HOW TO PROMOTE SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY 413 



of discovery with or without such inducements. What 

 such a man (and he is the only sort of man who matters) 

 really requires, and should find open to him, is an assured 

 career. This must take the form in the first place of a 

 smaller post as assistant to a great discoverer, tenable 

 for twenty years if need be, and subsequently a life post, 

 with laboratory and assistants, when he has proved his 

 possession of the discoverer's quality. Hence it is that 

 what the benevolent millionaire who wishes to promote 

 scientific discovery should do is to provide life posts, 

 " professorships " or " directorships," for the really great 

 discoverers, who exist often in cramped conditions. They 

 should be of the value of ^1500 to ;^3000 a year — not 

 too large a stipend in view of the incomes earned by 

 successful professional men and assigned by Government 

 to judges, bishops, colonial governors, senior civil servants, 

 and politicians — with two or three assistantships of ^i 50 

 to ;^500 a year attached, to be filled up by nominations 

 made by the professor himself as vacancies occur. A 

 sum of ^7500 a year, that which Mr, Otto Beit has so 

 generously given, would pay for one professor, with three 

 assistants, attendants, and interest on building and main- 

 tenance fund. Of course, if such a sum were offered to 

 an existing institution where buildings and other con- 

 veniences are already provided, two research professors 

 and their assistants could be paid for where one only 

 would be possible if building and service had to be 

 provided. There are buildings and laboratories in 

 London and elsewhere provided by beneficent founders 

 without stipends for directors and assistants, and there 

 are already a good many young graduates drawing ter- 

 minable inadequate stipends in succession to one another 

 from great foundations. The difficulty is to bring about 

 the combination of adequate funds for the chief and for 

 the graduated minor posts, and for a well-equipped 



