August 4, 192 1] 



NATURE 



719 



the aether, and were all in agreement with the 

 electrical theory of matter — but still, when 

 Kinstein showed that the law of composition of 

 velocities appropriate to his principle of relativity 

 accounted for them all as an immediate corollary, 

 without effort and without any assumption beyond 



what was embodied in that principle — this feature 

 of directness naturally aroused the keen attention 

 of physicists. 



(Discussion of the relative velocity of light is 

 deferred to next week.) 



(To he continued.) 



Endowment of Scientific Research in the United States.^ 



TX Nature for May 29, 1919, an account was 

 *■ given of the organisation of the National 

 Research Council of the United States of 

 America. Supported during the war largely by 

 the Government, but now entirely by private 

 bodies and firms (it has lately received a grant 

 of 5,000,000 dollars from the Carnegie Corpora- 

 tion), this body owes its existence to a trend of 

 opinion by no means confined to the capitalist 

 classes which maintain it. The American Federa- 

 tion of Labour explicitly and emphatically pro- 

 fessed its belief in the fundamental importance 

 and beneficent results of scientific research — more 

 especially research in pure science — in a mani- 

 festo quoted in the Report for 1918-19 of our 

 own Department of Scientific and Industrial Re- 

 search. This unanimity on the part of employer 

 and employed in their recognition of the import- 

 ance for the development of American industries 

 of the promotion of research gives additional 

 weight to the imposing array of facts and figures 

 assembled by the National Research Council in 

 the bulletin under notice, which deals with funds, 

 other than Federal and State funds, available in 

 1920 for this purpose. 



In the preparation of the following summary 

 it has been assumed that where the total endow- 

 ment, but not the amount annually available, is 

 given in the bulletin, 5 per cent, of this total was 

 available. In some cases no information is given 

 as to the amount of the fund — either capital or 

 interest — and these were necessarily omitted in 

 compiling the money totals. The columns A, F, 

 U give the number and aggregate annual value 

 in thousands of dollars of the funds provided by, 

 or in connection with : — A : academies, associa- 

 tions, societies, and museums ; F : foundations, 

 hospitals, and research institutes ; U : universities 



and colleges. 



A F u 



jooo 1000 1000 



No. dols. No. dols. No. dols. 



T. Medals and prizes 65 19 i — 24 20 



II, Grants .« 40 361 8 15,143 66 q^ 



III. Institutional funds 14 255 30 2,322 176 2,056 



IV. Fellowships and 



scholarships ... 6 34 6 120 263 352 



Total ... 125 669 45 17,585 529 2,524 

 The most conspicuous figure in this table is the 

 amount of the grants by foundations, etc., and 

 this is almost entirely composed of appropriations 

 (amounting to 15,000,000 dollars) made by the 

 Rockefeller Foundation, New York City, "partly 



1 "Funds available in 1910 in the United ."States of America for the 

 Encouragement of Scientific Research." Bulletin No. 9 of the National 

 Research Council, 1701 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, D.C., March, 

 1921. I dollar. 



NO. 2701, VOL. 107] 



to agencies which it creates for carrying out speci- 

 fic programmes, and partly to other existing 

 organisations to enable them to carry out specific 

 programmes." Several other important annual 

 appropriations are detailed below. 



Amount 

 Source (1000 dols.) 



Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research 1,100 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington — for 

 research in astronomy, 221 ; physics, 329; 

 botany, 65; biology, 131; nutrition, 52; 

 eugenics, 31; embryology, 43 ... ... 872 



Carnegie Institution, minor grants ... 117 



American Museum of Natural History — 

 for promotion of research, exploration, 



etc ■ 278 



Harvard Fund for medical research ... 363 

 J. De Lamar Funds for >gtudy and teach- 

 ing of dietetics and of the origin, etc., of 



disease ... 377 



John McCormick Institute for Infectious 



Diseases Research Fund ... ... 100 



National Research Council fellowships for 



research in physics and chemistry ... 100 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technolog}-, 

 general budget appropriation for re- 

 search ... ... ... ... ... 100 



Thus, of the aggregate amount of the sums 

 specified in the bulletin — 20,778,000 dollars — 

 more than 82 per cent, is attributable to Rocke- 

 feller and Carnegie benefactions, and more than 

 88 per cent, to these and the six other sources 

 specified. 



At the recent congress at Oxford of repre- 

 sentatives of the universities of the British 

 Empire much emphasis was laid on the funda- 

 mental importance of scientific research and on 

 the necessity for providing material aids and 

 training for it. The figures given above con- 

 stitute a striking commentary on the following 

 observations made by Prof. Joly at the con- 

 gress : '* Perhaps the most striking feature of 

 American universities, as viewed by the British 

 visitor, is the prevalence of research, and the 

 lavish provision made for its prosecution. . . . 



There is research in everything. The American 

 recognises to the full the value of the mental 

 attitude induced by research, and this recognition 

 is not confined to the university professor, from 

 whom it may be expected, but extends, so far as 

 I could gather, ever^'where throughout the 

 States." At .some future date the National Re- 

 search Council will perhaps take stock of the 

 results of the application of these vast sums of 

 money, and may possibly have a tale to tell of 

 misdirected or unfruitful effort ; but it can scarcely 

 be doubted that the net results will affect sub- 

 stantiallv the welfare of mankind — perhaps so 



