In recognition of the services rendered on this committee, Roscoe was elected, in 1891, a member of the Royal Commission, and five years afterwards, in 1896, he became a member of the Board of Management, and at the same time succeeded Lord Playfair as Chairman of the Scholarships’ Committee.
As Chairman, the control and direction of the Committee’s work was very largely in his hands, and the care he devoted to every detail of the scholarship work undoubtedly contributed to the successful operation of the scheme.
But there was something more to value (says Mr. Evelyn Shaw, who contributes the above particulars) than the part he played in the proceedings of the Committee. The charm and sympathy of his personality were felt by so many scholars who had occasion to consult him upon their work, and who often afterwards remembered and were grateful for some kind and helpful advice. He never failed to watch with interest the careers of past scholars, as he regarded their record as the most convincing proof of the value of the Commissioners’ Endowment.
In 1901 he consented, on the invitation of Lord Elgin, the Chairman, to join the executive committee of the trustees appointed to carry out the administration of Mr. Andrew Carnegie’s munificent gift to the Scottish Universities for the benefit of scientific education; and he assisted in the inauguration of a system of Carnegie Scholarships and Fellowships for the encouragement of original investigation, resembling that of the Royal Commissioners of the 1851 Exhibition.
Roscoe acted as chief examiner in chemistry of the Science and Art Department in succession to the late Sir Edward Frankland, but resigned the appointment on his election to Parliament. He took a great interest in the aims of the department, and worked cordially with its administrative officers, especially in the abolition of the old system of “payment on results” for the elementary stage of science subjects, and in remodelling organized science schools.
The importance of properly housing the valuable science collections at South Kensington was constantly being pressed by him upon the Government. In 1909 he accompanied a strong deputation, and presented an influentially signed memorial to the Board of Education, pleading for larger and better accommodation for the unique and almost priceless exhibits of historically important objects which the museum possesses, some of which are absolutely irreplaceable. He pointed out how valuable such a collection was as an adjunct to the systematic teaching of science and technology. Each model, or piece of apparatus, or specimen of historic interest, was selected to bring into prominence underlying principles, or to illustrate various stages of industrial progress. In the temporary buildings in which the collections were placed, there was not only no room for the necessary expansion, but the objects were so crowded together that proper arrangement and inspection were impossible. What was needed was a building adequate to the proper exhibition of the present collection, and one worthy of British Science. He pointed out that one consequence of storing the collections in so haphazard and unsatisfactory a manner was that persons possessing objects of interest naturally felt indisposed to present them to the nation, and some of these when offered had to be refused through want of space. Land sufficient for the purpose was in the hands of the Government, and the Royal Commissioners for the 1851 Exhibition, so long ago as 1878, offered to contribute £100,000 towards a building for the Science Museum. Roscoe’s arguments were strongly supported by other members of the deputation, and Mr. Runciman, who was then at the Board of Education, expressed himself as convinced by their weight, and as wholly in sympathy with the object of the speakers. A gratifying result of this action is to be seen in the new buildings now in course of erection.
Roscoe’s high appreciation of Pasteur’s work as a chemist was, we may presume, the immediate cause of the great interest with which he had followed his remarkable discoveries concerning the causes and cure of chicken cholera, anthrax, and the silkworm disease—an interest quickened, no doubt, by the fact that he had made the personal acquaintance of that distinguished man as far back as the early ’sixties. He had specially informed himself of the working of the Institut Pasteur in Paris, and of the anti-rabic treatment, and had borne his share in combating the mischievous prejudices of those in this country who sought to misrepresent the character and objects of Pasteur’s work. In 1886 he had used his parliamentary influence to induce Mr. Chamberlain, who was then President of the Local Government Board, to appoint a Government Commission, consisting of the late Lord Lister, Sir James Paget, Professor Ray Lankester, and himself, with Sir Victor Horsley as secretary, to inquire and report on the efficacy of Pasteur’s treatment of hydrophobia. The Commission came to the conclusion, based upon irrefragable proof, that this treatment had been the means of saving a large number of lives that otherwise would have been sacrificed to a dreadful and torturing death. Their report induced Sir James Whitehead, when Lord Mayor of London, to call a Mansion House meeting for the purpose of raising a fund partly to defray the cost of sending poor persons, who may need treatment, to the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and partly to repay some of our indebtedness to Pasteur and his co-workers for having treated some two hundred of our countrymen gratuitously. The Royal Society requested Roscoe, with Sir James Paget and Professor Lankester, to represent them at the Lord Mayor’s meeting, and they supported the action by a formal letter from the President. Roscoe seized the opportunity of having to respond for “Science” at a Royal Academy banquet to direct further attention to the subject, and he subsequently spoke in the House of Commons of the great value of experiments on living animals in opposition to an amendment designed to impede the working of the Vivisection Acts. By memorials, popular lectures, and articles in the periodical press, he kept the subject continually before the public eye. Nor were his colleagues less active in instructing and forming public opinion. Their efforts eventually resulted in the establishment of an institute in London with aims similar to those of that in Paris. Thanks to the munificent action of Lord Iveagh, it has been housed and equipped not less worthily than its sister foundation. The London Institute of Preventive Medicine now bears the honoured name of Lord Lister, its first President.
Roscoe was its Treasurer from 1891 to 1904 and Chairman from 1904 to 1912, and again from 1914 to the time of his death. The building has now been completed at a cost of £28,000, entirely paid out of income, and there has been a gradual and considerable increase in the scientific staff and in the volume of work done. The formation of the Medical Research Committee was thought by Roscoe to affect the interests of the Institute, and he considered that it might be better to bring about a working arrangement between the two bodies. He felt that the independent existence of two such schemes of research might lead to rivalry rather than to co-operation, and that the superior resources of the Government Committee might operate to the disadvantage of the Institute. It was also thought that the addition of the resources of the Institute to those at the disposal of the Committee together with the union of the two scientific staffs would prove a great advantage to each and contribute largely to the success of both. Another more practical point was that the amalgamation scheme would remove from the Institute the burdensome necessity of having to earn money by routine diagnosis work in order to provide a sufficient income to support the scientific work, and to permit of its increase. This contemplated action gave rise to a considerable difference of opinion. As a question of policy it obviously admitted of two sides, and when the matter came up for decision the preponderating feeling was to let well alone and to allow the Institute to continue to develop along independent lines.