204 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



right of compensated removal upon failure of function. Tem- 

 porary professorships are becoming an abuse, inasmuch as they 

 are really something of a pretence on the part of a university 

 that it has a larger staff of professors than it really possesses, 

 and also because the name tends to deceive candidates as to the 

 nature of the appointments. 



One notes with regret how seldom in British administration 

 the most important investigations lead to the highest appoint- 

 ments. Thus many professorships are given, not so much for 

 discoveries made, as for the compilation of successful textbooks, 

 or even for attendance on committees or for good after-dinner 

 speaking! At least, there is some general feeling that this is 

 the case, though, of course, proof is always difficult — and the 

 same charge lies with regard to the very highest university 

 posts open to workers in science and art. Genius and achieve- 

 ment seem to have small claims on election committees in com- 

 parison with the less important arts of life ; and many cases are 

 known in which men who have actually made a new line of 

 work have been excluded in favour of some nobody who never 

 has done and never will do anything at all. Undoubtedly, 

 here, a spirit of jealousy often enters into the election — especially 

 when the electors themselves have been chosen rather by 

 personal influence than according to achievement ; and this 

 adds one more reason to the contention that the State should 

 strictly supervise such matters in future. The same defect, 

 however, is apparent outside university life, and even in many 

 Government appointments — in which the selections sometimes 

 made fill experts with amazement. It is of course impossible 

 to furnish instances without giving offence ; but such instances 

 are much too clear and common. Large scientific departments 

 of Government have been known to be directed for 3 T ears by 

 series of men not one of whom has really ever shown distinction 

 in scientific work; and, indeed, it is often declared that scientific 

 ability is a direct impediment to advancement. This appears 

 to be based upon the absurd pretence that a man of scientific 

 ability is not good at administration. The truth is that if 

 a man is capable of doing high scientific work he is almost 

 certainly capable of the much easier arts of administration ; and 

 the case is rather that authorities do not find men of distinction 

 to be sufficiently subservient to them and their frequently 

 out-of-date notions. Achievement is put upon one side, and 



