470 



NATURE 



[December 8, 1921 , 



The Maintenance of Scientific Research. 

 By Prof. . C. S. Sherrington, Pres.R.S. 



BROADLY taken, the apparatus of prosecution 

 of research in this country is made up as 

 follows : (ij Scientific and professional societies 

 and some institutions entirely privately supported ; 

 {2) universities and colleges, with their scientific 

 departments; (3) institutions, using that term in 

 the widest sense, directly subventioned by the 

 State, such for instance as the Medical Research 

 Council, the Development Commission, and the 

 Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. 

 Of these three categories, the first named, the 

 scientific societies group, works without financial 

 aid from the State, apart from the small though 

 extremely useful two Government grants dis- 

 tributed, mainly to individual workers, through 

 the Royal Society. At the present time many 

 of the societies sorely need financial help to carry 

 on their labours, and some are absolutely at a loss 

 to know how to publish the scientific results that 

 are brought to them. The second category, the 

 universities and colleges, depends in part upon 

 Government aid. In the aggregate of twenty-one 

 institutions of university rank, following Vice- 

 Chancellor Adami's figures, students' fees and en- 

 dowment provide about 635 per cent, of the total 

 income; for the rest they are dependent on 

 Government grant. The third category, as said, 

 draws State-support direct. 



This triple system may seem a somewhat hap- 

 hazard and inco-ordinate assembly. Yet in reality 

 it is an organisation with much solidarity, and its 

 co-ordination is becoming more assured. Its parts 

 dovetail together. The first group, the scientific 

 and professional societies, is provided with a 

 medium of intercommunication and co-action, the 

 Conjoint Board of Scientific Societies. As to the 

 separate categories composing the triple system 

 itself, they also are in wide touch one with an- 

 other. Between the scientific and professional 

 societies on one hand and the universities on the 

 other, contact and inter-relation are secured by 

 some degree of free and rightful overlap, both as 

 regards general subject-matter of research and of 

 their personnel. Finally, there is excellent con- 

 tact between both these categories and the third, 

 the State subventioned institutions. A special 

 feature of the policy and administration of these 

 State organisations secures this, a feature which 

 makes the whole of this subject the more cognate 

 to the purview of our own Society. To exemplify 

 I may turn, for instance, to the Development Com- 

 mission. Its programme of fishery research, avoid- 

 ing the terms "pure" research and "applied" 

 research in view of the possible implication that 

 pure research does not lead to practical result, 

 directs research not alone to the solving of par- 

 ticular economic problems. It supports more espe- 

 cially what it terms "free" research, investiga- 



1 From the pre'sident'al address delivered to the Royal Society at the 

 anniversary meeting on November 30 



tion in this case of the fundamental science of tl 

 sea and of marine life. 



Again, with the. Advisory Council of Scientif 

 and Industrial Research, its programme, gradi 

 ally defined during the past six years, is laid doN 

 as having four main points : (i) the encouragt 

 ment of the individual research worker, partici 

 larly in pure science ; (2) the organisation 

 national industries into co-operative research asso^ 

 ciations ; (3) the direction and co-ordination of re- 

 search for national purposes ; and (4) the aiding of 

 suitable researches undertaken by scientific and 

 professional societies and organisations. It re- 

 cruits researchers by giving financial opportunity 

 to promising students to be trained in research, 

 attaching them to experienced researchers. In 

 short, it apprentices to research a number of 

 selected younger workers in universities, colleges, 

 and other institutions scattered throughout the 

 country. 



So, similarly, the Medical Research Council. 

 Its secretary. Sir Walter Fletcher, in an illuminat- 

 ing presidential address to Section I of the British 

 Association meeting this summer, said, speaking 

 of the nexus between scientific research and the 

 progress of medicine, " It is the accumulating 

 knowledge of the basal laws of life and of the 

 living organism to which alone we can look for 

 the sure establishment either of the study of 

 disease or of the applied sciences of medicine." 



It is evident, therefore, that, with a policy based 

 on such principles as these, the third category in 

 the triple system constituting the organisation for 

 scientific research in this country is one which 

 has common aim and solid touch with both the 

 others, the universities and the scientific and pro- 

 fessional societies. One sees in short that the 

 organisation which has come into existence and is 

 maintaining scientific research in this country 

 is a real organisation. It did not spring fully 

 equipped from the head of Zeus. It has 

 grown up rather than been planned. In that 

 respect it is an organisation essentially British, 

 and it seems qualified to do its work for the 

 country well. We hear of adventures, political 

 and other, the offspring of the day. But these 

 were no adventures, these, to my mind, welcome, 

 long-overdue steps forward by the State toward 

 the succour of science and its welfare, steps that 

 help to strengthen and consolidate the organisa- 

 tion for research by such adjuncts as the Medical 

 Research Council and the Department of Scientific 

 and Industrial Research. One of the strengths of 

 this organisation that has arisen is, in my view^ 

 that it Interlocks with the educational system of 

 the country. It Is an organisation which pro- 

 ceeds on the wise premiss that. In the case of 

 science, the best way to get the fruit is to^ culti- 

 vate the tree. It is an organisation which is 



NO. 2719, VOL. 108] 



