600 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



even of the highest posts receive a salary touching or exceeding 

 ;£i,ooo a year; and in nearly all cases the pensions are con- 

 tributory and are of a very small amount — retirement being 

 often compulsory at the age of 60 or 65 years. Progressive 

 rises of pay are also seldom provided for ; so that a man who 

 obtains an appointment when comparatively young can seldom 

 hope for any increase during the rest of his life. Lastly, pay- 

 ment is laid down at many universities according to a flat rate, 

 or according to fixed endowments which depend upon the 

 funds originally allotted — so that no provision is made for re- 

 taining specially good men. In some cases holders of fully 

 paid appointments are able to increase their emoluments by 

 outside work. Many medical professorships are quite unpaid. 



The rates of pay must be judged by the locality in which 

 they are given. Thus £y$o in South Africa is worth very 

 much less than that sum in Britain, the cost of living being 

 perhaps twice as great. A correspondent from Canada remarks 

 that a salary of £800 a year in England is equivalent only to 

 about £600 a year there, and is not sufficient for a professor. 

 " A member of a learned community," he says, " cannot live 

 in a back street like a labourer, and if he takes an unfurnished 

 house in a good locality here the rent will be about a quarter 

 of his income. . . . The smallness of income results, in my 

 case, in my being unable to buy books, subscribe to scientific 

 journals, or join all the learned societies I ought, or to travel 

 to see other universities." Similar complaints are made from 

 elsewhere; and the conditions in Britain are notorious. 



Of course, very junior posts are generally financed by 

 scholarships ; and are naturally not highly paid because the 

 holders are young men who are, practically, being apprenticed 

 to their labours. The senior posts are those which must be 

 considered in drawing any comparison between the pa}^ment 

 for scientific work and other lines of effort ; and even in this 

 respect other conditions besides the payment must be taken 

 into account. On the whole, however, such comparison leads 

 to a very unfavourable conclusion regarding the present pay- 

 ment of scientific workers in Britain. It is bad, compared even 

 with the Church. In middle posts, the salaries may be slightly 

 higher ; but in academical life the incumbents are obliged to 

 live in towns and are rarely provided with housing. The 

 highest appointments open in science certainly seem to be 



