512 



NATURE 



[January 7, 19 15 



work has, thus far, been very largely left. With 

 some State recognition very important results 

 would accrue which would prove of value to 

 agriculture and the fisheries. 



Walter E. Collinge. 



ATTEMPTS TO MANUFACTURE 

 SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



IN an excellent article forming one of his admir- 

 able series of essays entitled " Science from 

 an Easy -chair," published in the Daily Telegraph 

 of December 15, 1914, Sir Ray Lankester deals 

 particularly with the case of the recent proposal 

 that the Lister Institute should be handed over 

 to the Medical Research Committee of the National 

 Insurance Commission. The proposal was re- 

 jected on November 18 by the votes of the 

 members ; and Sir Ray Lankester preaches a 

 useful sermon upon^this text. He maintains that 

 men of science "have no confidence in vague in- 

 vocations of ' centralisation ' and ' co-ordination ' 

 - — abstractions with which Lord Moulton en- 

 deavoured to allure them. They do not wish to 

 see the Institute placed at the disposal of cen- 

 tralisers and co-ordinators. The men they desire 

 to maintain in undisturbed control of the Lister 

 Institute are of a totally different class, namely, 

 the rare individuals known as ' scientific dis- 

 coverers ' — a variety of humanity impossible to 

 drive or to co-ordinate, inevitably paralysed by 

 official programmes and stultified by ignorant 

 though well-meaning superintendance." He con- 

 tinues : — 



There is a widespread but erroneous belief in official 

 circles, and among wealthy philanthropists, to the 

 effect that you can hire a scientific discoverer and then 

 say to him, "Discover me this" or "Discover me 

 that " (naming to him a possible and greatly desired 

 piece of new knowledge), and that he will thereupon 

 proceed right away to make the discovery which you 

 want. . . . But valuable and important scientific dis- 

 covery cannot be produced directly in response to 

 orders given and money expended. You cannot manu- 

 facture scientific discovery like soap. The great diffi- 

 culty. In the first place, is to catch that rare and 

 evasive creature^ — a scientific discoverer — and when 

 vou have found him you have to humour him and let 

 him do as he fancies. Then he will, discover things, 

 but probably not the things which either you or he 

 wanted or expected. 



All this is very true, and I for one entirely 

 agree. But I think that we should distinguish 

 between major discovery and minor research. To 

 be frank, the former has been made almost en- 

 tirely by amateurs, or at least by men who were 

 amateurs when they started ; and such discoveries 

 are somewhat rare and depend upon the produc- 

 tion by nature of a peculiar and equally rare type 

 of mind. Thus history shows that there are vast 

 nations, consisting of hundreds of millions of 

 people, who never make a scientific discovery 

 from century to century; while, on the other hand, 

 small peoples who appear to be in some favour- 

 able biological condition, turn out major discoveries 

 by the score. To me it has always seemed that 

 rnajor discovery is a kind of efflorescence of the 



NO. 2358, VOL. 94] 



human race, occurring only for a brief period in 

 the life of a people. But minor discovery, or 

 rather research, is of another order. It is not of 

 the epoch-making type of major discovery, but 

 is still useful and must not be depreciated. In the 

 present day, when science has advanced so much, 

 this second class of research becomes absolutely 

 necessary for the purpose of filling in the innumer- 

 able petty details which go to complete a great 

 scientific theorem ; and the difference of opinion 

 which certainly exists regarding the best method 

 of encouraging discovery depends chiefly upon a 

 failure to make this distinction. Thus, when some 

 of us talk of research, they refer only to major 

 discovery, while others refer only to the minor 

 work. 



My own opinion is that both should be clearly 

 recognised. The best way to encourage major 

 discoveries is to remove difficulties as much as 

 possible from the path of the unique individuals 

 who make them ; and that is why I have always 

 advocated a proper State recognition of such work. 

 On the other hand, minor researches do require a 

 certain amount of organisation — though, even 

 here, great care must be taken not to interfere 

 by too much direction from above ; and the ques- 

 tion is what kind of organisation is the best. At 

 any rate, most men of science will agree with Sir 

 Ray Lankester when he records a note of objec- 

 tion to " the existence of a Board of Trustees with 

 a Managing Committee, or of any committee play- 

 ing the part of employers and proprietors towards 

 the men of science "who are heads of laboratories 

 in an institution designed for scientific discovery." 



Personally, I think that our British notion of 

 constructing such committees chiefly out of " super- 

 annuated politicians, retired civil servants, lawyers, 

 medical men, peers, and clerical dignitaries, as 

 well as men who have made fortunes and retired 

 from business," is quite foolish, and indeed im- 

 proper. But we seem to pursue this habit in 

 nearly everything — the argument being apparently 

 that the men who know nothing about a subject 

 are the best to direct efforts in connection wuth 

 that subject ; so that we appoint lawyers to be 

 heads not only of scientific and learned institu- 

 tions, but even of the War Office and the Ex- 

 chequer. In my own humble opinion, lawyers 

 would be much better employed in revising or 

 reforming the mass of confusion (as they them- 

 selves admit il is) called law. I do not object to 

 lawyers more than to other amateurs being placed 

 in such positions ; but the point is whether research 

 institutions should not be put exclusively under 

 the management of men who have proved their 

 capacity for research by success in it — and only 

 under such. The existing British custom has an 

 unpleasant savour of secret wire-pulling and other 

 methods of acquiring "influence." It would be 

 quite useful, were it possible, to analyse the com- 

 mittees of our few research institutions ; but the 

 time has come when men of science should begin 

 to look into all these matters a little more closely 

 than they have done in the past. 



Ronald Ross. 



