LVI ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
States have increased from eight, in 1850, to 399 in 1875, and to about 
6,000 in 1902. We must conclude from these figures, I think, either 
that the national mind discerns some ultimate advantage in the 
cultivation of abstract science, or that, for once, it has been mysteri- 
ously diverted from the pursuit of the “main chance.” It is surely 
significant that a practical philanthropist like Mr. Carnegie has re- 
cently bestowed the magnificent endowment of $10,000,000 for the 
establishment of an institution to be devoted solely to the promotion 
of research. 
As to the ultimate scientific value of what has already been 
accomplished in the way of research under the influence of this recent 
movement, there is room for a qualifying remark. It must be remem- 
bered that much of the graduate work referred to does not mean 
actual research, the course for the Ph.D. in many cases being no higher 
than the honour B.A. course with us. What is required to remedy 
this unsatisfactory condition is that the Ph.D. be given only on the 
German plan, and that the main test therefor, a research, be pub- 
lished. When this condition becomes absolute there will be material 
for the world’s judgment as to the amount and quality of the con- 
tribution to the advancement of knowledge. 
Organized research in Canadian universities, as a definite system, 
can scarcely be said to exist as yet, although within the last decade 
certain beginnings have been made which indicate a movement in 
that direction. Canada, like the United States, has derived its uni- 
versity ideals from Great Britain. Some of the original faculties of 
our universities were a transplantation, so to speak, of groups of 
scholars from Britain, who brought with them intact the traditions 
in which they themselves had been nurtured, so that we received by 
direct importation scarcely more than fifty years ago a system which 
in the United States had been developing in its own way since the 
founding of Harvard in 1636. I cannot better illustrate the attitude 
towards research of many of these academic pioneers than by quoting 
the remark made by an English professor — himself a classical 
scholar — on an occasion so comparatively recent as the establish- 
ment of the physical laboratory in the University of Toronto. “ Why 
go to the expense,” said he, “ of purchasing this elaborate equipment 
until the physicists have made an end of making discoveries ? ” 
In the interval the idea of research has made gratifying progress 
among the well-informed. Probably few scholars could now be found 
in Canada who would put their objections so naively as my classical 
friend. This progress has come in part from a natural process of 
evolution within ourselves, and in part also from external influences, 
notably that of Germany and the United States. Many of our gradu- 
