ENDOWMENT FOR RESEARCH 47 



a committee on distribution would always favor such definite 

 projects, as against a proposition to explore some vaguely de- 

 fined problem of physics or chemistry? 



I think, therefore, that the proportion of the income to be 

 devoted to the immediate subvention of research ought to be 

 small at best; the aid would probably be more efficient, if 

 administered through existing scientific societies, who would 

 receive from time to time such additions to their research 

 funds as would seem commensurate with their previous suc- 

 cess in promoting investigation. The existence of a central 

 reviewing body would act as a wholesome restraint upon these 

 smaller scientific bodies, while the relative needs of investi- 

 gators could be better judged by a jury of experts in their im- 

 mediate field of work, than by such a heterogeneous committee 

 as would be furnished by the trustees themselves. 



On the other hand, the suggestion that the institution 

 should play the part of a private benefactor to our universi- 

 ties, by adding to their endowment, building and equipping 

 laboratories, augmenting professors' salaries or providing 

 them with private assistants, seems to me to savor of paternal- 

 ism and to open the way to serious abuses, while at the same 

 time it might cause colleges to shape their course with the sole 

 view of pleasing the guardians of the fund, for the time being. 



It seems doubtful whether any salary could be paid to a 

 body of academicians, sufficient to enable them to devote 

 their whole time to research; and it is a fair question whether 

 it would really be desirable to set a body of men apart in a 

 scientific academy, at the present day, without that contact 

 with students which a university provides. It must be remem- 

 bered that the Royal Institution of London is not an academy 

 in the strictest sense; nor do the resident lecturers owe a duty 

 to a foundation, but rather to the subscribers. With the 

 enormous distances separating our educational centres, it 



