1^ 



NATURE 



1S9 



THURSDAY. APRIL 15, 1920. 



The Encouragement of Discovery. 



DURING the past few years much has been done 

 by the State to provide facilities for research, 

 but it is not too much to say that even now 

 neither the pubHc nor our statesmen understand 

 the debt they owe to the peculiar and rare 

 geniuses to whom the greatest discoveries are due, 

 or that any attempt has been made to discharge 

 it. Grants for research expenses or for the main- 

 tenance of research workers are available from 

 various sources, and much valuable work is being 

 carried on through this aid. What is wanted to 

 complete the scheme is a fund from which pen- 

 sions or other substantial money grants could be 

 made for scientific discoveries of an epoch-making 

 character, somewhat in the manner of the award 

 of the Nobel prizes. We referred a few weeks 

 ago (March 4, p. 18) to a deputation which waited 

 upon Mr. Balfour, Lord President of the 

 Council, to urge that a sum of about 20,oooL 

 should be set aside annually for this purpose ; and 

 we trust that this modest provision for the en- 

 couragement of genius will be forthcoming. 



The January number of the Journal of the 

 British Science Guild contains a carefully 

 prepared report on the subject of awards of 

 this nature, with particular reference to medi- 

 cal discovery. The committee which presented 

 the report consisted of eleven men of scientific 

 distinction — five representing the British Medical 

 Association and six the British Science Guild ; 

 and the members of it formed the deputation to 

 Mr. Balfour, with the addition of several members 

 of the House of Commons. Two cardinal pro- 

 posals were made — first, that medical discoveries, 

 even when made accidentally and not as a result 

 of designed investigation, should be encouraged 

 by direct pecuniary reward ; secondly, that for 

 losses or outlays incurred by private investigators 

 engaged in medical discovery the State should 

 recognise the principle of compensation. 



These two proposals rest on the fundamental 

 fact that, owing to the peculiar nature of medical 

 service and the necessity for carefully adjusted 

 ethical sanctions, the individual medical investi- 

 gator has often to sacrifice the welfare of himself 

 and his family, although his investigation may 

 have the highest social value. The capacity for 

 discovery, including invention, is very unevenly 

 distributed, but in every field of science rewards, 

 both financial and honorary, act as powerful 

 NO. 2633, VOL. 105] 



In any sphere except medi- 

 a discovery has at least a 



evocatives of faculty, 

 cine, an invention or 

 "business" chance of bringing a direct reward, 

 for the investigator can patent his invention or 

 protect himself in some other way. In medicine 

 he cannot patent a new microbe of a new method. 

 The attempts to patent or protect serums or 

 similar products are usually failures, and may end 

 in the removal of a name from the register "for 

 infamous conduct in a professional respect." 

 Probably in this matter the medical profession 

 is too exacting, but there are obvious good 

 reasons for maintaining on the highest ethical 

 level the sanctions of a profession that touch so 

 nearly the private life of the subject. These sanc- 

 tions, therefore, must continue to be a serious 

 handicap to the medical investigator, who cannot 

 employ the ordinary business methods to secure 

 for himself any profit from his invention, or dis- 

 covery, or new method of treatment. 



If medical discovery is thus shut out from 

 normal cojnmercial reward, there is good ground 

 for the view that the State should establish a 

 system of compensation'. To a certain extent, 

 medical research is itself a career, and in the 

 future development of medicine research will offer 

 more and more openings for talent. But mean- 

 while it is certain that the medical inventor or 

 discoverer has much less chance of making even 

 a respectable living than the clinical medical prac- 

 titioner. Of this it would be easy to give suffi- 

 cient proof, but it is not seriously disputed. 



Within the medical schools there are many 

 forms of award, such as honorary degrees, money 

 prizes, and the like; but their distribution 

 is largely accidental. Further, the inventor or 

 discoverer has so to specialise his energies that 

 he may positively disqualify himself for the more 

 lucrative administrative or clinical posts. This 

 is more or less true of every branch of applied 

 science, not to speak of pure science ; it is over- 

 whelmingly true of medical scientific investigation. 



The joint committee and the deputation have 

 uncovered an important scientific area where the 

 State might well recognise a duty to compensate. 

 How profoundly the economic motive operates to 

 increase the production of inventions the Courts 

 for the war awards have abundantly shown. It 

 would be to the ultimate advantage of the State 

 to pay for medical and other scientific discoveries 

 .which bring no financial gain to the men who 

 made them : the method of payment is a detail 

 I and need offer no more difficulty than that involved 

 in making other awards. The principle is so 

 sound that it ought at once to be conceded. 



