INFLUENCE OF SCIENTIFIC OCCUPATIONS ON RESEARCH. 271 



point, ' I would contend that, for the advancement of 

 science, it is very undesirable that the burden of original 

 work should devolve on those engaged in teaching or 

 popular writing.' ' The constant need of attention to the 

 collecting together and arranging of facts already known, 

 which have no very direct bearing on the special subject 

 under investigation, necessarily diverts the thoughts from 

 the consideration of difficulties not yet explained, and 

 from the discovery of what is unknown. My own experi- 

 ence, at all events, convinces me that any such diversion 

 of the mind has a most retarding effect in carrying on 

 original research, and I have heard the same remark from 

 some of the most eminent explorers of the age.' l Further, 

 where there exists one man who is capable of making a 

 good research, there are many capable of expounding the 

 results of it ; and this argues that the former occupation 

 requires a greater degree of ability, and that to take a man 

 from the former kind of labour to perform the latter is a 

 loss both to science and mankind. The chief advantage of 

 teaching or writing, in aiding a man to make original scien- 

 tific discoveries, consists in its suggesting to him a stock of 

 hypotheses and subjects for research ; but this is not usually 

 required, because nearly every experienced investigator 

 possesses an excess of such questions. Writing harmonises 

 better than speaking with the occupation of scientific 

 research, because it conduces in a greater degree to accu- 

 racy of expression; great speakers are not usually very 

 accurate writers. 



The occupation of itinerant lecturing in science is but 

 little favourable to research, because it takes a man away 

 from quiet study, and from his place of experiment or 

 observation. Making scientific investigations for manu- 



1 Sorby, Essays on Endowment of Research, pp. 166-170. 



