close of the meeting, Vienna was chosen by a unanimous vote as the place of meeting of the next general assembly. A complete protocol of the proceedings of the assembly has been drawn up, and will be issued before the end of this year. Other matters referred to in the report are the African geodetic arc, the international congress of aeronautics held at St. Petersburg in August, the international laboratory of physiology on Monte Rosa, the Royal Society "Catalogue of Scientific Papers," the "International Catalogue of Scientific Literature," the Government grant for scientific investigations, and the expenses of special Government inquiries.

The Royal Society is frequently requested by various departments of the Government to advise upon, or in some cases to undertake the supervision and control of, and in others the entire responsibility for, scientific investigations of national importance, but no provision has been made by Government to meet expenses to which the Society has been put in acceding to these requests. As the result of pointing out this unsatisfactory position, H.M. Treasury has approved of an alteration in the regulations for administering the Government grant of 4000l. for scientific purposes which will permit a sum to be set aside out of the reserve fund of the grant for printing and office expenditure incurred in undertaking, controlling, supervising or advising upon matters which the President and Council may, at the request of the Government, undertake, control, supervise or advise upon. That is to say, the Royal Society is graciously permitted by the Treasury to use a part of the annual Government grant for scientific investigations to meet expenses incurred in answering Government inquiries.

46

Mention is also made in the report of the radium research grant of the Goldsmiths' Company, the Treasury inquiry into the Meteorological Office, and the letter on scientific education sent by the council to all British universities last January. The following extracts from other parts of the report of the council are of interest :

Sleeping Sickness.

The investigation of this disease in Uganda was continued after Colonel Bruce's return to England by Dr. Nabarro and Captain Greig, of the Indian Medical Service. A further report (No. 4) by Colonel Bruce has been published, and its general conclusions, briefly stated in the last report of the council-namely, that the sleeping sickness is caused by the entrance into the blood and thence into the cerebro-spinal fluid of a species of Trypanosoma (T. gambiense), and that these trypanosomes are transmitted from the sick to the healthy by a species of tsetse fly (Glossina palpalis) have been confirmed by subsequent observations. The efforts of the observers are now being directed to the attempt to discover a means of eliminating the trypanosomes from the blood and tissues of the infected in the early stages, and before severe damage has been done to the nervous centres. In the meantime the Royal Society Committee has advised the Government to adopt such preventive measures as are found practicable for protecting a non-infected area where the carrier fly is found from the incursion of emigrants from the infected areas.

Antarctic Expedition and Investigation.

The Antarctic ship Discovery, accompanied by the relief ships Morning and Terra Nova, returned safely in March last to Lyttelton, and a "Summary of Proceedings forwarded thence by Captain Scott by post to the presidents of the Royal and Royal Geographical Societies. The Discovery arrived in England at the beginning of September, when a joint letter of welcome from the president and the president of the Royal Geographical Society was dispatched to Captain Scott.

The natural history specimens and notes and drawings have been sent to the British Museum (Natural History Department), to be preserved there as part of the national collection, the trustees of the museum having agreed to

organise and undertake the publication of these results of the expedition, under the editorship of the director of the

museum.

The laborious duty of arranging for the reduction an publication of the magnetic and meteorological observation made by the expedition has been undertaken by the Royal Society. Two special expert committees have been appointed, and are already dealing with these two class of material.

As regards the magnetic observations, the Hydrographi Department of the Admiralty has undertaken the redu ter of about one-third of the material, and the remaining twthirds, consisting of the slow-run magnetograms, remain to be dealt with. The committee for magnetism have accordingly arranged that these observations shall be reduced, under the superintendence of Dr. Chree, their ste tary, in the observatory department of the National Physical Laboratory; and the Royal Society has undertaken responsibility for the cost of these reductions, to the extent of 400l., by an advance from the donation fund, in the full hope that this expenditure will be refunded out of the proIceeds of the sale of the Discovery.

Committees have been arranged for dealing with other observations. The reduction of the meteorological observ ations has been undertaken by the Meteorological Counci with the aid of a sum of 500l. guaranteed by the Royal Geographical Society in anticipation of the sale of the Discovery. It is hoped that the publication of these results will be undertaken by H.M. Stationery Office.

The committees are working as far as possible in concert with the authorities engaged in the reduction of the observations of the German and Scottish Antarctic Expeditions, which in part covered the same period of time.

It is proposed that the special scientific results of the expedition shall be published in a uniform series of volumes similar to the published records of the Challenger Expedition.

Mediterranean Fever.

In February last a letter was received from the Colonial Office asking whether the Royal Society would be willing to appoint an advisory board in this country for the purpose of supervising investigations into Mediterranean fever, t be carried out by a commission representing the Navy, the Army, and the Civil Government of Malta.

The matter was referred to the tropical diseases committee of the society, which had superintended the investi gations into malaria and sleeping sickness, and upon their advice the council decided to accede to the request of the Colonial Office, provided that the appointment of investin gators rested with the Royal Society, and that all expenses in connection with the investigation were borne by the Government. These conditions were accepted by the Government with a modification, which the council acceded to at the particular request of H.M. Treasury, viz. that the Royal Society should participate by defraying (out of the Government Grant Reserve Fund) the cost of scientific equipment to an amount not exceeding 200l. The advisory board was constituted as a subcommittee of the tropical diseases committee, with Colonel Bruce, F.R.S., as chairman. Members of the commission of investigation were nominated, with the approval of this committee, by the Navy, the Army, and the Civil Government of Malta, and Colonel Bruce himself went out to Malta on behalf of the committee to start the inquiry, which is now in active progress.

National Physical Laboratory.

The National Physical Laboratory has continued its work with success during the year, the last of the five for which the original annual grant of 4000l. was made by the Treasury.

This fact has been prominently before the committee at its various meetings. In reply to an inquiry by the chairman, a letter was received from Sir E. W. Hamilton to the effect that while there was no idea of stopping the grant the question before H.M. Treasury was whether there should be an increase in its amount, and suggesting that the committee should formulate " constructive proposals" with detailed estimates of the expenditure, both capital and recurring, required to put the laboratory on a satisfactory footing. Accordingly this was done, and a memorandum on the future organisation and expenditure of the labor

atory, which was drawn up by the executive committee on February 19, was sent to the Treasury by the president and council, who strongly supported the proposals of the committee.

The main recommendations of the memorandum were (1) that a sum of nearly 30,000l. was required for capital expenditure, and (2) that the annual grant should be raised in the course of four years to 10,000l.; while, with a view to supporting these proposals, a request was made for an official inquiry into the work and organisation of the laboratory.

To this request the Financial Secretary of the Treasury replied, stating that the question of the increase must stand over until the estimates for 1905-6 were under consideration, and suggesting that meanwhile the executive committee should consider which of the new works were of the most pressing importance, and make application accordingly.

In answer, a further memorandum was prepared, pointing out that the question at issue was whether the laboratory is to be allowed to remain undeveloped in its present condition, with its limited powers and opportunities, or whether it is to be adequately developed, and ultimately placed on a footing similar to that of the corresponding institutions in other countries, and asking that the First Lord of the Treasury would receive a deputation to support the request already made, "That an inquiry might be instituted into the work and organisation of the National Physical Laboratory with a view to laying down the lines that ought to be followed in its future development.

In consequence of this request, a conference took place early in August at the House of Commons between the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the President of the Board of Trade on the one hand, and Lord Rayleigh, Sir F. Hopwood, the treasurer and senior secretary of the Roval Society, with the director, representing the laboratory, at which the matter was discussed.

The donations and subscriptions promised to the laboratory, in most cases for five years, have increased, and now reach a total of about 2000l.

While the report is one of progress, the committee of the laboratory feel that with adequate financial support they might do much more. It is not yet sufficiently recognised how substantial is the assistance the laboratory can render to commerce and manufactures. The grant made by the Government is treated by them as one in aid of science itself, although it is applied under the highest scientific direction to facilitate the applications of science to manufacture. This distinction is an important one, which needs to be emphasised; when it is fully grasped the progress of the laboratory, as an aid to national industry, will be much more rapid.

In his anniversary address the president referred at first to the scientific careers of the thirteen fellows of the Society lost by death since the previous anniversary. He then gave a sketch of the work the Society has done and is doing for the nation, and showed how the generous intentions of the founder, Charles II., were never fulfilled. From this survey of the history of the society, we have taken the following extracts, with the descriptions of the scientific work of this year's medallists:

A not

During the last few years a very large amount, increasing each year, of work outside the reading, discussion, and printing of papers, of a more or less public character, has been thrown upon the Royal Society-so large indeed as at present to tax the society's powers to the utmost. inconsiderable part of this work has come from the initiation by the society itself of new undertakings, but mainly it has consisted of assistance freely given, at their request, to different departments of the Government on questions which require expert scientific knowledge, and which involve no small amount of labour on the part of the officers and staff, and much free sacrifice of time and energy from fellows, in most cases living at a distance.

There is little doubt that this largely-increased amount of public work has arisen, in part naturally from the greater scientific activity of the present day, but also, and to a

greater extent, from the fuller recognition by the Government and the public of the need for scientific advice and direction in connection with many, matters of national con

cern.

It may not be inopportune, therefore, for me to say a few words on the advisory relation in which the society has come to stand to the Government, and to review very briefly the great work which the society has done, and is doing, for the nation.'

Among academies and learned societies the position of the Royal Society is, in some respects, an exceptional one. In the British dominions it holds a unique position, not only as the earliest chartered, scientific society, but in its own right, on account of the number of eminent men included in its fellowship, and the close connection in which it stands, though remaining a private institution, with the Government. The Royal Society is a private learned body, consisting of a voluntary and independent association of students of science united for the promotion of natural knowledge at their own cost.

The Royal Society, while remaining a purely private institution for the promotion of natural knowledge, has been regarded by the Government as the acknowledged national scientific body, the advice of which is of the highest authority on all scientific questions, and the more to be trusted on account of the society's financial independence; a body, which, through its intimate relations with the learned societies of the Colonies, has now become the centre of British science. The society's historical position and the scientific eminence of its fellows have made it naturally the body which the scientific authorities of foreign countries regard as representing the science of the Empire, and with which they are anxious to consult and to cooperate, from time to time, on scientific questions of international importance.

own

On their part, the fellows of the Royal Society, remembering that the promotion of natural knowledge is the great object for which it was founded and still exists, and that all undertakings in the home and in the State, since they are concerned with nature, can be wisely directed and carried on with the highest efficiency only as they are based upon a knowledge of nature, have always recognised the fundamental importance of the society's work to national as well as to individual success and prosperity, and their responsibility as the depositories of such knowledge. They have always been willing, even at great personal cost, ungrudgingly to afford any assistance in their power to the Government on all questions referred to them which depend upon technical knowledge, or which require the employment of scientific methods. In particular the society has naturally always been eager to help forward, and even to initiate, such national undertakings as voyages of observation or of discovery of any kind, or for the investigation of the incidence of disease, which have for their express object the increase of natural knowledge.

At the same time, as the society is dependent upon the voluntary help of its fellows, whose time is fully occupied with their own work, the society may reasonably expect the Government not to ask for assistance on any matters of mere administration that could be otherwise efficiently provided for. The hope may be expressed that in the near future, with increased official provision in connection with the recognition of science, the position of the society to the Government may not extend beyond that of a purely advisory body, so that the heavy, responsibilities now resting upon it, in respect of the carrying out of many public undertakings on which its advice has been asked, may no longer press unduly, as they certainly do at present, upon the time and energy of the officers and members of committees. The society regards this outside work, important, as it is, as extraneous, and therefore as subordinate, and would not be justified in permitting such work to interfere with the strict prosecution of pure natural science as, the primary purpose of the society's existence, upon which, indeed, the society's importance as an advisory body ultimately depends.

The society has accepted heavy responsibilities at the instance of the Government in respect of the control of scientific observations and research in our vast Indian Empire. In 1899, the India Office inquired whether the Royal Society would be willing to meet the wishes of the Indian Government by exercising a general, control over the scientific researches which it might be thought desirable to

institute in that country. A standing committee was appointed in consequence by the council for the purpose of giving advice on matters connected with scientific inquiry, probably mainly biological, in India, which should be supplementary to the standing observatories committee which was already established at the request of the Government as an advisory body on astronomical, solar, magnetic, and meteorological observations in that part of the Empire.

An investigation, onerous indeed, but of the highest scientific interest and of very great practical importance, has been carried on by a series of committees successively appointed at the request of the Government for the consideration of some of the strangely mysterious and deadly diseases of tropical countries. In 1896 a committee was appointed at the request of the Colonial Secretary to investigate the subject of the tsetse-fly disease in South Africa. Two years later Mr. Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, requested the society to appoint a committee to make a thorough investigation into the origin, the transmission, and the possible preventives and remedies of tropical diseases, and especially of the malarial and "blackwater " fevers prevalent in Africa, promising assistance, both on the part of the Colonial Office and of the Colonies concerned. A committee was appointed, and, under its auspices, skilled investigators were sent out to Africa and to India. In the case of the third committee the society itself took the initiative. An outbreak in Uganda of the disease, appalling in its inexorable deadliness, known as "sleeping sickness" having been brought to the knowledge of the society, a deputation waited upon Lord Lansdowne at the Foreign Office, asking him to consider favourably the dispatch of a small commission to Uganda to investigate the disease. He gave his approval, and a commission of three experts, appointed on the recommendation of the committee, was sent out to Uganda, 600l. being voted out of the Government grant towards the expenses of the commission.

The investigations in tropical diseases, promoted and directed by these committees, have largely increased our knowledge of the true nature of these diseases, and, what is of the highest practical importance, they have shown that their propagation depends upon conditions which it is in the power of man so far to modify, or guard against, as to afford a reasonable expectation that it may be possible for Europeans to live and carry on their work in parts of the earth where hitherto the sacrifice of health, and even of life, has been fearfully great. A general summary of the work already done on malaria, especially in regard to its prevention, and also on the nature of blackwater fever, has been published in a Parliamentary paper, which records Mr. Chamberlain's acknowledgment to the Royal Society for its cooperation in the work undertaken by the Colonial Office. The reports on sleeping sickness up to this time form four whole numbers of the Proceedings, giving evidence in support of the view that this deadly disease is caused by the entrance into the blood, and thence into the cerebro-spinal fluid, of a species of Trypanosoma, and that these organisms are transmitted from the sick to the healthy by a kind of tsetse fly, and by it alone; sleeping sickness is, in short, a human tsetse-fly disease.

In 1897, the council was requested to assist the Board of Trade in drawing up schedules for the establishment of the relations between the metric and the imperial units of weights and measures. A committee was appointed, which, after devoting much time and attention to the matter, drew up schedules which were accepted by the Board of Trade and incorporated in the Orders of Council.

Soon after the reports were received of the appalling volcanic eruptions and the loss of life which took place in the West Indies in 1902, the council received a letter from Mr. Chamberlain to ask if the society would be willing to undertake an investigation of the phenomena connected with the eruptions. The council, considering that such an investigation fell well within the scope of the objects of the society, organised a small commission of two experts, who left England for the scene of the eruption eleven days only after the receipt of Mr. Chamberlain's letter, the expenses being met by a grant of 300l. from the Government Grant Committee. Six weeks were spent in the islands, including Martinique, by the commission, which was successful in securing results of great scientific interest. A preliminary

report was published at the time, and a full report has since appeared in the Transactions.

Time forbids me to do more than mention the successive expeditions sent out by the society, conjointly with the Royal Astronomical Society, for the observation of total solar eclipses; and the onerous work thrown upon the society for several years in connection with the National Antarctic Expedition, undertaken jointly with the Royal Geographical Society, which has this year returned home crowned with success; but the society's labours are not at an end, for the prolonged and responsible task of the discussion and publication of the scientific results of the expedition is still before them.

To the Royal Society is entrusted the responsible task of administrating the annual Government grant of 4000l. for the purpose of scientific research, and a grant of 1000l. in aid of the publication of scientific papers.

In addition to these permanent responsibilities, which are always with the society, its advice and aid are sought from time to time both by the Government and by scientific institutions at home and abroad, in favour of independent objects of a more or less temporary character, of which, as examples, may be taken the recent action of the society for the purpose of obtaining Government aid for the continuation through Egypt of the African arc of meridian, and for the intervention of the Government to assist in securing the fulfilment of the part undertaken by Great Britain in the International Astrographic Catalogue and Chart.

Upon the present fellows falls the glorious inheritance of unbounded free labour ungrudgingly given during two centuries and a half for the public service, as well as of the strenuous prosecution at the same time of the primary object of the society, as set forth in the words of the Charter: the promotion of Natural Knowledge." The successive generations of fellows have unsparingly contributed of their time to the introduction and promotion, whenever the oppor tunity was afforded them, of scientific knowledge and methods into the management of public concerns by departments of the Government. The financial independence of the Royal Society, neither receiving, nor wishing to accept, State aid for its own private purposes, has enabled the society to give advice and assistance which, both with the Government and with Parliament, have the weight and finality of a wholly disinterested opinion. I may quote here the words of a recent letter from H.M. Treasury:-" Their Lordships have deemed themselves in the past very fortunate in being able to rely, in dealing with scientific questions, upon the aid of the Royal Society, which commands not only the confidence of the scientific world, but also of Parlia

ment.

In the past the Royal Society has been not infrequently greatly hampered in giving its advice by the knowledge that the funds absolutely needed for the carrying out of the matters in question in accordance with our present scientific knowledge would not be forthcoming. Though I am now speaking on my own responsibility, I am sure that the society is with me, if I say that the expenditure by the

Government on scientific research and scientific institutions, on which its commercial and industrial prosperity so largely depend, is wholly inadequate in view of the present state of international competition. I throw no blame on the individual members of the present or former Governments; they are necessarily the representatives of public opinion, and cannot go beyond it. The cause is deeper, it lies in the absence in the leaders of public opinion, and indeed throughout the more influential classes of society, of a sufficiently intelligent appreciation of the supreme importance of scientific knowledge and scientific methods in all industrial enterprises, and indeed in all national undertakings. The evidence of this grave state of the public mind is strikingly shown by the very small response that follows any appeal that is made for scientific objects in this country, in contrast with the large donations and liberal endowments from private benefaction for scientific purposes and scientific institutions which are always at once forthcoming in the United States. In my opinion, the scientific deadness of the nation is mainly due to the too exclusively mediæval and classical methods of our higher public schools, and can only be slowly removed by making in future the teaching of science, not from text-books for passing an examination, but, as far as may be possible, from the study