196 



NATURE 



[November 6, 19 19 



Society, chiefly in aid of private individual scien- 

 tific investigation. At the end of four years the 

 Treasury declined to continue the grant of this 

 sum (trifling as it was, compared with the revenue 

 of the country), on the ground that the fund from 

 which it was taken would no longer admit of " an 

 annual grant to the Royal Society." The council 

 replied with spirit that it was not a grant to the 

 Royal Society, but " a contribution on the part of 

 the nation towards the promotion of science 

 generally in the United Kingdom," the council 

 being only trustees for the due administration of 

 the fund. The grant was then placed on the 

 Parliamentary Estimates, and the looo/. continued 

 to be paid annually for nearly twenty years. In 

 1877 the vote was increased to 4000J., but the 

 council had still some difficulty in preventing the 

 grant from being regarded as one to the Royal 

 Society, which was in no way benefited by it, but, 

 on the contrary, had an onerous and difficult task 

 in looking after its proper administration. In 1894 

 application was made for an increase in the 

 amount of the grant, but without success. 



Meanwhile the German Government, looking 

 keenly to the future and thoroughly impressed 

 with the importance of stimulating the cultivation 

 of science, was spending large sums to equip 

 laboratories and otherwise further education in 

 science, and to stimulate discovery and invention. 

 The example of that country was often cited here, 

 and contrasted with the unsympathetic attitude 

 and stingy support of our authorities, much to 

 the surprise and annoyance of the permanent 

 officials of the Treasury, who rather seemed to 

 think that their grants to science were remarkably 

 liberal. I remember an occasion when I had to 

 go to the Treasury about a matter connected with 

 the Geological Survey. The official on whom I 

 called was one of the heads of the Department, 

 with whom I had long been on terms of friendly 

 intimacy. He began the interview by saying that 

 he would be glad to hear me, but begged that 

 the example of Germany might not be mentioned. 



Happily these times of indifference belong to 

 the past. Twenty years ago an appeal was made 

 to Government for the creation of a National 

 Physical Laboratory for the purpose of standard- 

 ising and verifying instruments, testing materials, 

 and for the determination of physical constants. 

 After some effort and with the persistent support 

 of Lord Rayleigh, the appeal was eventually suc- 

 cessful. The institution began on a modest scale 

 with a staff of only twenty-six, no more than two 

 departments, and a small grant annually voted by 

 Parliament. But under the able supervision of 

 Sir Richard Glazebrook it rapidly increased the 

 scope of its work, the extent of its buildings, and 

 the size of its staff, until the burden of responsi- 

 bility for its administration was becoming too 

 heavy for the Royal Society. In April of last year 

 it was transferred to the newly established De- 

 partment of Scientific and Industrial Research, the 

 number of its departments of investigation having 

 now grown to seven, and that of the staff to more 

 than 600. In this enlarged sphere of public utility 

 NO. 2610, VOL. 104] 



it will no doubt achieve still greater success, 

 while at the same time research in all directions 

 and its practical applications will be greatly quick- 

 .ened. The day of parsimony in regard to the 

 prosecution of scientific inquiry and its applications 

 is now gone beyond the power of any Government 

 to revive. 



Obviously it is not zeal for the advance of pure 

 science that has led to the augmented general 

 interest in research. The appreciation of the 

 practical value of many discoveries in relation to 

 the daily life of mankind has naturally been the 

 main stimulus. The philosophers might have ex- 

 perimented until doomsday upon a;ther and its 

 undulations without awaking more than a languid 

 interest in their work, or receiving any pecuniary 

 help in their expenses ; but when they showed 

 that by means of these undulations messages could 

 be flashed across the ocean without any wires, 

 the public imagination was at once excited, and 

 millions of money were ready for investment in 

 any company that would undertake to fit up the 

 necessary apparatus for sending such messages. 

 In like manner, there might have been but a 

 feeble appreciation of the phenomena of radio- 

 activity, but when it was shown that by means 

 of Rontgen rays the surgeon could see the bones 

 inside a human body and detect there the exist- 

 ence and exact place of any bullet or other dense 

 substance, a wide interest in the discovery was 

 awakened, and little difl!iculty was found in supply- 

 ing every hospital with the requisite apparatus. 



The War has brought the economic value of 

 science before the world on a colossal scale of 

 demonstration. While scientific inventions have 

 enormously augmented the offensive powers of the 

 belligerents, it is pleasing to know that the 

 applications of science have not been all on the 

 destructive side, but that at the same time the 

 greatest stimulus in the history of mankind has 

 been given to medicine and surgery, and that 

 each of these great divisions of the healing art 

 has made notable advances and gained fresh 

 powers for dealing with diseases and wounds. 



Exactly ten years had elapsed after the publica- 

 tion of Darwin's "Origin of Species" when the 

 first number of Nature was issued. The doctrine 

 of Evolution had long been before the world. 

 Laplace had introduced it into the history of the 

 solar system ; Lamarck, after Buffon, had pro- 

 posed an ingenious astiologj- in the history of 

 organised life upon the earth ; while towards the 

 middle of last century came the cruder efforts of 

 the author of the "Vestiges of the Natural 

 History of Creation," which so perturbed the 

 minds of his generation. But it was not until 

 after the appearance of Darwin's book, and in 

 consequence of that book, that Evolution came 

 slowly to be regarded as the great law of the 

 whole cosmos. If we consider broadly the rela- 

 tion of the community to scientific progress during 

 the last fifty years, its most outstanding feature 

 will probably be recognised in the general accept- 

 ance of this great generalisation. 



The views of Darwin made their way with 



