May 14, 1914] 
NATURE 
279 
tite CARNEGIE TRUST .+ 
Wa Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scot- 
land has been in operation for twelve years, and 
it is now possible to draw some general conclusions 
as to the success which has attended its working. No 
other scheme for the endowment of higher education 
and research in this country has been planned on such 
a large scale as that indicated in the present report 
and its predecessors, and the progress of an experi- 
ment of such magnitude has been followed with in- 
terest by all who have to do with University affairs. 
The financial statement for the year 1912-13 shows 
that the annual income of the trust amounts to rather 
more than 100,000l., and after defraying the expenses 
of administration there is left about 99,0001. as the 
net revenue available for distribution under the two 
main heads of the scheme. Half of this sum is ear- 
marked annually for the payment of students’ fees, 
while the other moiety is devoted (a) to the better 
equipment of the Scottish universities and colleges by 
the foundation of additional chairs and lectureships, 
and by the provision of new laboratories and _per- 
manent equipment, and (b) to the endowment of re- 
search. Of course, the equipment section of the ex- 
penditure also plays its part in the advancement of 
research work, as it furnishes places in which inves- 
tigations can be carried on and also helps to provide 
posts for men who become directors of research in 
their various departments. It will be seen that the 
operations of the trustees are financially on a grand 
scale; for the funds at their disposal annually repre- 
sent a sum equivalent to about 60 per cent. of the total 
Government grant in support of the higher educa- 
tional institutions in England and Wales. 
In the allocation of the funds, the trustees have 
been guided by two main considerations. First, they 
decided that their assistance to the four universities 
and their kindred colleges should be given under a 
quinquennial scheme, so that each step forward has 
been based upon the allocation of approximately half 
a million sterling. Secondly, a general rule was laid 
down that the trust would not hamper its income by 
paying salaries for new posts year by year out of the 
annual revenue, but instead, any new chair or lecture- 
ship is endowed fully at the start, so that its subse- 
quent career entails no further draft upon the funds 
of the trustees. In this way, each chair on its founda- 
tion disappears from the books of the trust, and the 
next quinquennial distribution can be devoted to entirely 
fresh needs. 
Any visitor to the Scottish universities in recent 
years must have been struck by the progress which 
has been made in the provision of new laboratories 
and departments of all kinds; buildings have sprung 
up until the older part of the fabric appears to be lost 
in the new. But buildings alone are of little value, 
and the influence of the trust is equally marked in 
the large increases of staff which have been rendered 
possible. 
These, however, though they represent the major 
part of the trust’s expenditure, are by no means the 
most striking monument which the trustees have 
raised, for their endowment of research and post- 
graduate study has been on an equally far-reaching 
scale. A system of scholarships and fellowships has 
been founded, which is supplemented by a series of 
grants in aid of research to Scottish graduates resident 
in Scotland; and this part of the trust’s work has 
been of equal, if not greater, importance to the Scot- 
tish university system. Thus from the time a student 
enters the University to the day he leaves Scotland 
he finds a helping hand extended to him should he 
wish to grasp it. 
1 Twelfth Annual Report of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of 
Scotland, 1912-13. 
NO. 2324, VOL. 93] 
country. 
During his undergraduate career, he may obtain 
payment of his university fees; later, he may aspire 
to carry out researches, in which case he may apply 
for a scholarship or a fellowship. The research 
scholarships are conferred upon students on the recom- 
mendation of experts—usually the persons under 
whom the beginner in research will have to take his 
first steps in original work. Research fellowships are 
meant for men who have already accomplished some- 
thing, and they are allocated on the merits of the work 
which the candidate has already published. In neither 
case is there any competitive examination, nor do the 
trustees bind themselves to furnish a fixed number of 
scholarships or fellowships in a given year. This is 
one of the most desirable features of their policy; 
for, as any teacher knows, an institution may turn 
out, say twenty first-class men in a given year, whilst 
in the following year only one or two may appear, so 
that the granting of a fixed number of scholarships 
per annum simply means that in some years a first- 
class man may not secure an appointment to a scholar- 
ship which in the following year will fall to the lot of 
a much inferior man owing to there being a dearth 
of candidates. It should be pointed out that the 
trustees retain all these appointments in their own 
hands, so that graduates of all the four universities 
are dealt with on equal terms. The scholarships are 
of the value of tool. per annum, and are tenable for 
one year with a possibility of extension or of the 
holder’s promotion to a fellowship; the fellowships are 
of the value of 150l. per annum, and are normally 
tenable for two years, though further renewals are 
possible. 
The facts given in the report with regard to the 
subsequent careers of scholars and fellows go to prove 
that the research training they have undergone has 
fitted these men for the most varied appointments ; 
and it must be remembered that the actual output of 
research work during the tenure of a scholarship or 
fellowship is not by any means the full index of the 
success of the scheme. Most of the men continue 
their investigations after they have severed their 
actual connection with the trust, and their later work 
must to some extent be placed to the credit of the 
trustees. 
The impetus to research which has been produced 
by the work of the trust can be gauged from an 
example chosen from one science, chemistry. In the 
eight years 1903-11, the trust appointed in this depart- 
ment forty-five scholars, twenty-five fellows, and 
thirty-one grantees. The work of these has resulted 
in the publication of more than 130 original communi- 
cations to scientific journals. Now, in 1912, the con- 
tributions of the whole British chemical world to the 
Transactions of the Chemical Society amounted to 
only double this number, 266, so that it is evident that 
the Carnegie Trust, by its encouragement of research, 
has indirectly in the course of eight years produced a 
series of results equal to half the annual output of 
the whole Empire at the present time. This, it must 
be remembered, represents only a single department 
of the trust’s activities; for, in addition to chemistry, 
work is being carried out in physics, biology, medi- 
cine, economics, history, and languages. 
One final point deserves note. In dealing with a 
machine of this magnitude, it is, of course, impos- 
sible to proceed without laying down some general 
rules; but the Carnegie Trustees have hitherto 
avoided the pitfall of too great rigidity, and the 
flexibility of their system is one of its most valuable 
features. There can be no doubt that Dr. Andrew 
Carnegie’s experiment has resulted in brilliant success 
in the development of the research talent oleae 
