10 Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute 



"It is true that a similar dearth obtains in the United States and 

 Great Britain. Again and again have the British and American Re- 

 search Councils referred to this scarcity and they are promoting measures 

 which will, in the end, meet the situation to a certain degree. At present, 

 what difficulties they encounter are shown in an extract of a letter 

 addressed by the Chairman of the National Research Council of the 

 United States, Professor H. A. Bumstead, to the Chairman of the 

 Canadian Research Council, which is as follows: 



'"The difficulty of getting properly qualified research men, which 

 you refer to in the last paragraph of your letter, is as conspicuous in the 

 United States as you say it is in Canada. Money, apparatus and 

 laboratories are easier to get than men. Almost everybody recognizes 

 this, including men in the industries who have had some experience of 

 the methods and results of research. Our Council has this problem very 

 seriously in mind and we have some plans under consideration for 

 attempting to capture a larger number of promising undergraduates in 

 our universities. It is, however, exceedingly difficult to say whether or 

 not much can be done in this way. When all is said and done, material 

 returns for scientific research are so much less than for business that it 

 is not easy to persuade young men to enter upon it as a career. The 

 recent campaign for increased salaries for professors has accentuated 

 the feeling among the people of the country that science and teaching 

 are poverty-stricken professions; this increases the reluctance of parents 

 to allow their sons to go into them. I had two instances of this in my 

 own classes last year. It is, I think, one of the directions in which it is 

 most necessary that missionary work should be done.'" 



"In Canada the difficulty of promoting the development of scientific 

 researchers is, in one respect, greater than it is in the United States and 

 Great Britain. Our universities are young. They have inadequate 

 endowments and they cannot provide the Studentships and Fellowships 

 necessary which will permit young graduates in science to train for a 

 career in research. They also have not sufficient staffs in science and 

 adequate accommodation to train all the students required. Further, 

 the energies of these universities have been expended in providing the 

 instruction to students to qualify for the ordinary degrees. The degree 

 of Doctor of Philosophy, which postulates on the part of the recipient 

 a training in the methods of research, has been awarded to less than 

 forty students of science in the whole Dominion in the last twenty years, 

 and yet the Alumni of these universities, it is estimated exceed 30,000 in 

 number. The lure of the American universities offering a very con- 

 siderable number of Studentships and Fellowships has attracted Canadian 

 students of ability to them for the training in research which such 



