2io Suggestions respecting Government Grants. 



improvement. It has resulted both in a large increase 

 in the number of applicants and of researches ; and 

 has shown that there exists in this country a large 

 amount of scientific ability in need of encouragement. 

 The amounts granted were increased in magnitude so 

 as to cover in some cases payments made to assistants 

 and the entire outlay made for experiments, also a 

 small payment for a portion of the time occupied in 

 actual research. The plan of awarding the grants has 

 been for work proposed by the applicants to be done, 

 and not for that already performed. How far a 

 retrospective method, might be worthy of trial, is 

 difficult to decide. It has been objected to it that 

 the claims of scientific investigators for researches 

 already made, would be so great and so con- 

 vincing that it would be impossible to resist them, 

 and the funds required to satisfy those claims would 

 be so large as to render the plan quite impracticable ; 

 if however the retrospective period was limited to a 

 short time, a year for example, the difficulty would be 

 lessened. There would still however remain the 

 great difficulty of valuing the results. This might 

 probably be overcome by regulating the money pay- 

 ment according to the time, labour, pecuniary expen- 

 diture, and scientific status of the particular inves- 

 tigator, and leaving genius to be rewarded by the 

 fame and honour of the results. 



No system of aid however can place scientific 

 investigation in a satisfactory position in this country, 

 which does not include certain remuneration for time, 



