362 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



original work involves a pecuniary sacrifice, and the temptation must, 

 in some instances, be strong to withdraw entirely, or for long inter- 

 vals, from the real work of scientific research even if this may not 

 become, in many cases, an absolute duty. 



Another source of remuneration for scientific workers depends on 

 the value of scientific knowledge in certain departments of commer- 

 cial enterprise. This means of support, however, though large in in- 

 dividual instances, is so limited in scientific range, that we need not 

 stop to consider it in connection with the general question of support 

 from workers in science. As Mr. Appleton justly remarks, "this 

 source of maintenance is not only the exclusive privilege of physical 

 science, but almost the exclusive privilege of one of the physical 

 sciences. There is no commercial career open for a biologist, for in- 

 stance ; and the existence of a commercial career and frequently a 

 very lucrative one for the chemist has the eflect of starving all the 

 other sciences for the benefit of one of them. One of our foremost 

 teachers of biology complained to me not long ago that he was com- 

 pelled to advise his best pupils, who were desirous of devoting them- 

 selves to a life of research, to give up their own study, and enter upon 

 tliat of chemistry, as there was no prospect of a career for them in 

 any thing else." 



I have not spoken thus far of salaried ofiices which are apparently 

 scientific but in reality involve continuous labor not tending greatly 

 to the advancement of pure science. Such, for example, in astronomy, 

 are the various ofiices, ruling as well as subordinate, in our great 

 government observatories. The details of observatory-work are not, 

 properly speaking, scientific. They involve, no doubt, the continuous 

 apj)lication of scientific principles, but no such processes as are likely 

 to lead to discoveries in science. The ordinary notion, for instance, 

 that the large telescopes of our national observatories are employed 

 in advancing our knowledge of astronomy, is altogether erroneous, as 

 any one will perceive who examines the records of the work done in 

 those observatories. All the original researches eflfected at Green- 

 wich, since Flamsteed's time, would together form little more than a 

 fair life's work for a single zealous student of astronomy, and would 

 be incomparably surpassed in scientific interest by the work of either 

 of the Herschels. The object for which government observatories are 

 erected, in fact, precludes almost entirely the pursuit of original re- 

 searches. The observations of the moon, for instance, which have 

 formed so important a part of the work accomplished at Greenwich 

 since Flamsteed's time, were not intended to add to our information 

 about the physics of astronomy, though, of course, they have done so 

 in a remarkable degree, studied as they have been by mathematicians 

 (mostly outside Greenwich) from Xewton downward. Their ostensible 

 object was the improvement of navigation ; and almost every obser- 

 vation made at Greenwich, until quite recently, was directed either to 



