404 



NA TURE 



[August 27, 1903 



develop their work in the direction of applied science. A 

 large body — I cannot say how many — of outsiders who are 

 well-wishers of these universities is of opinion that they 

 should, and there is an idea abroad that they are suffering 

 financially now from having neglected this side of educa- 

 tion in the past. There was, for example, a leading article 

 in the Times of May 25 in the course of which the writer 

 suggests that they may have suffered through having a 

 false reputation for being very wealthy bodies, and he 

 adds : — " Or is it perchance, because the modern millionaire, 

 being a man of his age and an Englishman to boot, has 

 no great belief in the economic value of knowledge as such, 

 and no great confidence in the capacity of our ancient 

 universities to adapt themselves to the needs of the coming 

 time? " Now, so far as the chemical manufacturers of 

 this country are concerned, I can say with some personal 

 experiences of my own that they certainly have shown no 

 great belief hitherto in the economic value of scientific 

 knowledge, as they now know to their own cost. But if, 

 to make a purely hypothetical conjecture, some beneficent 

 millionaire were to test the capacity of our old universities 

 for undertaking this kind of work, and were to offer 

 adequate means for the purpose, I feel pretty confident, from 

 what I know of the spirit which dominates their governing 

 bodies, that such an offer would be accepted both at Cam- 

 bridge and here at Oxford with few dissentients. If 

 such a departure were placed within their power, I think 

 that that great public which glories in the past achieve- 

 ments of these universities would rejoice in their new de- 

 velopment. And I will further add that the creation of 

 chairs of applied science would react upon and strengthen 

 the teaching of all those sciences which are in any way 

 connected with industrial productiveness. 



Of course, this is all hypothesis — the most nebulous of 

 hypotheses. We all know, unfortunately, that the financial 

 resources of the universities have been, and are, inadequate 

 for the purpose of enabling them to meet the requirements 

 of modern scientific education, either in the way of staff, 

 accommodation, or equipment. It can be said, and jqstly 

 said, that so long as these universities are without the 

 means of developing their schools of pure physical science 

 to an extent worthy of their reputation, it is useless to talk 

 about developing the teaching of applied science. So it 

 may be. But I remind you that we are still in the region 

 of hypothesis, and the captious critic might retort by say- 

 ing that they have not done even as much as they might, 

 and could, have done for the proper development of scientific 

 teaching with the means already at their disposal — that 

 they are still overweighted by ancient tradition, and that 

 their internal scientific forces are still feeble as compared 

 with the preponderating forces of the advocates of the 

 older culture. There is no time, even if I knew enough 

 about the inner mechanism of university administration, 

 to discuss this aspect of the question, but if you want to 

 know an American view of the case — a strong view ! — I 

 would invite attention to an address by Prof. Victor Alder- 

 son, Dean of the Armour Institute of Technology, delivered 

 before the Chicago Literary Club in October last year, an 

 abstract of which was published in Nature of February 12. 



The question of the recognition of applied science by our 

 old universities must, as I said, be faced — ^the time is at 

 hand for them to consider seriously whether it is desirable 

 that they should cater for the training of those who are 

 destined to be the founders and upholders of our national 

 prosperity. The longer this question is shelved the smaller 

 will grow the chances of their being able to participate 

 in the work. At present we in this country are not up to 

 the German level so far as concerns the higher technical 

 training of industrial leaders. Our universities, in other 

 words, have not yet had to encounter the full force of com- 

 petition with newer institutions of the rank of the technical 

 high schools. We have but very few, if any, schools of 

 this status here now, but if I read the signs of the times 

 correctly, the differentiation between the old and the new 

 education — which has already become well marked — is 

 bound with the progress of science to become more and 

 more strongly pronounced. Our newer universities — 

 especially those in large manufacturing centres— will be 

 driven more and more into the teaching of applied science, 

 and our polytechnics and technical colleges will perforce 



NO. 1765, VOL. 68] 



have to raise their educational standard. The effect cannot 

 but be to cause the older universities to become of smaller 

 importance in the general scheme of national education as 

 time goes on. That is why I have taken advantage of the 

 opportunity which has been placed in my hands for raising 

 this note of alarm, because even if nothing practical results 

 from this meeting, it may at any rate be useful to let it be 

 known that many of us desire to see the most ancient and 

 the most renowned of our educational foundations doing 

 more for the education of a nation the prosperity of which 

 is so largely dependent on productive industry. 



Whether as the outcome of the lectures delivered and 

 the conferences held during this meeting the attitude of 

 the uni%'ersities towards applied science undergoes modifi- 

 cation or not, the ventilation of opinions cannot but be of 

 advantage in many ways. If, for example, it is made 

 manifest that the current of national thought is moving 

 slowly — alas ! very slowly — towards the recognition of 

 science as the main factor of industrial progress, it may 

 help to emphasise the necessity for strengthening and de- 

 veloping the teaching of pure science. If the beneficent 

 millionaires are not forthcoming for the purpose of en- 

 dowing applied science, there is, at any rate, ample scope 

 for their beneficence in the endowment of pure science in 

 our old universities. A school of active science workers 

 would — to use a quasi-scientific expression found in_ the 

 pages of many writers of fiction — " galvanise into life " 

 the science teaching of the schools. If you can only help 

 to mould the public mind into the belief that science is a 

 living reality veiling truths of inestimable value to 

 humanity from every point of view, moral, social and 

 material— truths that are to be wrested only by conscien- 

 tious, laborious and persistent research — you will be assist- 

 ing a great cause. If you will proclaim this doctrine from 

 the house-tops and assist in sweeping away that dust 

 heap of formal text-book knowledge which passes for 

 science in our examination rooms you will be doing some- 

 thing towards raising the general level of opinion in this 

 country. We need it badly ! Think of all the creative in- 

 tellectual power running to waste — the unrealised assets 

 in the way of originality of thought which Great Britain 

 might have at her disposal if the brain power of her teachers 

 and students were only diverted into the right channels. 

 The old universities, by virtue of their prestige, their tradi- 

 tions, and their past achievements, have still a powerful 

 hold upon the public mind. They must open their doors 

 still more widely to science if they wish to retain their 

 hold. If their means are at present insufficient to enable 

 them to meet the requirements of the age, they can still 

 forward the national cause by upholding the dignity of 

 science, by insisting upon originality of thought as an 

 essential qualification for its successful teaching, and by 

 helping to dispel the notion that it undergoes degradation 

 by being applied to human welfare. It must be realised, 

 and it cannot be realised too soon, that the peaceful cam- 

 paign of industrial competition requires leaders well trained 

 in scientific method, and not crammed with mere formal 

 book learning — men as alert in mind and resourceful in 

 meeting difficulties, as upright in principle, as keen in 

 enthusiasm, as far-seeing in imagination, and with as 

 intimate a knowledge of human nature as the statesmen, 

 warriors, divines, lawyers, and schoolmasters which these 

 old universities have given to their country. The victory 

 of the future is with that nation which enables her children 

 to approximate more closely towards Tennyson's ideal : — 



"... the crowning race 

 Of those that eye to eye shall look 

 On knowledge ; under whose command 

 Is Earth and Earth's ; and in their hand 

 Is Nature like an open book." 



IRRIGATION WORKS. 

 India. 

 TN a recent number of the Revue genirale des Sciences is 

 -*■ .an article on irrigation in India which is interesting 

 as showing the impression made on the mind of a foreigner 

 after an inspection of the great works that have been carried 

 out under the British administration for mitigating the 



