i 9 8 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



often obtains expert evidence or temporary expert assistance at 

 Commissions, Committees, Advisory Boards, etc., without pay- 

 ment or, sometimes, even the refunding of expenses. 



(5) Payment of compensation by the State for proved 

 pecuniary losses incurred by investigators in consequence of 

 researches which have been unremunerative to themselves but 

 of admitted benefit to the public or to Government Departments. 



(6) Payment of special rewards or pensions by the State to 

 investigators whose researches have been unremunerative to 

 themselves but of pecuniary advantage to Government Depart- 

 ments, or of general advantage to the public at large. 



(7) A higher place for science in national education. 



Of course this programme does not by any means include 

 the whole list of reforms which may be considered, but it will 

 suffice for immediate discussion ; and we will now proceed to 

 examine the items in detail. 



With regard to the first item in the programme, we have 

 already called attention (in our last April number) to the very 

 bad payment of scientific teachers and investigators in our 

 universities — and some of the cases can be described only as 

 " sweating " of the worst type. Beginning at the entry of newly 

 graduated persons into the academic arena, we should first 

 point out that the system of scholarships is really utilised as a 

 kind of bait to induce young men into these unremunerative 

 paths. A scholarship of from £150 to £250 a year may seem 

 quite generous to a young graduate ; and he commences his 

 labours without thought of the future. Later on, however, he 

 discovers that while he has been engaged upon the researches 

 required by his scholarship his fellow students who were not 

 so easily beguiled are perhaps already thriving in the practice 

 of their profession, while he himself has lost time, and is 

 behindhand in the race. As a result of this, and because he 

 does not wish to waste his scientific experience, he next 

 generally determines to devote himself to an academic career — 

 with the result that he finds himself caught in the net and con- 

 demned for the rest of his life to the poor salary of a 

 demonstrator, assistant, or lecturer, with only some possible 

 chance of obtaining ultimately a badly paid professorship. 



Regarding the actual pay of demonstrators, lecturers, and 

 professors, a good idea can be obtained by any one who troubles 



