3^4 



NATURE 



[December 2, 1915. 



Voluntary work should be expected of all 

 classes in these times ; but it is unfortunately true 

 that such services are expected of science at all 

 times. Scientific men have themselves largely to 

 thank for the low financial value placed on their 

 services. They are ready to work for little or 

 nothing, especially if the task offers opportunity 

 for research ; and in a business world, which 

 assesses expert knowledge by the fees it can com- 

 mand, takes them at their own low valuation. 

 They accept pittances from governing bodies of 

 universities and technical institutions which would 

 not be offered to any other professional men of 

 like standing. They sign agreements not to 

 undertake paid outside work, though such work 

 is often the surest means of keeping science in 

 touch with problems of industry, and they are 

 willing to give valuable information as to scientific 

 materials and processes to manufacturing firms 

 which are rich enough to pay handsomely for the 

 advice. University authorities, business men, 

 and the Government all exploit the scientific 

 worker, who is so much taken up with his in- 

 dividual studies that he is content to consider 

 science as its own reward, and to let anyone who 

 cares derive profit from his knowledge. 



Personal reward — as the world understands it — 

 for work done or results obtained is the last 

 thought of a student of science. " I have no time 

 to make money," was the reply of Louis Agassiz 

 to an offer to lend himself to a legitimate and tempt- 

 ing financial scheme. A like remark was made by 

 Pasteur to Lady Priestley, " I could never work 

 for money, but I would always work for science." 

 Yet, according to Huxley, Pasteur's work for the 

 prevention of anthrax, silkworm disease, and 

 chicken cholera added annually to the wealth of 

 France a sum equivalent to the entire indemnity 

 paid by France to Germany after the war of 1870. 

 If Pasteur had chosen to keep his discoveries to 

 himself, he could have been one of the most 

 wealthy men in the world, but he gave them to 

 the human race, and was content to end his 

 career as a professor of chemistry in receipt of 

 a modest salary from the Government of his 

 country. Most scientific work is done without 

 expectation of reward. The man who devotes 

 himself to the advancement of knowledge is con- 

 tinually finding himself without the means of 

 obtaining the instruments or other material neces- 

 sary for the pursuit of his researches. He has 

 to carry out a fair amount of work successfully, 

 and to use his own limited resources for it, before 

 he can hope to secure a portion of the modest 

 grants in aid available. 



NO. 2405, VOL. 96] 



When men of science ask for funds for scientific 

 research they do not wish to bury the talents they 

 receive or to derive personal profit from them. 

 Whatever amount is entrusted to them is returned 

 a hundredfold in the results achieved. How many 

 are the researches worthy of assistance, and how 

 small are the funds available for investigations 

 having no obvious practical application, are 

 understood only by men of science themselves. It 

 would be a revelation to people endowed with a 

 larger share of worldly riches to be present at a 

 meeting of the Committee of Recommendations 

 of the British Association when the allocation of 

 grants for scientific purposes is being made. A 

 score or so of the leading scientific men in the 

 British Isles debate for two or three hours how 

 to divide the sum of about loooL, which repre- 

 sents the amount available from the sale of tickets 

 at the annual meeting. There are many applica- 

 tions for grants from committees of each of the 

 twelve sections of the Association, and the amount 

 required has usually to be whittled down to 5Z. 

 or loZ., which often does not cover the expense 

 of stationery and postage of a research com- 

 mittee. Not one penny goes into the pockets of 

 the men who are conducting the researches, yet 

 claim after claim has to be passed, or reduced to 

 its lowest limits, because the fund is far too small 

 to meet the demands made upon it. 



Prof. T. B. Robertson suggests in the Scien- 

 tific Monthly for November that a certain 

 proportion, no matter how small, of the 

 wealth which science pours into the lap of the 

 community should return automatically to the 

 support and expansion of scientific research. 

 "The collection of a tax upon profits accruing 

 from inventions (which are all ultimately if in- 

 directly results of scientific advance), and the 

 devotion of the proceeds from this tax to the 

 furtherance of research, would not only be a policy 

 of wisdom in the most material sense, but it 

 would also be a policy of bare justice." Prof. 

 Robertson points out that the value of the elec- 

 trical machinery, apparatus, and supplies produced 

 in the United States alone in 1909 was 44,200,000/. 

 In 1907 the value of the electric light and power 

 stations in the same country was 219,400,000!., 

 of the telephones 164,000,000!., and the combined 

 income from these two sources was 72,000,000/. 

 Nor do these sums represent a tithe of the values 

 which Faraday's researches on electromagnetics 

 have placed at the disposal of the world, which, 

 while accepting the riches, has not returned one 

 millionth or a discernible fraction of the wealth 

 for the continuance of research. Faraday de- 



