December 20, 1894] 



NA TURE 



187 



work, or to obtain situations as professors or assistants, except 

 by the aid of substantial endowments for their support, during 

 the three or four years more of necessary assiduous ^tudy. 



In the stress o( modern life, and in the allurements towards 

 more certain pecuniary resul's, noihing but such endowments 

 can avert the withdrawal from scientific pursuits of many young 

 men of high promise, whdse genius and tastes and ambition 

 strongly incline them to science, and who would be secured to 

 it if this temporary support were afforded. 



The endowments of our colleges and universities in aid of 

 post-graduate work in science are much less, I suppose, than is 

 commonly imagined. I find no such support for postgraduate 

 work in scienci", either at C'irnell University, at the University 

 of the City of New York, ai Brnwn University, at Amherst, or 

 even at the Johns Hoi'kin- University. No statement of the 

 endowments of the new Claik University at Worcester has as 

 yet been published. Princeton, though having a hundred 

 under-graduate scholarships, has but one post-graduate fellow- 

 ship for science ; Yale but two — the Silliman and the Sloanc 

 Fellowships. 



Columbia College has two fellowships expressly restricted to 

 science, viz. the Tyndall Fellowship of 64S dols. annually, 

 and the Barnard Fellowship, before rc-ierred to, of about 500 

 dols. annually. Besides ihese, however, twenty-four geneial 

 university fellowships have been established, of 5C0 dols. each, 

 for post-giaduate study, of which eighteen are in present oper- 

 ation. About one-third of ihese are as-igned to science ; 

 making now eight for science at Columbia, with probably two 

 more in 1893 or 1894 In architecture, moreover, there are 

 three addiiiinal noble pos'-graHuate fellowships at Columbia — ■ 

 the Schermerhorn of 1300 dols. annually, and the two McKim 

 Fellowships o( loooools each, to support study in foreign 

 travel. In the Medical Dcpariment, also, there are five valuable 

 prizes for proficiency. 



The University of Pennsylvania has the Tyndall Fellowship, 

 before referred to ; and, m I he Department of Hygiene, an 

 admirable laboratory fiited up by Mr. Henry C. Lea, with a 

 fellowship of 10,000 dols. endowed by Mr. Thomas A. Scott, at 

 present applied to original research in bacteriology. 



At Harvard, besides the three Bullard Fellowships of 

 5000 dols. each, esiablished in 1891, to promote original re- 

 search in the medical school, there are two post-graduate fellow- 

 ships reslricted to science exclusively, namely, the Tyndall 

 Fellowship of about 500 dols. annually, and the income of the 

 recently established Joseph Lovering Fund, the principal of 

 which is now about 8000 dols. There are also eleven other 

 general fellowships, viz. the Parker, the Kirkland, and the 

 Morgan Fellowships, availal'le for promising graduate students 

 in any branch, of which about five have been usually assigned 

 to science. These fellowships give an income of from 450 dols. 

 10 700 dols. a year. Harvard has also foity-six scholarships 

 available for graduate sludents, varying in income from 150 dols. 

 to 300 d'lls. each, of which about seventeen are assigned to 

 science. During the last \enr, according to the report of Prof. 

 Pierce, the Dean, theie were 193 applications for those post- 

 graduate fellowships ai d scholarships, seventy-o e of which 

 were in science. Only i.ne- third of the applicants could receive 

 the aid. The Dean adds : 



" The number ol appi in>ments is still very insufficient to 

 meet demands of pr.nn i' g siudents who wish to enier the 

 graduate scl ool, and are unable to do so without a-sislance. " 

 (Report Harvard Coll. 1891, p. 92.) The tables published by 

 him indicate tliat a ccnsidciable number of those not aided 

 withdrew from science ; and that many others who were entered 

 for the firsi )ear in the graduate school would, il not aided, 

 afterwards leave. Ii is graiifying to observe the further fact, so 

 encouraningalso for the ynung graduates who wish, if possilile, to 

 enteruponascieniificcaieei,Ihat all who had enjoyed these fellow- 

 ships tor the lull term of ihree years, andd id not coninue their 

 studies furiher abroad, ai •■nee received honourable Ipo-iiions. 



From the above synoi-is it appears that in all these Colleges 

 (.md I kiion of no other similar fellowships elsewhere) there 

 are onl) ab' ut twenty-six adequately endowed post -graduate 

 fellowshii s in science. As these should be continueil for ai 

 least three years, there is provision altogether for only about 

 nine per year — not one f"U ih the number required tosupply the 

 annual loss in • ur 150 colleges, to .say nothing of the incieasing 

 demand ihn.ugh the ^ro^^th and improvements in the culleges 

 Ihemselv. s. As it is Ir m such specially trained students thai 

 the great piof ^sirsof ihe future must be drawn, the need ol 

 much greater endowments for new recruits is apparent. 



In England the aids afforded by fellowships in their univer- 

 sities are familiar to all. Sir Isaac Newton, who is to modern 

 science what Shakespeare is in literature, was sustained from 

 his student days successively in a .scholarship, a fellowship, 

 and as professor at Trinity College at Cambridge. Besides 

 those aids, the Royal Com^uissioncrs of the Exhibition of 1S51 

 instituted in 1891 " Exhibition Science scholarships 'for ad- 

 vanced students, to which 25,000 dols. yearly is to be applied 

 in sutns of 750 dols. each. In the first year sixteen appoint- 

 ments were made, to be held for two, and probably for three, 

 years by students who show capacity, and " who advance 

 science by experimental work." ' 



On this subject a most interesting discussion took place last 

 year in the French Academy of Sciences. On April 27, 1891, 

 the Secretary read the following extracts from the will of the 

 late M. Cahours, a deceased member of the Academy : 



" I have frequently had the opportunity of observing, in the 

 course of my scientific career, that many young men distin- 

 guished and endowed with real talent for science, found them- 

 selves obliged to abandon it, because before beginning they 

 had no efficacious help which provided them with the first 

 necessities of life, and allowed them to devote themselves 

 exclusively to scientific studies. 



" With the object of encouraging such young workers, who 

 for want of sufficient resources find themselves powerless to 

 finish works in course of execution, ... I bequeath to the 

 Academy of Sciences . . . 100,000 francs, . . . the interest 

 to be distributed yearly by way ol encouragement to any young 

 men who have made themselves known by some interesting 

 works, and more particularly by chemical researches ; . . . 

 as far as possible to young men without fortune, not having 

 salaried offices, and who, from want of a sufficient situation, 

 would find themselves without the possibility of following up 

 their researches. These pecuniary encouragements ought to be 

 given for several years to the same yuung men, if the Com- 

 missioner thinks their productions have sufficient value ; . , . 

 to cease when they shall have other sufficiently remunerative 

 positions." 



M. Janssen, then addressing the Academy, said : 

 "This affords an example to all who hereafter may desire to 

 encourage the sciences by their liberality. M. Cahours, who 

 knew the urgent necessities of science, had, like most of us, 

 become convinced of the need of introducing a new form of 

 scientific recompenses. 



" Our prizes will always continue to meet a great and noble 

 necessity. Their value, the difiiculy of obtaining them, and 

 the eclat they take from the illustriousness of the body thai 

 grants them, will always make them the highest and most 

 valuable of recompenses. But the value also of the works it 

 is necessary to produce in order to lay claim to them forbids 

 them to beginners. It is a held only accessible to matured 

 talents. But there are many young men endowed with precious 

 aptitudes, inclined to pure science, but turned very often from 

 this envied career by the difficulties of existence, and taking 

 with regret a direction towards more immediate results. And 

 yet many among them possess talents which, if well cultivated, 

 might do honour and good to science. . . . These difficulties 

 are increased every day by the marked advance of the exigencies 

 of life. 



" We must find a prompt remedy for this state of things, if 

 we do not wish to see an end of the recruitment of science. 

 This truth is beginning to be generally felt. The Government 

 has already created institutions, scholarships, and encourage- 

 ments, which partly meet the necessity. Some generous donors 

 are also working in this manner. I will mention specially the 

 noble foundation of Mdlle. Dosne, in accordance with whose 

 instructions a hall is at this moment being built, where young 

 men, having sho.vn disiingui-hcd ajitituiJcs lor high administra- 

 tion, lor the bar, or for history, will receive for three years all 

 the means of carrying on high and peaceful studies. Let us 

 say, then, plainly (and in speaking thus ne only feebly echo 

 the words of the most illusitious members of the Academy), 

 that it is by following the way so nobly opened by Cahours 

 that the interests and prospects of science will be most effi- 

 c.iciously served." - 



Huxley is said to have once stated that "any country would 

 find it to its interest 10 spend ico,ooo dols. in first jinJing a 

 Faraday, and then putting him in a position where he could do 



1 Sir William Thomson, Proceedings^ Koj'at Society, 1891, 

 p. 225. 



2 Nature, May 7, 1891 (vol. x!iv. p. 17). 



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