Discoverers should be paid from public funds. 1 8 3 



ledge of the relations of science to national existence 

 and welfare, and to adopt some means of encouraging 

 discovery. The greatest difficulty, probably, which 

 has to be overcome, is not so much how to obtain 

 funds for the purpose, as how to employ them suc- 

 cessfully, and especially how to prevent their getting 

 into the hands of unsuitable persons. But, as methods 

 have been found of remunerating all other classes of 

 persons, ways may be devised of remunerating scien- 

 tific investigators. It is only because the case is novel 

 that it seems difficult ; it is probably no more intrin- 

 sically difficult to establish a professorship of research 

 than to found an ecclesiastical benefice. 



The great difficulty of determining from what source 

 discoverers should be paid for their labours, arises 

 from the fact that all classes of the community share 

 in the benefit. It is evident they should in some 

 measure be paid from a source towards which all 

 classes either directly or indirectly contribute, and 

 therefore from some public fund. The persons who first 

 use scientific knowledge are the compilers of scientific 

 books, and teachers of science ; but these only dis- 

 seminate the knowledge, and do not derive from it 

 any great pecuniary advantage, they are only the 

 agents for supplying the knowledge to others. The 

 persons who first convert such knowledge into valua- 

 ble commercial commodities are inventors and manu- 

 facturers who have received scientific education or 

 advice ; but those who derive the greatest pecuniary 

 benefit from it, and who should therefore either 



