The proper basis of payment for research. 199 



the expenditure of hundreds of millions of pounds 

 upon telegraphs alone ? * 



Objections have been made to definite payment for 

 labour in research, on the ground of indefiniteness of 

 the results, and the impossibility of measuring their 

 value. Can we expect to buy new scientific knowledge 

 at so much a pound, or to retail discovery by the pint ? 

 The work of discoverers is as definite as that of many 

 other persons who are paid. Who can measure the 

 value of the cure of souls, of the duties of a judge, or of 

 those of a field-marshal ? Instead of paying for the 

 labour of research in a definite way, we have adopted 

 unsatisfactoiy makeshifts. Exceptional gifts, and semi- 

 charitable pensions, have been with difficulty obtained 

 in a few cases for scientific men ; most often for those 

 who applied scientific knowledge to practical uses 

 than for those who discovered that knowledge. In 

 this country, neither lawyers, medical men, military 

 persons, nor clergymen are paid definitely by results, 

 but by time and labour, in accordance with the re- 

 putation of the man, and there is no sufficient reason 

 why investigators should not be similarily remunerated. 

 The differences in the cases are only ones of degree. 



The time has arrived when this great evil should 

 be made known and remedied, and men of science 

 should press upon our Government, as a matter of 

 justice to themselves, and necessary for the nation's 

 welfare, that the accumulated fees from patents should 

 be applied to the establishment of a Scientific depart- 



* A fleet of thirty ships, varying in size from 500 to 5000 tons each, is employed 

 in laying and repairing telegraph cables, and 25 millions of pounds have already been 

 invested in sue/marine cable enterprises. 



