520 



NATURE 



{Sept. 27, 1883 



Museum, and four at Kew, as coming into the category which 

 we have in view. In London, then, we may reckon approxim- 

 ately some fourteen or fifteen subsidised p sts for biological 

 research In Oxford there fall under this cat gory the professor- 

 ship of anatomy and his assistant, that of physiology, that of 

 zoology, that of botany. The Oxford professorships are well 

 supported by endowment, averaging 700/. or 800/. a year ; but 

 they are inadequately provided with a'-si-tance as compared with 

 corresponding German positions. Whilst Oxford has thus five 

 posts, Cambridge has at present the same number, though the 

 stipends are of less average value. In regard to Durham, it 

 does not appear that the biological professorships (which have 

 their seat in the Newcastle College of Science) are supported by 

 stipends derived from endowment : they fall under another 

 category, to which allusion will be made below, of purely 

 teaching positions, supported by the fees paid for such teaching 

 by pupils. The Victoria University (Owens College, Man- 

 chester), supports its professors of physiology, anatomy, zoology, 

 botany, and pathology, by means partly of endowment, parily 

 of pupils' fees. By the provisio.i of adequate laboratories and 

 of salaries for a-sistants to ench professor, and of student- 

 fellowships, Owens College gives direct support to original 

 investigation. We may reckon five major and eight minor p >sts 

 a s dedicated to biological research in this college. Altogether, 

 then, we have 15 positions in Loi.djn and 23 in the provinces 

 (taking assistantsliips, and professorships, and curatur.-hips 

 together) — a total of 38 in all England with its 25,000,000 

 inhabitants, as against the 300 in Germany with its 45,000,000 

 mhabitants. In proportion to its populati n (leaving aside the 

 c msideration of its greater wealth), England has only about 

 one-fourth of the provision for the advance uent of biological 

 research which exists in Germany. 



It would not be fair to reckon in this comparison the various 

 biological professorships in small colleges recently created, and 

 paid to a >mall extent by stipends derived from endowments, in 

 the provincial towns of England, for the holders of these chairs 

 are called upon to teach a variety of subjects, for instance, 

 zoology, botany, and geology combined ; and not only is the 

 devotion of the energies i f their teaching staff to scientific dis- 

 covery not contemplated in the arrangement of these institutions, 

 but, as a matter of fact, the large demands made on the 

 professors in the way of teaching must deprive them of the time 

 necessary for any serious investigation. Such posts, in the fact 

 that neither time, assistant?, nor proper laboratories are provided 

 to enable their holders to engage in scientific research, are 

 schoolma-ter-hips rather than professorships, as the word is 

 used in German universities. 



One result of the exceedingly small provision of pos tions in 

 England similar to those furnished by the German university 

 system, and of the irregular, uncertain character of many of those 

 which do exist, is that there is- an insufficient supply of young 

 men widing to enter upon the career of zoologist, botanist, 

 physiol igist, or pathologist as a profession. The number of 

 p >,-ts is too small to create a profes ion, i.e. an ave tie of 

 success ; anil consequently, whereas in Germany there is always 

 a large body of new men ready to fill up the vacancies as they 

 occur in the professorial organisation, in England it very natur- 

 ally does not appear to our university students as a reasonable 

 thing 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 endeavour to meet some of the objec- 

 tions which are usually raised to such views as those which I 

 am advocating. The endowment of research by the State, or 

 Iroui public funds of any kind, is opposed on various ground-. 

 One is that such action on the part of the Government is well 

 enough in Continental States, but is contrary to the spit it of 

 English statecraft, which leaves scientific as well as other 

 enterprise to the individual 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 "enter- 

 prise " at all. The mistake arises from the extraordinary pertin- 

 acity 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 them- 

 selves institutions for the manufacture of an article of so little 

 pecuniary value to the individual who turns it out as is new 

 knowledge. On the other hand, as a matter of fact, the 

 providing of means for the manufacture of that article is not 

 only not foreign to English statecraft, but is largely, though not 

 largely enough, undertaken by the English State. The Royal 

 Observatories, the British Museum, the Royal Gardens at Kew, 

 the Geological Survey, the Government grant of 4,000/. a year 

 to the Royal Society, the 300/. or 400/. a year (not a large sum) 

 expended through the medical officer ol the Privy Council upon 

 the experimental investigation of disease, are ample evidence 

 that such providing of means for creating new knowledge forms 

 part of the natural and recognised responsibilities of the B.itish 

 Government. Such a responsibility clearly is recognised in this 

 country, and does fall, according to the present arrangement of 

 things, upon the central Governrm nt. What we have to regret 

 is, that those who temporarily hold the reins of government fail 

 to perceive the lamentable inadequacy of the mode in which 

 this respon ibility is met. 



A second objection w hich is made to the endowment of re- 

 search by public funds, or by other means, such as voluntary 

 contributions, is this : it is stated that men engaged in scientific 

 research ought to teach, and thus gain their livelihood. It is argued, 

 in fact, that there is no need whatever to provide stipends or 

 laboratories for researchers, since they have only to stand up 

 and teach in order to make incomes sufficient to keep them and 

 their families, and to provide themselves with laboratories. This 

 is a very plausible statement, because it is the fact that some in- 

 vestigators have also been excellent lecturers, and have been 

 able to make an income by teaching whilst carrying on a limited 

 amount of scientific inve- tigation. But neither by teaching in 

 the form of popular lectures, nor by teaching university or pro- 

 fessional students who desire as a result to pass some examina- 

 tion test, is it possible, where there is a fair field and no favour, 

 for a man to yam a reasonable income and at the same time to 

 leave himself time and energy to carry on original investiga- 

 tions in science. 



In some universities, such as those of Scotland, the privilege 

 of conferring degrees of pecuniary value to their possessors be- 

 comes a source of income to the professors of the university ; 

 they are, in fact, able to make considerable incomes, indepen- 

 dently of endowment, by compelling the candidates for degrees 

 to pay a fee to each professor in the faculty for the right of 

 attending his lectures and of presentation to the degree. Con- 

 sequently, teaching here appears to be producing an income 

 which may support a researcher ; in reality, it is the acquisition 

 of the university degree, and not necessarily the teaching, for 

 which the pupil pays his fee. Where the teacher is unprotected 

 by any compulsory regulations (such as that which requires at- 

 tendance on his lectures and fee-| ayment on the part of the 

 pupils) it is impossible for him to obtain such an income by 

 teaching for one hour a day as will enable him to devote the 

 rest of the day to unreuiunerative study and investigation, for 

 the following reason. Other teachers, equally satisfactory as 

 teacher-, will enter into competition with him, without having 

 the same intention of teaching for one hour only, and of carrying 

 on researches for the rest of the day. They will contemplate 

 teaching for six hours a day, and they will accordingly offer to 

 those who require to be taught either six hours' teaching for the 

 sauie fee which the researcher charges for one, or one hour for 

 a sixth ] art of that fee. Consequently the unprotected researcher 

 will find his lecture-room deserted — pu| ils will naturally go to 

 the equally good teacher who gives more teaching for the same 

 fee, or the same teaching for a less cost. And no one can say 

 that this is not as it should be. The university pupil requires a 

 certain cour e of instruction, which he ought to be able to buy 

 at the cheapest rate. It does not seem to be doing justice to 

 the pupil to compel him to form one of a class consisting of 

 some hundreds of hearers, where he can obtain but little per- 

 sonal supervision or attention from the teacher, whereas if he 

 had the free di-posal of his fee, he might obtain six times the 

 amount of attention from another teacher. This arrangement 

 does n A seem to be ju tillable, even for the purpose of provid- 

 ing the university profcS: or with an income and leisure to 

 pursue scientific research. The student's fee should pay for a 

 given amount of teaching at the market value, and he has just 

 ciuse of complaint i , by compulsory enactments, he is taxed to 

 provide the country with scientific investigation. 



Teaching must, in all fairness, ultimately be paid for as 



