442 



NATURE 



[August 2 2, 1878 



falsehood. And what more valuable intellectual training can 

 tiiere be than the habit of subjecting our ideas to the test of 

 inexorable experiment ? In the world outside chemistry we are, 

 alas ! too ready to take things for granted. The chemist's 

 motto is prove all things. The ancients adopted a different 

 method : they assumed certain principles and reasoned from 

 them. They therefore did little in science. 



Chemistry promotes in a remarkable manner accuracy, 

 thoroughness, and circumspection. An organic analy.-is requires 

 six weighings : if any one of these is inaccurate, the results are 

 -worthless. A qualitative test carelessly applied may cause us, in 

 a research, to waste months in the pursuit of a phantom or Will- 

 o'-the-Wisp which can have no corporeal existence. If we have 

 to employ absolute alcohol in our experiments, we must not be 

 satisfied with going through the ceremony of making it absolute, 

 but we must assure ourselves that it is absolute. Unless we are 

 sure of every step in our research, our results become doubtful, 

 and therefore of no value. 



On the circumspection, also, of the original worker large 

 demands are made. The avenues by which error may creep in 

 and vitiate his results are very numerous. These he mu^t fore- 

 seCj and endeavour to close up. Laboratory work teaches us to 

 use our senses aright, sharpens our powers of observation, and 

 prevents us from reasoning rashly from appearances. It also 

 promotes manual dexterity, and trains the hands to work in 

 subordinatioa to the head. 



Perhaps in no other science is the student so deeply impressed 

 with the order and economy of nature, the immutability of her 

 laws, and the exactness of her operations. These impressions 

 will, no doubt, in after life impart seriousness to his character, 

 and save him from the adoption of many a wild theory. 



I come now to the effect of original work on the chJfirfftcr. 

 Many virtues are necessary to the chemist — courage, r^M)fiition, 

 truthfulness, and patience. He is often obliged to perform ex- 

 periments which are attended with great danger, and no man 

 can hope to fight long with the elements without carrying away 

 many a scar. Sometimes fatal accidents occur. Many years 

 ago Mr. Ilennel, of the Apothecaries' Hall, London, lost his 

 life by the explosion of a fulminating powder which he was pre- 

 paring for the East India Company. And many of us recollect 

 the sad death of young Mr. Chapman, a distinguished chemist 

 whom I had the pleasure of knowing, who was literally blown 

 to atoms while working in the Hartz Mountains <m a new dyna- 

 mite which he had himself discovered. I must tell the ladies, 

 however, that accidents are not always so disastrous, but that 

 often one may escape with merely the loss of an eye. But the 

 chemist must not be discouraged by fear of accident, neither 

 must he be disheartened by the temporary failure of his experi- 

 ment.K, nor at the slowness of his processes. Bunsen was obliged 

 ,to evaporate forty four tons of the waters of the Diurcheim 

 springs in order to obtain 200 grains of his new metal, cassium. 

 It took Berthelot several months to form, by a series of .syn- 

 thetical operations, an appreciable quantity of alcohol from 

 .water and carbon, derived from carbonate of baryta. Many 

 years ago, in the laboratory of Wurtz — my honoured master — a 

 poor student, whom I knew, was carrying from one room to 

 another a glass globe which contained the product of a month's 

 continuous labour, when the bottom of the globe fell out, and the 

 contents were lost. Nothing daunted, he recommenced his 

 month's work, and brought his research to a successful issue. 



Above all things, the chemist must be trtie. He must not 

 allow his wishes to bias his judgment or prevent him from seeing 

 his researches in their true light. He must not be satisfied that 

 his results appear true, but he must believe them to be true ; and 

 having faithfully performed his experiments, he must record 

 them faithfully. He may often be obliged to chronicle his own 

 failures and d j-cribe operations that tell against his own theories, 

 but this hard test of his truthfiJness he must not shrink from. 



But 1 must not weary you with the .virtues of the chemist. If 

 I have succeeded in showing that the pursuit of this science tends 

 largely to develop the intellect and discipline the charactea-, I 

 think I have clone something for chemistry. We are told by 

 Bishop Butler that " habits of virtue acquired by discipHne are 

 improvement in virtue, and improvement in virtue must be 

 advancement in happine s." 



1 am glad to .ee hat the importance of original research as a 

 part of higher education is at last beginning to be recognised in 

 this country. The Koyal University Commission at Oxford has 

 recently recommended that candidates fur the higher degrees in 

 science shall in that university be requued in future to work out 



an original investigation. In Germany, where education has 

 been so long and so well understood, orii^inal work has been, for 

 at least the last half century, a sine qud non for a degree. 

 Another admirable rule exists in that country, the adoption of 

 which in Great Britain might go far to wash out the stain from 

 our islands, of not having contributed our fair quota to the 

 advancement of human knowledge. It is this — the Germans 

 make a point of securing invariably that their scientific chairs 

 shall be filled by men who have already distinguished them- 

 selves by their discoveries. The professor, on his appointment, 

 naturally desires to continue his investigations, and endeavours 

 to secure, and usually succeeds in securing, the assistance of his 

 pupils. This is a mutual advantage. The professor is able to 

 do more work for science, and the student, on his part, learns 

 to conduct for himself an original investigation. Hence there 

 is always a rising generation of original workers in Germany, 

 who turn out papers more or less meritorious with the rapidity 

 of a Walter's pre-s. They are stimulated by the hope of one 

 day arriving themselves at a professor's chair, the path to which 

 they are well assured is only through the toilsome field of 

 original work. But I must not wrong the German student by 

 the implication of a purely selfish motive in his work. His 

 labour is one of love, and his ambition, for the time at least, is 

 bounded by the desire to do something for science. And from a 

 multitude of such enthusiasts the great professors come. Great 

 mountains are only found in mountainous countries. 



I find myself insensibly led to speak of the encouragement of 

 research in this country, and, although it has been very largely 

 discussed in scientific circles, I w ill venture to add a few words. 

 To promote original work here, I believe it is indispensable that 

 our professors should be well paid. It would save them from 

 the necessity of sxipplementing their incomes by commercial 

 analyses, and thus enable them to devote their spare time to 

 original work. And to secure that they shall have spare time, I 

 would like to see in every laboratory a competent assistant, who 

 would be able occasionally to take up the professors lectures, 

 should he be engaged in important work. There are many 

 around me who know how very exacting original investigation 

 is, and how necessary it is, at times, to be able to work on 

 without interruption, bits and .'craps of time being of no value, 

 I am glad to tee that the Oxford Commission also recommends 

 the appointment of well-paid assistants. Well-paid professor- 

 ships and well-paid assistantships would be attractive prizes for 

 our students to work up to ; and if it were clearly understood 

 that the only way to these prizes was through original investiga- 

 tion, we should very soon have an army of zealous and com- 

 petent workers. 



The plan of appointing a staff of original workers unconnected 

 with teaching has been proposed ; but I do not approve of it. 

 The original worker is, as a rule, the best teacher, and the rising 

 generation of students .should not be deprived of the advantage 

 of his instruction. Moreover, as I said before, the professor 

 may be greatly assisted by his pupils. 



No doubt the Government Grant Fund does a good deal for 

 science, but the field of its operations is, under present condi- 

 tions, limited. Professors, as a rule, are so occupied with 

 teaching that they cannot avail themselves of the fund ; and of 

 those students who might be competent and willing, very few 

 can afford to do so. Instead of trusting to the precarious and 

 insufficient support of the fund they must endeavour to settle 

 themselves permanently in life. 



It is much to be regretted that the universities of Oxford and 

 Cambridge, with such splendid revenues at their disposal, shonld 

 contribute so little to the advancement of physical ."^cience. I 

 hope the day is not far distant when the Fellow hips — or at 

 least a few of them — which now go to reward young men for 

 merely passing a good examination, shall be given without 

 examination to men who shall have advanced human knowledge 

 in any department. At present, a Fellowship of 250/. or 300/. 

 a-year, lasting ten or twelve years, and in some cases for life, 

 may be obtained on showing proof of a good memory — or, at 

 most, a capacity for assimilating other men's ideas. To make 

 discoveries— to follow out a new train of thoutrht, and establish 

 it by experiments specially devised to that end, has been left 

 not only without reward, but almost without recognition, in our 

 two principal seats of learning. Is it to be so always ? The 

 world at large, ignorant as it is, has a sounder instinct on this 

 subject, and the man who makes the humblest addition to the 

 stock of knowledge in the world rarely fails to receive the 

 world's respect and honour. ; 



