June 8, 1 8 76 J 



NATURE 



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has r.o scope for discussion in this matter ; he must bow 

 before the inexorable domination of an impulse planted 

 in the very elements of our being. The importance to 

 the community of mature study and scientific research 

 has been recognised in the past both in our ovvn and 

 ether countries ; at the present day it is very much less 

 appreciated in England than elsewhere. The immense 

 fields which He open to us, with their harvest of know- 

 ledge waiting for reapers, are to some extent indicated in 

 the essays by Mr. Dyer, " On the Needs of Biology," Mr. 

 Cheyne, " On the Study of the Bible," of Mr. Sayce, " On 

 the Needs of the Historical Sciences." Over and over 

 again it will be necessary to explain, as these essays do, 

 how great and of what kind are the stores of knowledge 

 which students see within their grasp, and how dlfificult 

 and all-absorbing is the task of reaching them. It is the 

 duty of men of science incessantly to exert themselves in 

 inducing the great public, even though this generation 

 and its successor prove stiff-necked and hardened in 

 heart, to believe their report of the promised land. 



2. Granting that " scientific research " is a good thing 

 and to be wished for as the highest development of the 

 life of the community, why should it be endowed .? Why 

 should persons be supported by public funds to carry on 

 research ? Why not leave every man to follow research 

 for his own delectation, and trust to the attractions which 

 it possesses for its increased cultivation ? 



Because it cannot be successfully carried on, in the 

 present conditions of society, by men who have to earn 

 their bread in any of the usual avocations. Mr. Sorby, in 

 hfs " Personal Experience " (Essay No. VI.), with con- 

 vincing simplicity and candour, tells us how all absorbing 

 is research, how much may be lost by withdrawing the 

 man who is engaged in an investigation, even intermit- 

 tently, from his pursuit, how necessary is ample time 

 freedom from anxiety, health of body, " readiness of the 

 mind to take advantage of every circumstance that may 

 occur to press forward the inquiry in the line of truth." 

 Fortunately Mr. Sorby is endowed with a patrimony, and 

 he says, " I never could have done what I have been able 

 to do if it had been necessary for me to attend to any 

 business or profession as a means of support." Men who 

 are capable of or disposed to engage in scientific research 

 are not always thus situated. Unless we are prepared to 

 lose the services which these persons might render — some 

 of them perhaps the very ablest and most productive minds 

 — and to rest our hopes on the chance coincidence of 

 fortune and ability, as for instance in the cases of JLyell, 

 Darwin, and Grote, we must accept a scheme for pro- 

 viding such persons with pecuniary support out of public 

 funds. To a certain extent we already do this, but very 

 inadequately. The posts in the British Museum, the 

 Greenwich Observatory, and a few others here and there, 

 are of the nature of endowments for research. But these 

 are so few in number and so meanly paid that they can- 

 not be regarded as exercising any important influence in 

 attracting men of ability into the career of research. 

 Among Continental nations but especially in the Ger- 

 man empire, in proportion to the wealth of the countries 

 in question, very much larger provision is made for 

 the encouragement of research— and with the most 

 perfect success, as tested by results. In Germany, 

 owing to the special view which is taken in that 



country of a " University," there are 1,250 posts de- 

 signed for the. promotion of research with stipends 

 varying in value from 80/. to 600/. a year. There is one 

 such post to every 33,000 of the entire population, or to 

 every 1,600 males between the ages of twenty and 

 thirty years. The total cost of the support of these per- 

 sons and the laboratories, libraries, &c., with which they 

 are connected (leaving out of consideration such special 

 institutions as are the exact counterparts of our British 

 Museum, observatory, &c.) cannot be less than 600^000/. 

 annually. An equivalent provision in England would 

 necessitate the creation of 1,000 posts at an annual ex- 

 pense of 800,000/., making allowance for the fact that 

 money has at least double the value in Germany which it 

 possesses in England, in relation to the purpose under con- 

 sideration. It is curious to observe that this sum (800,000/.) 

 corresponds very closely with the estimated value of the 

 incomes of the ancient University institutions of Oxford 

 and Cambridge — where, however, the money is not applied 

 to the endowment of research. 



3. The reference to Universities and to Oxford and 

 Cambridge brings to mind a suggestion which at first 

 sight appears admirable. " Granted that research must 

 be endowed, there is yet great difficulty in persuading 

 practical men to pay for it in the pure and unalloyed 

 form. It can only be a pleasure to the investigator to 

 communicate to pupils the results which he obtains in 

 his researches, clearly it is his natural function to teach. 

 In fact you have already got what you want in the Fellow- 

 ships of Oxford and Cambridge, many of the holders of 

 which reside in those Universities and teach — and doubt- 

 less spend a large portion of their time in research. 

 Abolish the non-resident Fellowships, remove the immoral 

 condition of celibacy, give two or three Fellowships to 

 the men who stay longest in the place, require them all 

 to teach at a cheap rate (this will be well received by the 

 public) and you may be sure that they will devote all 

 needful energy to original research — is not your demr.nd 

 for the endowment of research hberally met in this way ? " 

 Certainly not. 



The deadly error embodied in the above bids fair at the 

 present moment to destroy the good hope which we at 

 one time possessed of seeing at Oxford at any rate (it is 

 from Cambridge that the mischief has come) a portion of 

 collegiate endowments applied to the support of research. 

 The chief care of the Oxford men who write in Dr. 

 Appleton's volume is to combat the insidious doctrine that 

 research is compatible with teaching, in the narrow sense 

 in which teaching is understood in Universities which 

 like Oxford and Cambridge are carried on upon the plan 

 originated by and worthy of the Jesuits (see Pattison, 

 Essay No. i), viz., that in which competition by exami- 

 nation for prizes formsj the pivot of all activity. The 

 watchwords of the German Universities " Lehrfreiheit " 

 and " Lernfreiheit," are (save to a very few) unknown, 

 the idea which they express equally so, in this country. 



The suggestion that teaching and research should go 

 hand in hand appears at first sight admirable, because 

 there can be no doubt that in the wider and higher sense 

 of the word "teaching," the investigator is and must be 

 a teacher. In the German Universities it is a small tax 

 Hpon the professor or holder of a research endowment to 

 give a course of lectures upon the subject with the study 



