July 12, 19 17] 



NATURE 



39: 



trustees have had to contend are set out towards the 

 end of the president's report in the following words : — 



"All experience teaches that efiective research de- 

 pends on painstaking- labour, arduously, patiently, and 

 persistently applied; while all science teaches that 

 research is effective only in those regions wherein 

 something like demonstration can bj attained. If 

 investigations cannot be well done they are of little 

 worth; if nothing can be proved they are of still less 

 worth, or at best only of negative value. But 

 obvious as these truisms are when stated by them- 

 selves, they have been contradicted daily in the plexus 

 of events which make up what our successors will call 

 the history, recorded and unrecorded, of the institu- 

 tion. Thus it has been suggested not infrequently 

 that promising researches be suspended in order that 

 equally or less promising researches might be taken 

 up ; and it has happened that proposals to abolish 

 departments of research have been seriously advanced 

 before these departments have had time to prove their 

 rights to existence. It is not infrequently suggested, 

 likewise, by otherwise irreproachable correspondents, 

 that the experts of the laboratories and observatories of 

 the institution be set at work under the direction of 

 amateurs, or, in some cases, of those even who have 

 not reached that earliest stage of capacity in science. 



" It goes without saying that all such untoward 

 influences should have little effect on the rise and 

 progress of a research establishment ; but he would be 

 an incompetent administrator who failed to recognise 

 the existence and the dangers of these influences. 

 Most men are still opportunists ; many contemn prin- 

 ciples and theories of procedure; while the character- 

 istic defect of deliberative bodies, strikingly illustrated 

 by legislative assemblies, is lack of deliberation. 

 Moreover, what any organisation, altruistic or other- 

 wise, may accomplish at any epoch, or during any 

 period, will depend ver>^ largely on the status of con- 

 temporary public opinion. No organisation may be 

 rationally expected to rise much above the level of the 

 ideals of those who support and direct it. The law 

 of averages and the 'law of conservation of ignor- 

 ance ' applv in the business of research no less rigor- 

 ously than in other aflfairs of human endeavour. The 

 only difference is that in research, from the nature of 

 the case, we are held to stricter accountabilitv ; it is 

 incumbent on us to be alive to the ideals and the 

 theories w^hich lead to regress as well as alive to the 

 ideals and the theorias which lead to progress 



"Although popular opinion continues to look upon 

 the institution as an establishment of unlimited means, 

 and hence of unlimited capacities, it is an easilv ascer- 

 tained fact that such advances as have been attained 

 are due chiefly to concentration of effort in a few- 

 fields of investigation, the number of these being 

 necessarily limited by the finiteness of income. Of 

 the agencies which have contributed most to these 

 advances the departments of research must be given 

 first rank when quality and quantitv of results accom- 

 plished are taken in account. These departments have 

 supplied also a much-needed verification of the axiom 

 hitherto admitted in all domains of activity except 

 those of research, namely, that if any good work 

 is required the best way to get it done is to commit 

 it to competent men not otherwise preoccupied. Thev 

 have verified, likewise, the equallv obvious truth that 

 large and difficult undertakings demand foresight and 

 oversight, prolonged effort, and a corresponding con- 

 tinuity of support. The idea that discoveries and ad- 

 vances are of meteoric origin and that they are due 

 chiefly to abnormal minds has been rudely shattered 

 by the remorseless experience of the institution. 



"Along with these considerations special mention 

 should be made of another of vital importance to the 



NO. 2489, VOL. 99] 



departments of research. This is their complete auto- 

 nomy within the limits of their annual appropriations. 

 Allusion is made to this matter here partly for the 

 purpose of correcting public misapprehension concern- 

 ing the relations of these departments to the institu- 

 tion as a whole, and partly for the purpose of stating 

 formally the theory of administration followed by the 

 institution during the past twelve years. Such a 

 degree of freedom accorded to the departments of re- 

 search is not only necessary by reason of the extent 

 and the complexity of the affairs of the institution, but it 

 should be regarded as a fundamental principle of 

 sound administration. No one can follow- the details 

 of all these varied affairs. A division of labours is 

 indispensable, and to the greatest extent practicable 

 the director of a department of research should be 

 encouraged to be the autocrat of his departmental 

 destiny. But in so far as departments are granted 

 liberty of action it is an equally fundamental prin- 

 ciple of administration that they should assume corre- 

 sponding responsibi'ities. Autonomous freedom and 

 reciprocal accountability are then, in brief, the essen- 

 tials of the theory under which the departments of 

 research have evolved." 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Birmingham. — Prof. Peter Thompson has been 

 appointed Ingleby lecturer for the year 1918. 



The council has approved of a recommendation of 

 the Senate that no degree congregation be held this 

 year, and has requested the Vice-Chancellor to sign 

 a special warrant conferring degrees in absentia. 



The examination pass list just issued contains the 

 name of Prof. J. H. Barnes, principal of the Agri- 

 cultural College, Lyallpur, and agricultural chemist 

 to the Punjab Department of Agriculture, who has 

 been awarded the degree of D.Sc. for a thesis on 

 "The Insects Attacking Stored Wheat in the Pun- 

 jab and the Methods of Combating Them, including 

 a Chapter on the Chemistry- of Respiration." By a 

 sad coincidence the death of Prof. Barnes, from 

 enteric, has just been announced. 



A donation of loooZ. to the funds of the University 

 has been received from Mr. F. W. V. Mitchell. 



One chapter of the new Regulations for Secondary 

 Schools [Cd. 8541] deals with the provision for ad- 

 vanced courses of instruction for pupils betw-een the 

 ages of sixteen and eighteen years of age, and with 

 the financial aid which the Board is prepared to give 

 towards the establishment of such courses. The 

 regulations state that such courses are to be organised 

 in three groups— science and mathematics, classics, 

 and modern studies — and that schools recognised by 

 the Board as fitted by staff, numbers, equipment, and 

 so on, to undertake such w-ork are eligible for grants 

 up to 40oi. for each course to defray the additional 

 expenditure incurred. The introduction to the regula- 

 tions indicates that the Board of Education contem- 

 plates that in large schools alone will it be possible 

 to arrange advanced courses in each of the three 

 groups, that in the majority of aided schools an 

 advanced course in one subject only will be possible, 

 while in some smaller schools it may not be possible 

 to provide any such advanced teaching. Education 

 authorities are recommended to arrange that each 

 of the three groups shall be provided for in some 

 j school in their respective areas, and co-operation 

 between the education authorities of adjoining areas is 

 to be encouraged. Though difficulties in administration 

 are bound to arise in connection with the inaugura- 



