634 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



How to Spend Money on Research. 



In February last the newspapers announced that Lord Atholstan had 

 offered a prize of one hundred thousand dollars for the discovery of the cure 

 of cancer, and, later, that Sir William Veno had supplemented this by an 

 additional ten thousand pounds. Shortly afterwards the Earl of Athlone 

 appealed in the Press in favour of this money being given to a special cancer 

 research which is being conducted in one of the large London Hospitals. 

 The results were that Sir William Veno changed his mind and gave his money 

 to this institution instead of offering it as an open prize ; and that Lord 

 Atholstan promised to give another hundred thousand dollars for institutional 

 cancer research, but, very wisely, maintained his original offer of the same 

 amount as a prize. 



Of course all kinds of research should be encouraged as much as possible 

 by monetary grants. All kinds are almost sure to give some results. The 

 cancer problem is an exceedingly difficult one, which has consistently foiled 

 the best workers for years. But the disease is so terrible and often so hope- 

 less that mankind should now make every possible effort to conquer it ; and 

 whether we give money in one way or another does not matter so much, as 

 long as we give it at all. Nevertheless, we think that research may be divided 

 into two kinds, namely Individualistic Research and Institutional Research, 

 and that the former is the more likely to lead to success. An immense amount 

 of institutional research on cancer is now being done everywhere — in univer- 

 sities, in laboratories, in several cancer institutions, and in hospitals. Almost 

 any promising student can set up his microscope in such places, and can even 

 obtain grants of scholarships from a number of bodies which are specially en- 

 dowed for this purpose. We do not know how many people are now working 

 in this way, and what is the total aggregate of the money which they receive 

 as salaries or use for expenses — it is probably a much greater sum than Lord 

 Atholstan has now offered for a prize — and yet progress is not so fast as we 

 could wish. We do not blame the workers — they are probably doing their 

 best. But manyof them are young men who cannot possibly afford to continue 

 in research work all their lives, and many do the work in order to obtain 

 diplomas and professorships, or merely as an occupation until they are old 

 enough to begin medical practice. On reading the history of medicine we 

 fear that this kind of work seldom leads to any final victory. Nearly all the 

 great medical discoveries have been made by men who have devoted them- 

 selves to their task in spite of professional loss, and with little chance of 

 reward even if they be successful. The world does not understand that the 

 greatest medical discoveries may ruin, and not remunerate, the discoverer. 

 Jenner's long research on vaccination destroyed his practice, and Robert Koch 

 was for a time impoverished by his labours on tuberculosis, though both were 

 rewarded later by their respective countries. We maintain that the offer of 

 large prizes for results achieved, and not the giving of small grants for results 

 expected, is the proper way to stimulate men of this kind. 



The popular idea appears to be that the man of genius is necessarily a fool 

 who must inevitably sacrifice himself in pursuit of his dreams. We do not 

 think so : many men of genius are wise enough to be turned away by the 

 prospect that their work will lead to the garret. But the meanest argument 

 we have ever heard in this connection is that, as the man of genius is compelled 

 to work by his genius, so, therefore, the world may safely utilise his labours 

 without attempting to pay him ! The most despicable form of of ingratitude, 

 both in States and in individuals, is to profit by the altruism of poor men. 



Lord Atholstan is wisely trying to remove this reproach in the case of 

 cancer research. Money offered in the form of large prizes stimulates many 

 more real workers, and rewards more really deserving men, than that which 

 is frittered away in the form of research-subsidies to a number of people who 

 will never achieve anything — verbum sapientis. 



