Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/96

86 which the physicist, the chemist, and the geologist, may each carry the fruits of his research, receiving back in return some suggestion, some principle, or some other scientific commodity that will aid him in his own field? But to establish such a mart must be a national undertaking, and already several nations have acknowledged their obligations in this respect.

Already the German Government have established a Sonnenwarte, the mere building and equipment of which is to cost a large sum. With an appreciation of what the spectroscope has done for this inquiry, the first directorship was offered to Kirchhoff, and, on his declining it, Herr Vogel has been placed in charge. In France, also, a physical observatory is to be erected at Fontenay, on an equal, if not greater scale, of which Janssen has already accepted the directorship; while in Italy there are at least three observatories exclusively devoted to this branch of research. Nor must we forget that in this country the new observatory at Oxford has been so arranged that it can be employed in such inquiries. But what has England as a nation done?

Some years since, at the Norwich meeting of this Association, a movement was set on foot by Colonel Strange, which resulted in the appointment of a royal commission on the advancement of science, with the Duke of Devonshire as chairman. This commission have quite recently reported on the steps that ought in their opinion to be taken for the advancement of scientific research.

One of their recommendations is expressed in the following words:

If the men of science of this country who procured the appointment of this commission, and who subsequently gave evidence before it, will now come forward to support its recommendations, it can hardly be doubted that these will be speedily carried into effect.

But other things besides observations are necessary, if we are to pursue with advantage this great physical problem.

One of these is the removal of the intolerable burden that has hitherto been laid upon private meteorologists and magneticians. Expected to furnish their tale of bricks, they have been left to find their own straw. Nothing more wretched can be imagined than the position of an amateur—that is to say, a man who pursues science for the love of it, and is unconnected with any establishment—who has set himself to promote observational inquiries, whether in meteorology or magnetism.