358 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



are light, and where therefore it is to be understood that those ap- 

 pointed are expected to devote themselves to original scientific re- 

 search. Where heavy duties are attached to offices of this kind, sci- 

 entific research is necessarily checked. We have an example of this 

 in some professorships in America, the holders of which are compelled 

 to devote so much time to the routine of class-work, that they are 

 barely able even to keep themselves abreast of the scientific work of 

 the day. But in Great Britain there are several offices which would 

 seem to have been specially designed to aiford means and leisure for 

 original scientific research. Yet, if we consider the total number of 

 men holding such offices, their abilities, and their opportunities, we 

 must admit that the results they achieve are not collectively so great 

 as might be expected. In certain instances, indeed, it would almost 

 seem as though election to these well-paid offices had been the sole 

 end and aim of work seemingly undertaken from pure love of science, 

 so thoroughly has original research ceased, or become unfruitful, when 

 the desired post has been secured. We must not close our eyes to 

 this fact, nor suffer the zeal and energy of the few to blind us to the 

 negligence of many who hold such offices. The point is one which 

 would have to be carefully considered in any scheme for the endow- 

 ment of research. If physical research is ever to be freely endowed, 

 some plan would have to be adopted to obtain honest and faithful 

 workers not men who would regard scientific discoveries only as a 

 means of securing salaried idleness. 



But most of the salaried offices at present open to science-workers 

 have heavy, or at least wearisome, duties attaclied to them. A pro- 

 fessor of science who has to attend daily in the class-room, to con- 

 sider how to make clear to dull minds matters altogether familiar to 

 him, to prepare or emend text-books, and to take also his share in the 

 control of large bodies of young men, cannot possibly give any great 

 portion of his energies to original research, " In a few cases," as 

 Mr. Appleton remarks, in the paper from which I have already quoted, 

 " a little research can be done ; in the majority of probably the best 

 instances, all that is possible to the teacher is to keep himself 

 abreast of that which is being accomplished by others; in too many, 

 it is to be feared that even this is rendered impracticable by the exi- 

 gencies of continual publicity," This publicity, indeed, must be of 

 all others the most annoying hindrance to scientific research, I say 

 must 5e, because my own course of life (except for occasional short 

 intervals, at my own choice and under my own control) has been so 

 completely that of the recluse, that I can only imagine the efiects of 

 a continued slavery to "the exigencies of jiublicity," Yet I have 

 seen enough to feel assured that what Mr, Appleton describes as "the 

 available store of nervous power" must be drawn upon far too large- 

 ly, in most instances, to leave much energy for original research. 



There remains, so far as the association of science and education is 



