Reflections on the Decline of Science in England

Of the Croonian lecture.

The payment [Three pounds.] for this Lecture, like that of the preceding, is small.  It was instituted by Dr. Croone, for an annual essay on the subject of Muscular Motion.  It is a little to be regretted, that it should have been so restricted; and perhaps its founder, had he foreseen the routine into which it has dwindled, might have endeavoured to preserve it, by affording it a wider range.

By giving it to a variety of individuals, competition might have been created, and many young anatomists have been induced to direct their attention to the favourite inquiry of the founder of the Lecture; but from causes which need not here be traced, this has not been the custom—­one individual has monopolized it year after year, and it seems, like the Fairchild Lecture, rather to have been regarded as a pension.  There have, however, been some intervals; and we are still under obligations to those who have supported the system, for not appointing Sir Everard Home to read the Croonian Lecture twenty years in succession.  Had it been otherwise, we might have heard of vested rights.