84 BIOLOGY AND THE STATE II 



to enter upon research as a profession, when the 

 chances of employment are so few and far between. 



Before stating, as I propose to do, what appears to 

 me a reasonable and proper method of removing to 

 some extent the defect in our national life due to 

 the want of provision for scientific research, I will en- 

 deavour to meet some of the objections which are 

 usually raised to such views as those which I am ad- 

 vocating. The endowment of research by the State, 

 or from public funds of any kind, is opposed on various 

 grounds. One is that such action on the part of the 

 Government is well enough in Continental States, but 

 is contrary to the spirit of English statecraft, which 

 leaves scientific as well as other enterprise to the in- 

 dividual initiative of the people. This objection is 

 based on error, both as to fact and theory. It is well 

 enough to leave to individual effort the conduct of 

 such enterprises as are remunerative to the parties who 

 conduct them ; but it is a mistake to speak of scientific 

 research as an " enterprise " at all. The mistake arises 

 from the extraordinary pertinacity with which so- 

 called " invention " is confounded with the discovery 

 of scientific truth. New knowledge in biological or 

 other branches of science cannot be sold ; it has no 

 marketable value. Koch could not have sold the 

 discovery of the Bacterium of phthisis for as much as 

 sixpence, had he wished to do so. Accordingly, we 

 find that there is not, and never has been, any tendency 

 among the citizens of this country to provide for 

 themselves institutions for the manufacture of an 

 article of so little pecuniary value to the individual 



