NATURE 
a3 
THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1873 
THE ENDOWMENT OF RESEARCH 
TV. 
N accordance with the heading, deliberately adopted 
for this series of articles, the main object of them 
has been to insist upon the national importance of a 
direct endowment of research, and to indicate a way 
whereby scientific investigators, relieved from any inci- 
dental duties, may be placed upon a footing of security 
and competence. In justice, however, to the letter from 
Professor Flower, published in our last number, it is 
necessary to give some explanation why the indirect 
endowment of scientific men by means of the existing 
professvriate has been comparatively ignored. 
Though it is very far from our intention to quarrel with 
the main driftof that tter, yet itwere vain toattempt todis- 
guise the real point of disagreement between Prof. Flower’s 
proposals and those herein aavocated. To augment the 
salaries of distinguished men of Science, whether govern- 
ment officials, executive members of the wealthy scientific 
bodies, or University professors, and to increase their 
numbers, is no doubt an object to which certain classes 
of the public require that their attention should be drawn, 
as it is also one of the means by which original scientific 
work would be encouraged. At this point, apparently, 
Professor Flower would tor the present stop ; yet we think 
that there are many and weighty reasons why those who 
are not content with such a scheme as final, should hold 
that a favourable time has now arrived for putting for- 
ward a more complete system sufficiently elastic to 
comprehend within its future development the liberal 
subsidy of all forms of unremunerative Scientific Re- 
search, 
As to the funds at the disposal of scientific bodies, it is 
well known that they are so small as to form a scarcely 
appreciable element in the consideration of the present 
question, nor is it likely that they will receive much in- 
crease ; but yet it would be desirable that the method of 
their distribution should form an example to guide the 
application of a more complete system. Again, with re- 
ference to the Government appointments, the prospect 
does not appear more encouraging. Our practical poli- 
ticians are not unnaturally offended by the anomaly that 
the holders of these offices should confessedly receive pay, 
not for the work they do, but in honour of their general 
scientific attainments. ‘he Mastership of the Mint has 
not been saved even by the illustrious character of its 
previous occupants, and along with it have gone several 
subordinate posts which also were honoured by the scien- 
tific men who held them. It only remains for some 
Chancellor of the Exchequer or Minister of Public Works 
to arise, wholly given over to the less noble doctrines of 
Political Economy, and Science will lose the remainder of 
those places which open competition could fill so much 
more cheaply, and then the public scientific work of which 
the popular voice demands the accomplishment, may be 
resigned to the enterprise of pushing newspaper proprie- 
tors. This sort of indirect eudowment of research may 
be said to have had its day ; it was of a piece with the 
public sinecures which used to be awarded indiscrimi- 
No, 196—Vot, vit, 
nately for literary or other ill-recognised merit. It was 
extremely uselul when no particular kind of work was re- 
quired in return, and when the national benefits arising 
from the advancement were less thought of than they 
are now. 
It is, without doubt, to the professoriate at the Uni- 
versities that the advocates of indirect endowment must 
turn in the first place, both for the wealth and the organisa- 
tion they require, and it is on this ground that issue with 
them must be joined. It is our purpose, therefore, to point 
out, first, that the Science professors at the Universities 
are already in a fair way to get both the position and the 
emoluments which they deserve, and secondly, that to 
subordinate original research to the paramount duty of 
teaching is a clumsy expedient which should not, on* 
principle, be systematically adopted. 
In the first place it hardly needs to be said that all the 
tendency of ancient and modern endowment has been in 
favour of the Professoriate, so that the interests of teach- 
ing are already in possession of the field. Inthe old days 
when all instruction was of necessity oral, to found a 
chair was the one means by which the highest forms of 
new learning could be promoted ; and the force of this 
tradition, acting in harmony with the practical character 
of Englishmen, who always expect visible results from 
money spent, has been a guarantee that modern Science, 
while growing to its present dimensions, should not fail to 
receive this sort of attention at the Universities. At 
Oxford, for example, the present holders of the three 
leading chairs of Chemistry, Physiology, and Physics re- 
ceive from various academical sources endowments of 
800/ each per annum, and if the other Science Professor- 
ships are inadequately endowed, the same may be said of 
many of those subjects which enter directly into the 
course for the Arts degree. According to a rough esti- 
mate of Mr. M., Pattison’s, Science on the whole receives 
nearly 5,500/., whereas Philology, the next highly en- 
dowed faculty, gets but 4,000/.* It must also be borne 
in mind that the University Commission of twenty years 
ago gave a stimulus in this direction which has not died 
away. Both the University and College authorities are 
not unmindful of the duty of extending the Professoriate, 
and endowing it worthily : new chairs are even now in 
process of foundation, and at Oxford at least it is the rule 
rather than the exception to confer a full fellowship upon 
a hardworking professor in whatever department of 
knowledge, whose statutable endowment is comparatively 
small. From these statements it would be manifestly 
wrong to draw the inference that either the physical 
sciences or the other branches of scientific study are as 
yet fully represented or adequately endowed at Oxford 
and Cambridge: the purport of them rather is to show 
that teaching at the Universities in Science as in other 
matters has gained a position which can well take care of 
itself. If the plan were adopted which has worked so 
well at Glasgow, viz. to allow the professors an official 
house, and to leave to the fees of their pupils the further 
augmentation of their salaries, Prof. F lower’s demand for 
a simple competency would be completely satisficd. 
The real difficulty, however, will yet remain, for on the 
one hand we have not yet attained any assurance that we 
* It should be noticed that the anomalous chairs of Divinity have been 
throughout excepted from these calculations, 
P 
