802 



NATURE 



[August 25, 192 1 



to which reference has been made in these columns 

 on previous occasions. 



This is a very serious state of affairs and 

 should give pause to thoughtful men. It is futile 

 discussing the minor elements in the problem when 

 the main facts are of so serious a nature. Whether 

 a Civil Servant or a university teacher puts in 

 more hours of work in a year is quite beside the 

 point and from the very nature of the work impos- 

 sible to decide. Equally beside the point is the 

 fact that the nation's income from foreign invest- 

 ments has shrunk by a hundred millions per 

 annum. The question is whether the university 

 teacher is, under present conditions, adequately 

 remunerated, and, if not, who is to blame. A 

 permanent head of a Government Department re- 

 ceives 3000Z. or more per annum, a headmistress 

 of a council secondary school may Tise^ to 700Z. 

 or 800L a year, whereas an Oxford tutor or^ pro- 

 fessor in one of our modern universities receives 

 on the average a salary of about 850L a year. \Is 

 this just or equitable? Is it likely to main- 

 tain, let alone increase, the/efficiehcy of the 

 university by attracting ter it the right kind 

 of man? (^ J^^^^"^^ 



The universities are doing work of the highest 

 importance to the nation, whether it is examined 

 from the cultural or from the utilitarian side. 

 Without this work national life would be im- 

 mensely the poorer, and yet the staffs are scan- 

 dalously under-paid. Already this is reacting un- 

 favourably upon the quality of the candidates for 

 vacant appointments, and in course of time the 

 reaction will become even more pronounced. 



For this state of affairs the Government cannot 

 escape criticism ; we are in entire agreement with 

 the pertinent remarks of the provost of Worcester 

 College. The University Grants Committee is 

 cognisant of the fact that university teachers are 

 underpaid, and that the universities are more or 

 less in debt. As their sources of income are 

 limited, they naturally and properly look to the 

 Government for further aid. An annual grant of 

 a million and a half is quite inadequate, and, in 

 proportion to the total Treasury grant towards 

 education, wretchedly small. If the University 

 Grants Committee cannot convince the Govern- 

 ment of the necessity of augmenting the annual 

 grant to the universities for the particular purpose 

 of increasing the stipends of the staffs, it is about 

 time a more representative body took over its 

 functions. 



NO. 2704, VOL. 107] 



Famous Chemists. 



Famous Chemists : The Men and their Work. 

 By Sir William A. Tilden. Pp. xvi-f296. 

 (London : George Routledge and Sons, Ltd. ; 

 New, York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1921.) 

 125. 6d. net. 



SIR WILLIAM TILDEN, like many other 

 persons, has been frequently struck by the 

 general lack of knowledge, even among well-edu- 

 cated people, of the personal history and achieve- 

 ments of the men who have created epochs in 

 science. This, however, need occasion no very 

 great surprise. If the mass of the community 

 are practically ignorant of science owing to the 

 circumstance that they have been taught nothing 

 concerning it, it is scarcely a matter for wonder 

 that they should have no knowledge even of the 

 names of its most distinguished votaries and 

 no interest therefore 'in their lives and doings. 

 Yet, as the author says, the story of their 

 lives is not infrequently full of interest, 

 even to those who are not specially attracted 

 to science, or have little concern for its 

 progress. 



There has been, however, a great awakening 

 of late. The lesson of our recent experience has 

 been driven home. It required the Great War 

 to enforce it. For generations past a few 

 enlightened men have been preaching, with what 

 seemed to many an almost tiresome reiteration, 

 tlie truth that science in these days is more than 

 ever at the basis of national welfare and security. 

 The peril of the greatest crisis through which this 

 country in all its long history has ever been con- 

 fronted has at length aroused it to a recognition 

 of this fact. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the 

 evidence of this belated appreciation. We see it 

 in the general anxiety concerning the present 

 character and sufficiency of our secondary educa- 

 tion, in the extraordinary rush of students into 

 our university laboratories and lecture-rooms, in 

 the more general recognition by manufacturers 

 of the relation of science to industry, and, lastly, 

 in the action of the Government in creating, on 

 broad and liberal lines, a great scheme of State- 

 aided endowment of science. The establishment 

 of the Department of Scientific and Industrial 

 Research, with its network of affiliated research 

 associations throughout Great Britain, marks an 

 epoch in the history of science of which it is 

 impossible to exaggerate the significance and 

 potentiality. Of course we must be prepared for 

 wasted effort and wasted money. To muddle 

 through is characteristic of our method. Science 



