November 6, 19 19] 



NATURE 



261 



further demands might be made for the support 

 of other investigations. It is not too much to say 

 that Nature has been largely responsible for bring- 

 ing about a more encouraging attitude towards 

 scientific research on the part both of statesmen 

 and the public generally. Throughout its exist- 

 ence this journal has consistently and persistently 

 advocated increased attention by the State to 

 scientific investigation and the need for liberal 

 endowment of all work by which natural know- 

 ledge is increased. It is gratifying to know that 

 the principle of national responsibility for the 

 fostering of these research activities has in 

 recent years been officially accepted. 



Fifty years ago the provision made by Parlia- 

 ment for the promotion of science in the United 

 Kingdom was an annual grant of 1000/., which 

 was administered by the Royal Society. In 1876 

 a further grant of 4000Z. was voted for " the pay- 

 ment of personal allowances to gentlemen during 

 the time they are engaged in their investigations." 

 In 1882 the grant of loooZ. was discontinued, and 

 that of 4000Z. has been included since then in the 

 Civil Service Estimates without increase. The 

 Royal Society, which administers the grant, 

 derives no pecuniary benefit from it, and it only 

 shares to the extent of a few hundred pounds 

 annually in the additional annual grant of loooL 

 made to assist in defraying the expenses of scien- 

 tific publication. If this grant were increased to 

 ten times the amount it could be effectively used 

 by scientific societies, for the costs of publication 

 are now very heavy and the output of papers or 

 other works worthy of publication is much greater 

 than when the grant was originally made in 1894. 



In the Estimates for 1869-70 a grant of loool. 

 to the Royal Society, 500^. to the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society, and 300/. to the Royal Society 

 of Edinburgh, together with other grants for 

 scientific investigation, were classified together as 

 votes for learned societies, with a total of 12,300?. 

 The total amount for scientific and other institu- 

 tions in the Estimates for 1919-20 is about 

 ii4,oooZ., but this includes 47,oooZ. for the Mete- 

 orological Office, and 2o,oooL for the National 

 Museum of Wales. In addition, the grants for 

 investigation and research under the Department 

 of Scientific and Industrial Research are estimated 

 at 93.57o'-> and there is a grant of 12,775;. for 

 the Fuel Research Station. 



State grants to Colleges of London and Man- 

 chester were recommended by the Devonshire 

 Commission in 1874, but the first direct assist- 

 ance of this kind from the National Exchequer 

 was a grant of 4000!. to the University College 

 of Wales in 1883. In 1889-90 a vote of 15,000^. 

 was included in the Estimates for University 

 Colleges in England, in addition to 12,000?. for 

 the three University Colleges of Wales. The total 

 grant under that vote was then 44,785?., and now 

 —thirty years later— the total amount of the grants 

 to be paid out of the Exchequer for the main- 

 tenance of university institutions in the United 

 NO. 2610, VOL. 104] 



Kingdom during the year 1919-20 is i,ooo,oooZ. 

 Though the increase is substantial, there are more 

 institutions to participate in the grant, and much 

 larger staffs and more elaborate equipment are 

 necessary, so that it cannot be said even now 

 that adequate provision has been made by the 

 State for university education. 



In university grants and gifts, as in those for 

 research, the tendency is to promote the applied 

 sciences and to overlook the needs of departments 

 concerned particularly with knowledge of no ap- 

 parent practical value. It is forgotten that the 

 great advances in the industrial sciences of 

 modern times, those which have raised the indus- 

 trial and commercial life of the community, and 

 so enormously increased its wealth, have had 

 their origin in university laboratories and like 

 places of what may be termed academic study. 

 Investigations and discoveries on the borderlands 

 of science, and leading to no immediately useful 

 results for mankind, are often in the end the most 

 valuable. It is the duty of universities to provide 

 encouragement and training for men and women 

 who possess special capacities for carrying on 

 work of this kind ; and a wise State will see 

 that these workers are provided with full facilities 

 for the cultivation of their abilities, as well as free- 

 dom to follow what seem to them the most 

 promising paths of investigation. A scientific 

 research laboratory cannot be conducted on the 

 lines of a business house in which each depart- 

 ment has to justify its existence by profitable 

 returns. It must be independent of its patron, 

 whether this be represented by a State depart- 

 ment or by a governing body of commercial men. 

 Unless this is so, our university laboratories and 

 our research workers in fields of pure science may 

 be reduced to the condition of some of the uni- 

 versities in the United States, amusingly illus- 

 trated by President Maclaurin, of the Massachu- 

 setts Institute of Technology, as follows : 



The superintendent of buildings and grounds, or 

 other competent authority, calls upon Mr. Newton. 



Superintendent : Your theory of gravitation is 

 hanging fire unduly. The director insists upon a 

 finished report, filed in his office by 9 a.m. Monday 

 next; summarised on one page; typewritten, and'the 

 main points underlined. .Mso a careful estimate of 

 the cost of research per student-hour. 



Newton: But there is one difficulty which has been 

 puzzling me for fourteen years, and I am not 

 quite ... 



Superintendent (with snap and vigour) . Guess you 

 had better overcome that difficulty bv .Mondav 

 morning or quit. 



The absurdity of the picture is manifest ; yet 

 there is a tendency to regard research as more 

 or less routine work in which results can be 

 ordered and measured as they can by methods of 

 scientific efficiency in industry. This is the present 

 danger, and it is the duty of all who cherish 

 increase of knowledge to see that such in- 

 hibitory conditions are excluded in our labora- 

 tories of creative science. 



