been reported on at 
 about the same period by Count Strzelecki, and in 
 his presidential address he expressed his surprise 
 that the latter region had as yet offered no trace of 
 auriferous veins — the fact being that gold had 
 actually been discovered by the Count, but that the 
 news had been suppressed by the advice of the 
 governor, Sir George Gipps, who feared that ''If he 
 made known his discovery, the maintenance of dis- 
 cipline amongst the 45,000 convicts, which the 
 Australian colonies then contained, might be almost 
 impossible." Murchison, unaware of the true state of 
 affairs, and pursuing independently his study of the 
 geology of Australia, became at last convinced that 
 gold must exist there, and expressed that conviction 
 on three public occasions — in a memoir read before 
 the British Association, in a lecture delivered at the 
 British Institution, and finally, in an article in the 
 Quarterly Review for 1850, entitled " Siberia and 
 Cahfornia." The operations of Mr. Hargreaves pro- 
 duced, in 1851, the realization of these profound 
 views, and triumphantly vindicated their accuracy. 
 After this date Murchison took a prominent part in 
 stimulating Australian explorations, and at his sug- 
 gestion several Australian travellers, among whom 
 were Strzelecki, Sturt, Leichhardt, Macdonald Stuart, 
 and O'Hara Burke, received honorary rewards from 
 
THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 325 
 
 the Society, to which Murchison had the gratification 
 of announcing, in his last address, that whereas, in 
 1830, nothing was known of Australia beyond a small 
 area around Sydney, two-thirds of the continent are 
 now occupied. 
 
 Far from restricting his sympathies to the antipodes, 
 Murchison devoted great attention and strenuous 
 advocacy to Arctic exploration and African discovery. 
 His deepest sympathies were engaged in the famous, 
 but ill-fated expedition under Sir John Franklin, and 
 when the Erebus and Terror were lost sight of he 
 made it the business of his life to ascertain their 
 fate, until the voyage of the Fox, under Sir Leopold 
 McClintock, in 1857, solved the painful mystery. 
 With like vigour Murchison addressed himself to the 
 great field of African discovery. Having at a very 
 early period satisfied himself that the interior of 
 the continent — instead of being a mere sandy desert, 
 as depicted on the maps of the time — was an 
 elevated plateau — giving rise to great rivers like the 
 Zambesi, the Congo, and the Nile, which flowed 
 to east, west, and north almost from a common 
 centre — he encouraged and assisted to the utmost of 
 his power that great band of African travellers who 
 have succeeded in tearing away a great part of the 
 veil which long shrouded the interior of the continent. 
 The soundness of his conclusions was in this, as in 
 
326 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 the case of Australian gold, completely demonstrated, 
 and entitles him to a place among those philosophers 
 of the first rank, who, in addition to marvellous 
 patience and accuracy in the collection and arrange- 
 ment of materials, are endowed with that sublime spark 
 of creative imagination which kindles dry isolated 
 facts into the living fire of a great truth. Not only 
 in geology and geography did Murchison distinguish 
 himself, hut rendered important service to the cause 
 of general science by assisting to found the British 
 Association, and in devoting much time and care to 
 the proceedings of that learned body. He was also 
 Director-General of the Museum of Practical Geology 
 and Chief of the School of Mines, in which capacity 
 he readily grasped the opportunity of introducing 
 scientific training into the education of the working 
 classes, and took an active part in the labours of the 
 Commission on the coal resources of the country. In 
 addition to the valuable assistance which he rendered 
 the Eoyal Geographical Society in obtaining from 
 the Government, in 1854, the grant of an annual 
 subsidy, he gave active aid in obtaining, in 1859, the 
 Eoyal Charter of Incorporation, and also originated 
 the Bellot Testimonial Fund — an admirable instance 
 of the readiness with which English geographers 
 appreciate true merit, irrespective of national dis- 
 tinctions. 
 
THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 327 
 
 In the address delivered by Major-General Sir 
 Henry C. Eawlinson, from the presidential chair of 
 the Eoyal Geographical Society, on the 27th of May, 
 1872, the brilliant career of Murchison was alluded to 
 in the following terms : — 
 
 "It has often been a reproach to the Government 
 of this country that scientific services are, as a rule, 
 so little regarded and so poorly rewarded ; but 
 Murchison's career furnished a bright example to the 
 contrary. He was knighted in 1846, was made a 
 K.C.B. in 1863, and a baronet in 1866. From the 
 other sovereigns of Europe he also received a shower 
 of well-earned honours. By the Emperor of Bussia 
 he was made a Knight of the 2nd Class of St. Anne, 
 and subsequently a Grand Cross of the same order, 
 and also of that of St. Stanislaus ; and as these 
 honours were conferred for services rendered to the 
 Eussian Government, he was graciously permitted to 
 accept them, and to wear the crosses and insignia at the 
 British Court. Orders w^ere also conferred upon him 
 by the sovereigns of Sweden, Denmark, Italy, and 
 Brazil. A list, indeed, has been lately published of. 
 nineteen stars, crosses, and other emblems of dis- 
 tinction which belonged to Sir Eoderick at the time of 
 his decease, and which constitute, as has been said, 
 ' the largest number of honorary decorations which, 
 in modern times, have been awarded by crowned 
 
B28 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 heads to any individual for purely scientific attain- 
 ments.' 
 
 *'By the public and scientific bodies of this country 
 and of the continent he was further rewarded with a 
 similar profusion of titles and honours. He was a 
 D.C.L. of Oxford, LL.D. of Cambridge, and M.A. of 
 Dublin. Of the Eoyal Society he was not only a 
 Fellow, but also a Vice-President, and had further 
 received from it the Copley Gold Medal. Amongst 
 similar first-class scientific prizes, he had been 
 awarded the Brisbane Gold Medal from Edinburgh, 
 the Prix Cuvier from Paris, and the Wollaston Medal 
 from the Geological Society of London. He was a 
 member of the Academies of St. Petersburg, Berlin, 
 Copenhagen, Brussels, Stockholm, and Turin, and a 
 corresponding member of the Institute of France. At 
 home, at the time of his death, he was Vice-President 
 of the Geographical and Geological Societies, a trustee 
 of the British Museum, of the Hunterian Museum, and 
 of the British Association for the Advancement of 
 Science, an honorary member of the Eoyal Society of 
 Edinburgh and of the Eoyal Irish Academy, President 
 of the Hakluyt Society, Fellow of the Linnean Society, 
 and of many other scientific bodies." 
 
 Far less fortunate in obtaining recognition of his 
 great services was Sir Paul Edmund de Strzelecki, 
 whose life was from its outset entirely devoted to the 
 
THE EOYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 829 
 
 pursuit of pure science. After discovering and bringing 
 to the notice of the Colonial department the rich 
 deposits of native copper in the Upper Lake region of 
 Canada, he — at the earnest solicitation of Sir George 
 Gipps, the Governor-General of New South Wales — 
 devoted five years of his life to a systematic survey of 
 that portion of New South Wales which extends from 
 the 30 deg. to the 39 deg. of south latitude. The 
 labour of this survey was very great. 
 
 He made — to use his own words — 7000 miles on 
 foot, and incurred an outlay of £5000. He prepared 
 a geological map of New South Wales and of Van 
 Diemen's Land, on the scale of one inch to the mile, 
 which he was unable to take upon himself to publish 
 in this country, from a disappointment in the recovery 
 of funds for that purpose consequent on the premature 
 death of Sir George Gipps. In addition to the dis- 
 covery of gold. Count Strzelecki penetrated through 
 a series of rugged and sterile defiles into the beautiful 
 tract of country named by him " Gipps' Land," and 
 in the course of this exploration was compelled to cut 
 his way for twenty- six days through a zone of almost 
 impenetrable scrub. Although the expedition had 
 been undertaken at the express request of the Governor, 
 under the condition that the " Colonial treasury should 
 be associated with the enterprise, and defray half the 
 expenses," and that, in the event of his researches 
 
830 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 tending to results likely to benefit the public, Sir 
 George Gipps would ''recommend her Majesty's 
 Government to repay him all the outlay which he 
 might be obliged to incur in his expedition," the 
 count never received a shilling beyond some £400 
 subscribed by the Tasmanian public. Undismayed, 
 however, by the scant recognition of his services by 
 .the Colonial and the Imperial Government, which 
 confined its notice of him to the offer of an official 
 position in the Colonies, he produced his work on the 
 *' Physical Geography of New South Wales and Van 
 Biemen's Land." This work appeared in 1845, and 
 at once placed the name of Count Strzelecki on the 
 roll of distinguished geographers. Science, however, 
 has to regret that he was soon called away from his 
 labours as an author to undertake the relief of suffer- 
 ing humanity, as he accepted the self-imposed and 
 self-remunerated mission of distributing, during a 
 period of four years, from 1846 to 1850, amongst the 
 famine-stricken peasantry of Ireland, the relief which 
 the liberality of the British public had collected for 
 them. During this period he left the question of the 
 discovery of gold and his other claims to the course of 
 events. Meanwhile, however, the discovery of the 
 precious metal in New South Wales had oozed out, 
 and later explorers- not merely enriched themselves 
 suddenly, but claimed the reward offered by the 
 
THE EOYAL GEOGEAPHICAL SOCIETY. 331 
 
 Legislative Council of Sydney to the discoverer of 
 gold. That reward, however, was not distributed 
 until 1853, when the Legislative Council supported 
 the proposal of the Executive Government of the 
 colony that the sum of £5000 should be given to those 
 who first published the discovery and taught the 
 miners how to wash the gold, and not to him who 
 first made the discovery and kept it secret at the 
 express request of the Executive Government. Justice, 
 however, was done to Count Strzelecki's scientific 
 researches in the course of the debates of the Legis- 
 lative Council in its sitting on 5th October, 1853, and 
 his claim to the discovery of the gold-fields in 1839 
 was established beyond all dispute. 
 
 It is somewhat to be wondered at that, after the 
 treatment he had received, he applied for, and 
 obtained, in 1845, letters of naturalization as a British 
 subject, for he must have been convinced that in this 
 country, and at that period, science, like virtue, was 
 its own reward. But his faith in England was destined 
 to receive a certain justification, for tardy justice — so 
 far as honour and glory were concerned — was meted 
 out to him when, at the recommendation of Mr. 
 Gladstone, he was made a Knight Commander of the 
 order of St. Michael. From the time when Sir 
 Koderick Murchison devoted his great powers to its 
 consolidation and advancement, the Eoyal Geographi- 
 
332 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 cal Society, gradually abandoning the policy of initi- 
 ating expeditions, contented itself with making grants 
 in aid of such enterprises, or in bestowing rewards 
 upon brilliant and successful trayellers. Large sums 
 have been spent upon the library and the map-room ; 
 indeed, to the latter is now faithfully devoted the 
 whole sum contributed to the Society by Government. 
 It is perhaps not so well known as it deserves to be, 
 that the map-room is now, and has since the annual 
 ^500 was first given, been thrown open to the public, 
 who are free to inspect and in many cases to take 
 tracings of the maps in possession of the Society. 
 The country may therefore be congratulated on having 
 laid out its five hundred a year to advantage, and on 
 having for once gotten the best of a bargain. The 
 map-room in the house at present occupied by the 
 Society is 60 feet long by 40 feet broad, and is 
 furnished with more than 60,000 maps. Perhaps it 
 is as well that ordinary emigrants, travellers, and the 
 general public are not aware of the privilege they 
 may exercise on any day during office hours at the 
 corner of Savile Eow and Burlington Gardens ; but 
 the military and civil servants of Her Majesty well 
 appreciate the value of the Society's map-room. No 
 sooner does a squabble occur — in Ashanti, Abyssinia, 
 or Atchin — than Government departments make a 
 rush to Savile Eow, and lay hands on all matter 
 
THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 333 
 
 relating to that portion of the world which happens to 
 be interesting for the moment. 
 
 With equally enlightened public spirit, the Eoyal 
 Geograi)hical Society offered, six years ago, gold and 
 bronze medals to be competed for by public school- 
 boys, and the experiment has since been continued 
 with very great success. A gold and a bronze medal 
 are given to the first and second competitors in 
 physical geography, and like prizes to those successful 
 in political geography. These have been carried off 
 by Eton College, Liverpool College, University College 
 School, Clifton College, and the City of London School 
 — among which the success of Liverj)ool College has 
 been conspicuous. At the last examination, however, 
 Liverpool did not carry off any of the prizes, while 
 the City of London School took the gold medal for 
 physical and the bronze medal for political geography. 
 
 Although possessing a handsome house of their 
 own, worth some £20,000, the Fellows of the Society 
 find it impossible to hold their general meetings, which 
 take place on the two first Mondays in every month 
 from November to June, within the limits of their 
 own building. This is in part to be explained by the 
 immense size to which the Society has grown, and 
 in a considerable degree to the Eoyal Geographical 
 Society being the ''fashion." When a really genuine 
 big lion returns from foreign wilds and is docile 
 
334 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 enough to " roar as gently as a sucking dove " at the 
 bidding of the Council, a determined rush is made for 
 admission, the lives of the Fellows are made weary 
 unto them by the ladies of their acquaintance, and an 
 immense audience thunders at the gate. Under these 
 circumstances, the Chancellor and Senate of the 
 University of London have — in a spirit of hearty 
 liberality — permitted the Society to hold its meetings 
 in their magnificent theatre at Burlington House. 
 This permission was not granted by the University as 
 a matter of course. On the contrary, the Senate were 
 so outrageously worried by applications from various 
 quarters to hold meetings in their hall, that they 
 passed a resolution restricting its use to meetings 
 connected with educational purposes, and it was con- 
 sidered a high compliment to the public importance 
 and utility of the Eoyal Geographical Society, when 
 that body was made an exception to the rule and 
 permitted to make use of Burlington House for its 
 meetings. 
 
 In addition to the privilege of attending meetings, 
 listening to the great lions, and bearding the lesser 
 lions during the discussion which follows the reading 
 of papers, the Fellows have the use of a valuable 
 library, containing 20,000 volumes on geography and 
 cognate sciences, and a fine collection of English and 
 foreign scientific periodicals. It would appear that 
 
THE EOYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 335 
 
 the numerous Fellows avail themselves pretty 
 thoroughly of their rights, for in the ten years ending 
 in 1872 the rooms of the Koyal Geographical Society 
 were visited by 45,334 persons, and the evening 
 meetings were attended by 55,300, making a total of 
 100,634 persons who have derived instruction or 
 amusement from maps, books, and papers. No 
 scientific society is in a more thoroughly healthy 
 condition from a financial point of view, and none is 
 acquiring new members more rai)idly. In the report 
 of the Council, read at the last anniversary meeting, 
 it was announced that no fewer than 342 new 
 members, besides nine honorary corresponding As- 
 sociates, had been elected during, the year. The 
 total number now on the rolls is 2809 ordinary and 
 seventy-six honorary corresponding members. The 
 annual income of the Society is nearly £9000, and its 
 capital, obtained from bequests and accumulations 
 of subscriptions, amounts to about £25,000, partly 
 invested in the freehold property in Savile Eow and 
 partly in public securities. During the last few years 
 the library and the map-room have received many 
 important additions. Valuable presents in books, and 
 money for the purchase of them, have been made to 
 the library; and, under the discriminating guidance 
 of Mr. Keith Johnston, application was made to the 
 Governments of Europe for the most important 
 
336 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 geographical documents which they have severally 
 published. This appeal has been nobly responded to, 
 more than 3500 sheets having been, during the past 
 year, added to the collection of the Society, many of 
 these being equally valuable as specimens of the most 
 elaborate cartography and as indications of the latest 
 geographical data. The Journal of the Royal Geo- 
 graphical Society has expanded into a bulky volume of 
 valuable matter, admirably edited by the learned and 
 indefatigable secretary, Mr. H. W. Bates, the value of 
 whose labours has been handsomely acknowledged by 
 Sir Henry C. Eawlinson, and by the Eight Honourable 
 Sir H. Bartle Frere, K.C.B. Disdaining — possibly 
 overmuch — matter of purely antiquarian interest, and 
 devoting itself rather to the development of present 
 science than to the description and elucidation of ex- 
 ploded theories, the Royal Geographical Society has 
 yet, among its wonderful collection of modern car- 
 tography, relics of the past, which cannot fail to 
 interest the student of that extraordinary period when 
 Europe was struggling through the twilight which 
 followed the deep night of the Middle Ages. One of 
 those is a fac simile of the extraordinary Mappa Mundi 
 made by Richard of Haldingham, some time between 
 1275 and 1300, and preserved in Hereford Cathedral. 
 This map is 52 inches in diameter, and is richly 
 coloured. It is circular in form, the earth being 
 
THE KOYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 337 
 
 surrounded by the ocean ; the upper part of the map 
 is the east, and in the centre is the city of Jerusalem. 
 The Mediterranean Sea, with the Adriatic and Black 
 Seas, occupies the lion's share of the map — which, it 
 is needless to say, is entirely free from parallels or 
 meridians. Far away to the north of the Black Sea 
 is the Caspian — an inlet of the ocean — and the Ked 
 Sea and Persian Gulf are also shown, coloured a 
 bright scarlet. There is little doubt that this map 
 expresses exactly the state of mediaeval geography at 
 the close of the thirteenth century, for it could not be 
 expected that the discoveries of Marco Polo would be 
 immediately adopted by cartographers. The great 
 rivers Nile and Danube are distinctly marked, with 
 their many mouths opening to the sea, and the 
 great cities are also put in with some approach to 
 accuracy. Touching sacred or legendary sites no 
 doubt is exhibited. The tower of Babel is boldly 
 drawn, as are also the barns of Joseph, the labyrinth 
 of Crete, the spot where the Israelites crossed the Pied 
 Sea, and the course of their wanderings in search of 
 the promised land. Europe presents a curious out- 
 line. The Gulf of Lyons is completely filled up, 
 and Spain more resembles a western prolongation of 
 France than an independent peninsula ; but the great 
 rivers and the towns upon them are done justice to — 
 the Ehone flows past Lyons to Marseilles — the Seine 
 
338 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 past Paris to the English Channel — the Thames from 
 Oxford by London to the North Sea — the Severn by 
 Worcester — and the Dee by Chester. 
 
 The British Islands present an odd outline, and 
 suggest the idea they have undergone much squeezing 
 to get them into the circle. On the opposite or 
 eastern side, far beyond India, is a circular island 
 containing four rivers. This is the terrestrial paradise 
 with its central fountain whence flow the sweet waters 
 of the earth. Adam and Eve are here represented, 
 and a similar style of pictorial embellishment covers 
 the whole of this marvellously interesting map. Mer- 
 maids disport in the seas, and the earth is tenanted 
 by monoculi, acephali, and anthropophagi — strange 
 races of men — and stranger birds and beasts, sphynxes, 
 griffins, centaurs, dragons, the phoenix, and the sala- 
 mander. 
 
 Of a later date than the Hereford map, but equally 
 interesting to the geographer, is a model of the 
 globe preserved in the library at Frankfort-on-the- 
 Maine. Its date is supposed to be about 1520, and 
 it affords a singularly accurate idea of the state of 
 geographical knowledge shortly after the discovery of 
 America. It is specially interesting, as showing the 
 next stage of geography to that presented by the famous 
 globe made at Nuremberg in 1492 by Martin Beham, 
 in which it is supposed the islands are laid down 
 
THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 339 
 
 in the same way as in the map used by Columbus in 
 his first voyage. On Beham's globe three-fourths of 
 the surface are occupied by the three continents then 
 known — the Atlantic Ocean, the unknown American 
 continent, and the Pacific Ocean being crowded into 
 about 90 deg. of longitude. AVest of the Azores was 
 the Island of Antilla, and to the south-west of the 
 Cape de Verde Islands a large island marked : "In 
 585, Sir Brandon came here in his ship." Seventy 
 degrees west of the Canaries lay Cipangi or Japan. 
 In the twenty- eight years which elapsed between the 
 discovery of America and the date of the Frankfort 
 globe, the shape of the new continent had been 
 partially made out, and the West Indies laid down 
 with tolerable correctness. The Pacific side of the 
 southern continent had also been sketched in; but 
 the northern portion is only represented by an 
 attenuated slip. In concurrence with preconceived 
 ideas, Japan is placed just off the coast of Mexico, and 
 the Northern Pacific is reduced to very narrow limits ; 
 but, perhaps, the most curious part of this globe is 
 that which represents the Isthmus of Darien according 
 to the ideas of Columbus himself, with a wide gap 
 about the 10 deg. north latitude, affording ample 
 passage for mariners to Japan, the Indies, and their 
 fabulous wealth. 
 Interesting as are these memorials of early dis- 
 
340 SCIENTIFIC LONDON. 
 
 coveries, the portraits and works of more recent 
 geographers are endowed with even greater attraction. 
 Around the Council Eoom of the Eoyal Geographical 
 Society hang portraits of Sir John Barrow and 
 Captain Eichard Burton, of the gallant but ill-fated 
 Lander, and the not less unfortunate Burnes, of 
 Admiral Smyth, Dr. Kirk, Captain Speke, Dr. Living- 
 stone, and other celebrated travellers ; while in the 
 place of honour is a noble marble bust of Murchison. 
 It is impossible, however, to look on the walls thus 
 tenanted without regretting that the period of the 
 greatest prosperity and most brilliant development of 
 the Society has been saddened by the death of many 
 geographers of the first rank. During the last three 
 or four years the names of Murchison and Strzelecki, 
 Wood and Chesney, Keith Johnston and Arrowsmith, 
 Maury and Sedgwick, McClure and Livingstone, have 
 been added to the roll of the illustrious dead, — but 
 albeit these great leaders of scientific inquiry have 
 departed from the sphere of their labours, their spirit 
 of earnest devotion to pure science — for its own sake — 
 still animates those who, not unworthily, essay to fill 
 the void they have left behind. 
 
 Printed hy William Moore ^ Co.