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numerous uses to which that instrument is now applied, would have been almost unknown. The introduction of the steam-engine enabled abandoned Cornish mines to be relieved of water, and to be worked to much greater depths. The discoveries of nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, oil of vitriol, and washing soda, by the alchemists and early chemists in their researches, led to the erection of the numerous great manufactories of those substances which now exist in England and in other civilized countries. There is probably not an art, manufacture, or process, which is not largely due to scientific discovery, and if we trace them back to their source we nearly always find them originate in scientific research.

      So far has scientific discovery, and its practical applications to human benefit by invention, now progressed, that every one considers this to be, par excellence, the scientific age. And as discovery and invention continue to progress with accelerated speed, we are encouraged to hope, not only that scientific principles will ultimately be universally recognised as the regulators of all technical industry, but also as a fundamental basis of morality.3

      "It is true that some processes of manufacture have not been consequences of abstract scientific discovery – that they originally resulted from alterations made in the rudest appliances, and that they have been directed and improved by the results of simple experience. For ages past we derived the benefit of scientific principles without a knowledge of their existence. We trod in the beaten paths of experience ignorant of the truth that we were acting in unison with fixed and certain laws. Numerous arts and processes were in extensive operation long before the principles involved in them were at all understood. The arts of enamelling and of iron smelting were known hundreds of years before we were acquainted with the principles of chemistry. In some rare instances also the recorded results of daily experience in practical matters, tabulated and studied, have ultimately led to the discovery of scientific laws; but all this is merely the making use of our ordinary experience for the advancement of knowledge, instead of making special experiments for the purpose."

      Many of our processes and manufactures, those of glass and copper for example, are of such great antiquity, it is impossible to ascertain with certainty the special circumstances under which they originated; but after we have fully considered the ways in which various modern trades and manufactures have first arisen, we shall come to the conclusion that all manufactures and improvements in manufacturing processes, must have been first produced by the same general means, viz., new observations, although the special circumstances connected with the origin of each were different.

      Let us consider German-silver and its manufacture. That substance is an alloy of copper, zinc, and nickel; it owes its peculiar whiteness or "silver-like" appearance to the latter metal, and cannot be made without it; it is certain, therefore, that by whatever means that metal or the alloy was discovered, the discovery was the origin of the German-silver manufacture, and was essential to all manufactures, processes, or appliances in which German-silver, nickel, or any of its compounds are used. Nickel was discovered by Cronstedt during the year 1751, and its compounds were chiefly investigated by English and foreign chemists. Cronstedt found it as a peculiar metal in the mineral called kupfernickel, whilst chemically examining the properties of that substance. The general method by which he discovered it was careful experiment, observation, and study of the properties of matter.

      It is stated that the Chinese and other nations made alloys of nickel long before nickel itself was known to be a distinct metal; they had found, by experiment, that when ores of copper and zinc were mixed with a particular kind of mineral and smelted, a white alloy was obtained; but this also proves the general statement already made, that the German-silver manufacture was originated by means of new observations. It was by a more skilful, but similar mode of procedure that Cronstedt isolated the metal itself, and thus laid a definite basis of improvements in the manufacture of its alloys.

      No art is probably more antique, or remained longer exempt from the influence of science, than that of match making and obtaining a light. Many adult persons can remember the primitive and old-fashioned tinder-box, which had passed, with its flint and steel, from one generation to another without any material improvement. Phosphorus, it is true, was definitely discovered at least as early as the year 1669, but it was not applied to match making till about 1833. Since then the progress of invention has been so rapid that there are now numerous manufactories which produce many millions per day of phosphorus matches; for instance, those of M. Pollak, at Vienna, and of M. Fürth, in Bohemia, consume together more than 20 tons of phosphorus annually, and give employment to about 6,000 persons, and as one pound of phosphorus suffices for about one million German matches (or 600,000 English ones), those two makers alone produce the astonishing number of 44,800 millions of matches yearly.

      Judging by means of the experience already acquired, we cannot reasonably expect that discoveries fraught with such momentous consequences as those of magnetism or of galvanism and electro-magnetism, will be made very often. The progress of scientific discovery is gradual; we have at present but mere glimpses of the new world of truth which is being revealed to us by means of research; we are only at the very commencement of a knowledge of the inherent properties of matter and its forces, and consequently the methods we employ to utilize them are extremely imperfect. Matter has a general property of subdividing and transmuting forces; if we apply one force to a substance or machine, it produces many effects, not only those we want, but those also we do not want; when we heat a piece of iron, the heat produces a number of changes, mechanical, electric, magnetic, and chemical, and it is partly by means of what is termed the "internal resistance" of bodies that these effects are produced, and we know but little of that property. The explosive action in a gas engine produces not only the mechanical force we desire, but also a quantity of heat we do not want, and at a cost of a portion of the gas. In a similar manner, in the steam-engine the largest portion of the heat of the coal is converted into forces which are lost; a large amount of it is uselessly expended in warming the machine itself and the surrounding atmosphere; much also is lost by friction.

      That "knowledge is power" is an old maxim, but that new knowledge is new power is a new maxim which scientific discovery has impressed upon us. By means of discoveries we have acquired new powers; by those of electricity we have acquired the ability of conversing with each other at unlimited distances, and by means of those in optics we are enabled to analyse the composition, and perceive some of the physical changes of the most distant heavenly bodies. As our ignorance is probably much greater than our knowledge, more inventions also, and extensions of human power, must ultimately result from discovering new qualities of bodies, than by applying to useful purposes their already known properties.

      Experience in science has already shown that it is by means of invention based upon new discoveries that the greatest utilities are obtained, rather than by the exercise of invention upon knowledge acquired long ago. The information obtained by research in former times has been largely exhausted for the purposes of invention by modern inventors, and what we very greatly require now is new knowledge. Experience in science also leads us to believe that the extent of possible discovery is as boundless as Nature, and that an immense amount of new knowledge may yet be discovered. Every discoverer of repute could supply a copious list of investigations yet to be made.

      An infinite number of questions in pure science remain to be decided by means of research. Is Electricity decomposible like radiant heat or light? Are the "elementary substances" really compound bodies? Are they all compounds of Hydrogen? Are they all decomposed by very high temperatures, as compound substances are "disassociated" by less elevated temperatures? Under what conditions is Fluorine isolated? Do gases transmit heat by conduction? Under what circumstances is Light converted into Electricity? and into Magnetism? What is the actual size of an atom of Hydrogen? Does Light (without heat) expand bodies? What is the actual molecular arrangement of the atoms of Hydrogen at 60 Fahrenheit? What is the cause of the absence of metalloids in the Sun? What are the properties of Fluorine? What is the vapour density of Cæsium? Under what circumstances is heat wholly converted into mechanical power? &c., &c. All these discoveries when made, will probably, sooner or later, be productive of practical benefits to mankind.

      Nearly every manufacturer in this country is deriving, from scientific discoveries, advantages for which there has been little or no payment made to the discoverers. The makers of coal-tar-dyes, and dyers of wool and

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