NA TURE 



369 



THURSDAY, MARCH i, 1877 



GOVERNMENT GRANTS 

 SCIENCE 



IN AID OF 



'""T^HE Civil Service Estimates for this year contain three 

 -«- different sums proposed to be granted by the 

 government in aid of scientific research. As the circum- 

 stances connected with these grants do not appear to be 

 generally well understood, it may be convenient to those 

 engaged in the study of science to have a short explana- 

 tion given to them on the subject. 



The oldest and best known of these grants is that of 

 1,000/. which has been given to the Royal Society for 

 the last twenty years, for the encouragement of scien- 

 tific reseaich. The distribution of this grant is regu- 

 lated by a Committee of the Council and other Fellows 

 of the Royal Society, usually denominated the " Go- 

 vernment Grant Committee." The manner in which 

 it is expended is given in the published Proceedings of 

 the Royal Society every year. Last year, we observe, 

 grants of 100/. were sanctioned to Mr. J. A. Broun, for 

 " investigating the effects due to the sun's rotation and 

 magnetism ; " to Mr. J. N. Lockyer, to enable him " to 

 continue his spectroscopic researches ;" to Dr. Carpenter, 

 in aid of his work on Comatula {or Anicdon, as he prefers 

 to call it) ; and to Sir W. Thomson and Prof. J. Thom- 

 son for the construction of an analysing machine suitable 

 for performing certain calculations connected with the 

 observation of tides. Other smaller sums were assigned 

 to Dr. Stenhouse, Mr. G. J. Romanes, Mr. W. Crookes, 

 and Prof. W. E. Adams, in aid of various researches in 

 which these philosophers are respectively engaged. 



Last year, as we stated on a former occasion, in conse- 

 quence of the report of the Royal Commission on Science, 

 the propriety of increasing the amount of this grant was 

 considered by the Government. It was ultimately arranged 

 that instead of making any alteration in the mode of dis- 

 tributing the grant of 1,000/., which seemed to have 

 answered its purpose very satisfactorily, a second grant 

 of 4,000/. should be made, to be admininistered in a dif- 

 ferent manner. Instead of being given by the Treasury 

 direct to the Royal Society, the new grant, in order to 

 carry out another recommendation of the Duke of Devon- 

 shire's Commission, to the effect that the scientific work 

 and votes should be placed under one Minister, was placed 

 in the Privy Council Estimates, and will be distributed 

 directly by the Lord President, according to a scheme 

 prepared by the " Government Grant " Committee of the 

 Royal Society, together with the presidents of fifteen other 

 learned societies, who, for this object, are ex officio mem- 

 bers of this Committee. 



There are now, therefore, two different grants in aid 

 of scientific research administered by the Royal Society : 

 that of 1,000/. received direct from the Treasury appro- 

 priated mainly to the providing of instruments and other 

 assistance necessary to scientific inquiries ; that of 4,000/. 

 applied to the aid of scientific investigators not only by 

 providing instruments and assistance, but by making 

 personal allowances or grants of money to the investi- 

 gators for their services. As regards the last-ixamed fund. 

 Vol. XV.— No. 383 



on the proposed distribution of which the Government 

 Fund Committee is now occupied, we understand that the 

 applications made for it for the present financial year 

 (1876-77) have amounted to upwards of 14,000/. To 

 three sub-committees (Physical, Chemical, and Biological) 

 who have been for some time past engaged in investigat- 

 ing these applications, is assigned the pleasing task of 

 reducing them to more moderate dimensions, and 

 bringing them again before the whole Committee, which 

 meets to-day, in order that they may be submitted to 

 the Lord President of the Council for his final approval. 



When it is possible to refer to the proceedings of the 

 Committee without any breach of confidence, we shall 

 state at length how the great question of the endowment 

 of research has been aided, or the reverse, by the action 

 of the Fund Committee. It is well known that there are 

 many Fellows of the Royal Society whose positions as 

 workers in science need not be too clearly defined, who 

 view with mistrust the liberality of the Government. But 

 we have the greatest confidence in the powerful Com- 

 mittee which has been formed, and believe that although 

 it is possible mistakes may be made and endowments 

 proposed which may perhaps have a different effect from 

 that intended, that the proceedings of the Committee 

 viewed as a whole will meet with the warmest approval 

 of men of science, and that it will be acknowledged on 

 all hands that an important step has been taken in the 

 direction of increasing research in our country. 



A third grant for scientific purposes, which has been 

 made for some years by the Government, is not so generally 

 well known amongst men of science, and as a change is 

 to be made in its administration this year, it may be as 

 well to give a few explanations on the subject. Com- 

 mencing with the year 1871-72, as it appears from the 

 Parliamentary return now before us, a sum of 2,000/. has 

 been voted annually to the department of the Privy 

 Council Office for "auxiliary scientific investigations," 

 By reference to the same return, it will appear that in 

 1871-72 and the three succeeding financial years this sum, 

 under the recommendation of Mr. John Simon, late 

 Medical Officer of the Privy Council and Local Govern- 

 ment Board, was divided pretty nearly equally between 

 Dr. Sanderson and Dr. Thudichum, portions of the grant 

 in each case being devoted to laboratory expenses and the 

 payment of skilled assistants. The results of this ex- 

 penditure have been various reports on such subjects as 

 " Infective Inflammation," the " Chemical Changes in the 

 Case of Typhus,'^ and the " Pathology of " Sheep-pox," 

 and other scientific investigations connected with ques- 

 tions of public health, which have been published as 

 appendices to Mr. Simon's reports as Medical Officer of 

 the Privy Council and Local Government Board. Mr. 

 Simon having resigned his office last year, and there 

 being no longer any medical officer attached to the Privy 

 Council Office, the vote of 2,000/. has, we observe, in the 

 Civil Service Estimates for the present year, been trans- 

 ferred to the Local Government Board, and will, we sup- 

 pose, be administered in fu^ture by Mr. Sclater Booth, the 

 President of the Board, under the advice of Dr. Seaton, 

 who has succeeded Mr. Simon in his functions as prin- 

 cipal medical officer of that department. Whether this 

 transfer of the fund will involve any alteration in its 

 disposal remains to be proved. 



