i2 4 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



I quite agree with Mr. Wells that little practical comes out of such essays. 

 We all know that science is great : but the man of science — that is another 

 matter. The neglect of science is due to the man of science himself, first because 

 he does not know what he wants, secondly because he has no backbone, and 

 thirdly because he is too jealous to follow leaders — witness the doctors and the 

 Insurance Bill. The main function of the man of science is, not to teach or write 

 text-books, but to make discovery. There is only one way to encourage science — 

 to encourage discovery. There is only one way to encourage discovery — to pay 

 for it. As a rule (in spite of claptrap to the contrary) smart men will not under- 

 take the hazard of discovery-hunting unless they know that they will gain something 

 by it if they succeed. At present the man of science loses even when successful — 

 except in a very few lines. If he succeeds he gives the world a great gift, but in 

 return he receives — say a professorship worth ,£600 a year, with the privilege of 

 subscribing to a small pension due at the age of sixty or sixty-five. The man of 

 science therefore remains a helot all his life — and deserves to. The few academical 

 prizes available are usually obtained by men of quite another type. 



The national attitude in this matter was well illustrated at a meeting held at 

 the Royal Society of Arts on March 27, apparently to stimulate the enlistment of 

 doctors into the Indian Medical Service — Mr. Austen Chamberlain, Secretary 

 of State for India, presiding. It was suggested that doctors should go to India 

 because of the unparalleled opportunities for medical research there. I can speak 

 from experience as to this, because I entered the Indian Medical Service myself in 

 188 1, and carried out investigations on malaria from 1890-99, mostly in my leisure 

 and at my own cost. The subject was of some minor importance, because 

 malaria has been officially estimated to kill at least 1,300,000 persons annually in 

 India alone, and my researches have been supposed to be of value, because I 

 obtained a Nobel Prize for them in 1902. Yet I have never received for them the 

 smallest thanks, promotion, or reward from the Government of India. 1 Some 

 years ago, in order to bring matters to a point, I asked it for a small increase of 

 pension which is sometimes given for good service — it was refused. Since I left 

 India, I have been ten times to the tropics on professional malaria work for the 

 British Empire, but was paid only on three of these occasions, and then less than 

 a surgeon or a barrister often charges for a single case ; yet when I asked the 

 Colonial Office, in consequence of a resolution of the British Science Guild, to pay 

 me a small fee for expert advice on two committees, it refused me (see SCIENCE 

 PROGRESS, July 1916); and when I petitioned Parliament for payment, the Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer refused to deal with the petition, though it was perfectly 

 sound and legal (see Science Progress, October 191 5). Fortunately for me 

 such childish ingratitude is of little consequence to myself ; but it is of consequence 

 for science, for the suffering sick, and for the Empire which is incompetent enough 

 to allow it. I fear that India will long have to go begging both for its doctors and 

 for a knowledge of the best way to prevent or cure its diseases. And the cause of 

 this is a perfectly natural one and obvious to all. 



To see the matter in its true light we must remember that the Indian and the 

 Home Governments already spend large sums annually in the form of pensions 

 and additional pay to judges, civilians, and various types of politicians whose 

 services to the State are not one-thousandth part of the value even of a minor 

 scientific discovery — let us say in medicine. For example, the recently discovered 

 method of treating dysentery by emetine is a far greater boon to the people of 



1 Nor have I ever been consulted by it regarding the application of my 

 researches to the saving of life. 



