£8 



NA TURE 



[Sept. 27, 188; 



of the presence of Bacteria as the cause of disease has led to 

 successful curative treatmsnt. A not uncommon affliction is 

 inflammation of the bladder accompanied by ammoniacal 

 decomposition of the urine. Microscopical investigation has 

 shown that this ammoniacal decomposition is entirely due to the 

 activity of a Bacterium. Fortunately this Bacterium is at once 

 killed by weak solutions of quinine, which can be injected into 

 the bladder without causing any injury or irritation. This 

 example appears to have great importance, because it is the 

 fact that many kinds of Bacteria are not killed by solutions of 

 quinine, but require other and much more irritant poisons to 

 destroy their life, which could not be injected into the bladder 

 without causing disastrous effects. Since some Bacteria are 

 killed by one poison and some by another, it becomes a matter 

 of the keenest interest to find out all such poisons ; and possibly 

 among them may be some which can be applied so as to kill the 

 Bacteria which produce phthisis, erysipelas, glanders, anthrax, 

 and other scourges of humanity, whilst not acting injuriously 

 upon the body of the victim in which these infinitesimal parasites 

 are doing their deadly work. In such ways as this biology has 

 turned the toy " magnifying-glass " of the last century into a 

 saver of life and health. 



No less has the same agency revolutionised the thoughts of 

 men in every branch of philosophy and speculation. The 

 knowledge of the growth of the chick from the egg and of other 

 organisms from similarly constituted beginnings has been slowly 

 and continuously gained by prodigious labour, extending over 

 generation after generation of students who have occupied the 

 laboratories and lived on the stipends provided by the Govern- 

 ments of European States — not English, but chiefly German. It 

 is this history of the development of the individual animal and 

 plant from a simple homogeneous beginning to a complex 

 heterogeneous adult which has furnished the starting-point for 

 the wide-reaching Doctrine of Evolution. It is this knowledge, 

 coupled with the knowledge of the myriad details of structure of 

 all kinds of animals and plants which tbe faithful occupants of 

 laboratories and the guardians of biological collections have in 

 the past hundred years laboriously searched out and recorded— 

 it is this which enabled Darwin to propound, to test, and to 

 firmly establish his theory of the origin of species by natural 

 selection, and finally to bring the origin, development, and 

 progress of man also into the area of physical science. I have 

 said enough, in referring only to two very diverse examples of 

 the far-reaching c msequences flowing from the discoveries of 

 single-minded investigator,-! in biological science, to remind my 

 hearers that in the domain of biology, as in other sciences, the 

 results attained by those who have laboured simply to extend 

 our knowledge of the structure and properties of living things, 

 in the faith that every increase of knowledge will ultimately 

 bring its blessing to humanity, have in fact led with astonishing 

 rapidity to conclusions affecting most profoundly both the bodily 

 and the mental welfare of the community. 



We who know the beneficent results which must flow more 

 and more from the labours of those who are able to create new 

 knowledge of living things, or, in other words, are able to aid 

 in the growth of biological science, must feel something more 

 than regret — even indignation — that England should do so small 

 a proportion of the laborious investigation which is necessary, 

 and is being carried on for our profit by other nationalities. It 

 must not be supposed, because we have had our Harvey and our 

 Darwin, our Hunter and our Lister, that therefore we have done 

 and are doing all that is needful in the increase of bi jlogical 

 science. The position of this country in relation to the progress 

 of science is not to be decided by the citation of great names. 



We require to look more fully into the matter than this. The 

 question is not whether England has produced some great 

 discoverers, or as many as any other nationality, but whether we 

 might not, with advantage to our own community and that of the 

 civilised world generally, do far more in the field of scientific 

 investigation than we do. 



It may be laid down as a general proposition, to which I 

 know of no important exception, that scientific discovery has 

 only been made by one of two classes of men, namely — (1) those 

 whose time could be devoted to it in virtue of their possessing 

 inherited fortunes ; (2) those whose time could be devoted to it 

 in virtue of their possessing a stipend or endowment especially 

 assigned to them for that purpose. 



Now it is a very remarkable fact that in England, far more 

 than in any other country, the possessors of private fortunes 

 have devoted themselves to scientific investigation. Not only 



have we in all parts of the country numerous dilettanti ' who, 

 especially in various branches of biology, do valuable work in. 

 continually adding to knowledge, quietly pursuing their favourite 

 study without seeking to reach to any great eminence, but it is 

 the fact that many of the greatest names of English discoverers 

 in science are those of men who held no professional p isition 

 designed to maintain an investigator, but owed their opportunity 

 simply to the fact that they enjoyed a more or less ample income 

 by inheritance. Thus, Harvey possessed a private fortune, 

 Darwin also, and Lyell. Such also is true of some of the 

 English naturalists, who more recently have most successfully 

 devoted their energies to research. Those who wish to defend 

 the present neglect of the Government and of public institutions 

 to provide means for the carrying on of scientific research in 

 this country are accustomed to declare as a justification for this 

 neglect that we do very well without such provision, inasmuch 

 as the cultivation of science here flourishes in the hands of those 

 who are in a position of pecuniary independence. The reply to 

 this is obvious. If those few of our countrymen who by 

 accident are placed in an independent position show such ability 

 in the prosecution of scientific research, how much more would 

 be effected in the same direction were the machinery provided 

 to enable those also who are not accidentally favoured by fortune 

 to enter upon the same kind of work ? The number of wealthy 

 men who have distinguished themselves in scientific research in 

 England is simply evidence that there is a natural ability an 1 

 liking for such work in the English character, and is a distinct 

 encouragement to those who have it in their power to do so to 

 offer the opportunity of devoting themselves to research to a 

 larger number of the members of the community. It is 

 impossible to doubt that there are hundreds of men amongst us 

 who have as great capacity for scientific discovery as those 

 whom fortune has favoured with leisure and opportunity. It 

 cannot be doubted that, were the means provided to enable even 

 a proportion of such men to give themselves up to scientific 

 investigation, great discoveries of no less importance to the 

 world than those relative to the cause! of disease and the 

 development of living things from the egg — which I have cited 

 — would be made as a direct consequence of their activity, 

 whereas now we must wait until in due course of time these 

 discoveries shall be made for us in the laboratories of Germany, 

 France, or Russia. 



It should further be pointed out that it is altogether a mistake 

 to suppose that the exi-tence amongst us of a few very eminent 

 men is any evidence that we are contributing largely to the hard 

 work of careful study and observation which really forms the 

 material upon which the conclusions of eminent discoverers are 

 based. You will find in every department of biological know- 

 ledge that the hard work of investigation is being carried on by 

 the well-trained army of German observers. Whether you ask 

 the zoologist, the botanist, the 1 ihysiologist, or the anthropologist, 

 you will get the same answer: it is to German sources that he 

 looks for new information ; it is in German workshops that 

 discoveries, each small in itself, but gradually leading up to 

 great conclusions, are daily being made. To a very large extent 

 the business of those who are occupied with teaching or applying 

 biological science in this country consists in making known what 

 has been done in German laboratories ; our English students 

 flock to Germany to learn the methods of scientific research ; 

 and to such a state of weakness is English science reduced for 

 want of proper nurture and support, that even on some of the 

 rare occasions when a capable investigator of biological problems 

 has been required for the public service, it has been necessary to 

 obtain the assistance of a foreigner trained in the laboratories of 

 Germany. 



Let me now briefly explain what are the arrangements, in 

 number and in kind, which exi-t in other countries for the 

 purpose of promoting the advancement of biological science, 

 which are wanting in this country. 



In the German Empire, with a population of 45,000,000, 

 there are twenty-one universities. These universities are very 

 different from anything which goes by the name in this country. 

 Amongst its other arrangements devoted to the study and teach- 

 ing of all branches of learning and science, each university has 

 five institutes, or establishments, devoted to the prosecution of 

 researches in biological science. The-e are respectively the 

 physiological, the zoological, the anatomical, the pathological, 



1 I use this word in its best and truest sense, and would refer those who 

 have been accustomed to associate with it some implication of contempt, to 

 the wise and appreciative remarks of Goethe on Dilettanti. 



