ix SCIENTIFIC MOTIVE 239 



not likely to be neglected, but it is not the case with 

 those for which no immediate use can be seen, yet 

 almost all scientific research comes within that category. 

 This is the kind of research which needs encouragement 

 more than any other, and demands the greatest amount 

 of originality, inspiration and enthusiasm to produce 

 apparently insignificant results. The man who has zeal 

 for work of this kind, who is a born researcher, should 

 be cherished by his country above all others. 



We have any number of practical men, but brain-craft is the 

 master of hand-craft. England needs brain- craft. We want 

 men who cultivate chemistry for its own sake without substratum 

 of utilitarianism. Men whose discoveries, like that of phos- 

 phorus by Brandt, of the electric oxidation of nitrogen by 

 Priestley, of potassium and sodium by Davy, of aniline by 

 Unverdorben, of benzene by Faraday, and of chloroform by 

 Soubeiran, seemed at the time never likely to be of the slightest 

 use to anybody. Sir William Oroolces. 



" La Eepublique n'a pas besoin de savants " the 

 Eepublic has no use for men of science coldly remarked 

 the president of the tribunal of French Kevolutionists 

 which condemned to death the great chemist Lavoisier 

 in 1793. The founder of modern chemistry met his 

 death calmly and with dignity, and his body was placed 

 in an unmarked grave. It was not long, however, 

 before the French people realised that the execution 

 of Lavoisier was a crime against the whole intellectual 

 world. Two years after his life had been sacrificed to 

 the terrorists of the Kevolution, the nation took part 

 in a solemn funeral ceremony; and orations in his 

 honour were publicly pronounced not only by friends 

 who mourned his death, but also by politicians respon- 

 sible for it. " Compared with the growth of science," 

 said Prof. C. S. Minot, " the shiftings of Governments 



