492 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



famous toast that was drunk at one of the older institutions to celebrate a new 

 discovery in science, " May the discoverer flourish, and may his discovery never 

 be of use to any one," is a relic of a bygone but by no means distant past. There 

 are, in fact, many in our modern seats of learning who, while they will not admit 

 fully their point of view, are strongly averse from University study becoming in 

 any degree mixed up with practical problems ; they think that the function of a 

 University is to promote pure learning, without admitting that the learning may 

 be pure when it is in intimate admixture with the practice of science. That 

 opinion is in process of decay (a decay which has become more rapid since the 

 war), and which it is hoped may soon be as extinct as the dodo. As long as it 

 prevails, the full use of our best brains in industrial science is impossible. The 

 pamphlet just published by Sir Richard Glazebrook on Science a?id Industry : the 

 Place of Cambridge in any Scheme for their Combination, lays stress on this 

 point. " A distinction is often drawn nowadays between pure science and 

 industrial science. I saw somewhere the other day a protest against the using 

 of the latter term. Science is one, and industrial science, so called, is the 

 application of the discoveries of pure science to the problems of industry." 



There is, however, no general consensus of opinion as regards the contention 

 in Sir Richard Glazebrooks pamphlet, that the National Physical Laboratory 

 is the natural, and one might almost say, the only bridge between Science 

 and Industry. A research worker attached to an Institution like the National 

 Physical Laboratory, which carries on an enormous amount of routine testing, is 

 hardly in as good a position for carrying out industrial research as colleges and 

 Universities, where fellows and research students, who can devote the whole of 

 their time to the solution of a problem, can work at leasure and consult with experts 

 in all branches of science that may be related to the difficulty they have to solve. 

 There are, undoubtedly, types of investigation for which the National Physical 

 Laboratory, both by the nature of its equipment and its personnel, is peculiarly fitted, 

 but colleges and Universities which are so fortunate as to be placed near great 

 centres of industry, and in which the staff of the University departments is in close 

 and intimate touch with the works, would seem to be the best places (in the 

 absence of institutions devoted solely to industrial research) that can be found, 

 for carrying out work on problems of local importance. It is the hope of many of 

 those connected with many of our newer Universities that this work will develop 

 and grow to the mutual benefit of the Universities and the manufacturers. 



The war has already made a great change in the relations between the 

 Universities and industrial firms. The university professors have not taken up, 

 as a rule, the purely " academic " standpoint, and have recognised that, interesting 

 as "academic" science may be to them and their students, it is the practical 

 application of science that'is of immediate importance to the bulk of the people, and 

 which has an increasing value for industry. The manufacturer, in many cases, has 

 come to recognise that the professor, when a practical problem is put before him, 

 may be able to obtain a solution which will enable the manufacturer to increase 

 the efficiency of his factory and diminish the risks involved in the manufacturing 

 processes. This spirit of mutual co-operation is one which should be encouraged 

 and stimulated in every possible way. It will lead to closer relations between the 

 professors and students and those who are subsequently to employ them, and the 

 professor, from his more extended practical knowledge of manufacturing con- 

 ditions, will be able to recommend men who will be of real value at once to the 

 manufacturer. It is to be hoped, also, that when industrial undertakings realise 

 more fully the importance of technical knowledge, they will seek to attract a 



