Neglect of scientific research. 39 



series of connected causes is not less certain than 

 the immediate ones. 



It is a remarkable fact, that of the multitude of 

 rich manufacturers, merchants, capitalists, and land- 

 owners in this country, who have derived such great 

 pecuniary benefits from original scientific research, 

 there is scarcely one who has ever given to a scien- 

 tific society, institution, or investigator, a single 

 thousand pounds for the aid of pure research 

 in experimental physics or chemistry ;* the 

 nearest approach to exceptions are a very few 

 wealthy persons who have devoted themselver per- 

 sonally to scientific discovery. Manufacturers have 

 willingly reaped the advantages of the labours of 

 unpaid discoverers, but have not adequately sowed 

 the means of future progress. Many of those 

 manufacturers and others would, however, willingly 

 give money towards such an object if they under- 

 stood the value and the necessity of scientific 

 research. 



Whilst also many millions of pounds are annually 

 expended in this country upon religious, philanthropic 

 and other good objects, there is scarcely a scien- 

 tific society or institution (with the exception of the 

 Royal Society and the British Association) which 

 expends even the small sum of five hundred pounds 

 a year on pure experimental research in physics or 



* In the year 1870, a gentleman of the name of Davis bequeathed 

 2,000 to the Royal Institution, London, to aid original scientific 

 research. 



