5 o6 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



I must agree that this is disappointing, because I am perfectly convinced that 

 much the best and most economical way of encouragingreally important scientific 

 investigations is for the country to pay the worker after he has actually achieved 

 results — much better than to pay workers prospectively for what they are going to 

 do but what they will probably never succeed in doing. This point is really the 

 centre of the whole idea of State encouragement of research, and I am sorry that 

 it was ignored in Lord Crewe's otherwise excellent scheme. The plain truth is, as 

 we have pointed out in Science Progress over and over again, that numbers of 

 the best minds are excluded entirely from undertaking research of any real value 

 by the fact that even when it is successful it brings them no remuneration for their 

 loss of time or money, thus forcing them to sacrifice either their scientific ability 

 or their children and themselves. As pointed out elsewhere in this number, it is 

 only a form of scientific snobbery that leads persons to pretend that remuneration 

 for their work is of no consequence to themselves. Thus, I will venture to 

 prophesy that Lord Crewe's scheme as it stands at present will scarcely reach the 

 object at which it is aimed, and the country will be paying, not for great researches, 

 but for an infinite amount of petty soil-scratching and pot-boiler work, such as that 

 which now fills most of our scientific publications. I would beg the newly 

 appointed Department to take this matter into its earnest consideration. 



Another address of great importance upon this subject, which I am sorry I 

 have no space to deal with in this number, was that given by Dr. R. T. Glaze- 

 brook, C.B., F.R.S., Director of the National Physical Laboratory, to the 

 Birmingham and Midland Institute on December 4th. Dr. Glazebrook dealt 

 largely with the valuable work of the National Physical Laboratory during the 

 past ten or fifteen years. He complained that the payments of the workers were 

 not sufficient to keep them at the laboratory, and showed how much more the 

 Americans and Germans pay for their similar institutions. We may all express 

 the hope that Lord Crewe's scheme will be of great advantage to this invaluable 

 institution. 



The scandals revealed in the trials before Mr. Justice Low in September 

 suggest that a large amount of corruption, still exists in this country in spite of the 

 war ; and those who are acquainted with British administration have long had 

 little doubt of its prevalence. Direct bribery is perhaps not very common among 

 the more educated people, but nepotism, favouritism, good-will, and every form of 

 what is almost the same thing are probably very prevalent. Apart from this 

 however, feeble and lax administration leads to much the same results. The 

 . revelation made by Prof. Soddy in this number of Science Progress as 

 regards the Carnegie Gift for Science to the Scottish Universities provides a case 

 in point. We do not suppose that there is anything like corruption here, but still 

 the money appears to be leaking away from the coffer in which it was originally 

 intended to be placed. In my opinion no reform will be made in this matter until 

 our administration becomes much more draconian. The remedy suggested by 

 Lord Cromer was merely that salaries shall be increased to remove temptation. 

 Perhaps so ; but at the same time strict punishment should be meted out for 

 all forms of jobbery and intriguing, and the whole wink-and-vote system which 

 seems to govern us so largely to-day. 



As regards science, one of the most urgent reforms required is a root-and- 

 branch reform of our antiquated learned societies. For years past many of these 

 bodies have been useful only for the publication of papers, and do little either for 

 science in general or for science in education or for the workers at science, while 

 they seem often to be "run" by a few individuals, while the body of members 



