4 i2 DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



with other members to be nominated by himself or his 

 heirs. Such a board fails from a want of knowledge. 



The methods of applying the income provided by 

 the donor are not always such as to produce any marked 

 result in the direction desired by him. It is generally 

 agreed among scientific workers and experts that the 

 giving of prizes or rewards for scientific discovery does 

 not tend to increase the output of discoveries, however 

 carefully and justly awarded. Though such an award 

 as the £8000 or £10,000 of the Nobel prizes is a very 

 agreeable compliment to the man so honoured, and often 

 richly deserved, no one would urge a would-be promoter 

 of scientific discovery to devote his gift to the foundation 

 of prizes. And so, too, with regard to scholarships or 

 fellowships, it is very generally and rightly held that 

 they do little or nothing in promoting scientific discovery 

 when they are small in value and are only to be held for 

 two or three years. When a young man has taken his 

 university degree in science or medicine a scholarship 

 or fellowship of £250 a year for three years offers no 

 inducement to him, if he is an able man, to abandon his 

 regular professional career. If he accepts it, he will have 

 had no time to go far on the path of discovery before 

 it comes to an end, and he will find at the end of his 

 three years that he has lost that amount of time so far 

 as his profession is concerned, and that there is no life 

 post or career open to him in the line in which he has 

 spent three years — namely, that of a scientific investigator. 

 As a rule, able men will not be drawn off in this way 

 from their professions, but inferior men may be. 



The man, on the other hand, who is specially gifted 

 with the power of scientific discovery will not be affected by 

 such temporary fellowships. He will enter on the career 



