SCIENCE AND THE WAR 113 



man of business, and not the unhappy man of 

 science, who gains the money produced by 

 scientific discoveries. These are often, if not 

 usually, made by accident, and by a man on the 

 track of something else, on the elucidation of 

 which he is probably so intent that he cannot 

 spare time for side-issues, very likely never even 

 thinks of them. Sir James Dewar discovered 

 the principle of the " Thermos flask " whilst he 

 was working at the exceedingly difficult subject 

 of the liquefaction of air. I hope Sir James had 

 the prescience to patent his discovery, and reap 

 the reward which was due to him ; but, if he did, 

 he is one amongst a thousand who never took this 

 trouble and of whom Sic vos non vobis might well 

 be said. When Sabatier had shown the impor- 

 tance of combinations of hydrogen effected by what 

 is known as a catalyst, numerous patents were 

 taken out by other people, of course on which 

 were founded very flourishing businesses. Sabatier 

 profited by none of these so I understand. He 

 received a Nobel prize for his discoveries ; but 

 another hath his heritage. 



Though science has not received any great 

 encouragement, yet in spite of that the cynic 

 might say because of that it has made amazing 

 progress during the past half-century. Mr. 

 Chesterton somewhere notes that " a time may 

 easily come when we shall see the great outburst of 

 science in the Nineteenth Century as something 

 quite as splendid, brief, unique, and ultimately 

 abandoned as the outburst of art at the Renais- 

 sance." That, of course, may be so, but as to 



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