22 Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute 



could write about a piece of chalk in a way to hold spell-bound any 

 normal being young or old. If we can develop or find some men or 

 women with the knowledge and gifts of expression of a Huxley or a 

 Tyndall we shall be able to bring before the young generation the kind 

 of literature that will reveal the scientific mind to itself — that will search 

 out the young Miltons of science and save them from a mute inglorious 

 end. And when they are found we must help them on the way by 

 providing encouragement and removing obstacles. Heretofore the 

 financial return to the scientific worker has been inadequate, hardly 

 sufficient for a decent livelihood. This difficulty has been met in part 

 in recent years by the creation of better paid positions in the industries 

 and in the special research laboratories, but an unfortunate characteristic 

 of this development is that it makes no provision for the training of 

 young investigators. Now as formerly the new recruits in Science are 

 educated in our universities. To make this training effective the univer- 

 sities should be officered with our best scientific talent, and unfortunately 

 there is an increasing difficulty in maintaining a high standard in this 

 respect. The salaries offered by the universities are relatively small 

 and the facilities and opportunities for research work are not usually so 

 complete as in the industrial and the special research laboratories. There 

 is a real danger therefore that our best men will be drawn away from the 

 universities, and in this way the highest development and growth of 

 research will be impeded. Another defect in the university positions 

 lies in the complexity of the duties thrust upon the professor. Frequently 

 he is overloaded with routine teaching and in addition is required to give 

 much of his time to administrative details and perhaps to outside service. 

 Work of this latter character is easy enough and pleasant enough but it 

 tends to paralyze investigation. Research requires the best of a man's 

 thoughts and much of his time. But so soon as a man arrives at some 

 eminence in his subject and is called to the headship of a department, he 

 finds that much of his time and attention must be given to business 

 details and to what Army officers call paper work. His leisure time for 

 thought and invention is taken away, and if he surrenders too completely 

 to these demands he gradually undergoes a process of deterioration. 

 There is such a thing as the unmaking as well as the making of an inves- 

 tigator; the organization of our universities at present is so constituted, 

 it seems to me, as to ofTer conditions favourable to the making of young 

 investigators, but favourable also to the unmaking of an experienced 

 investigator if he happens to be the head of a large department. 



In the industrial laboratories and the laboratories of special research 

 investigation is the principal or the sole duty — in the universities on the 

 other hand it is a secondary duty, something to be attended to between 



