338 
to make a discovery, you may enable a man who has 
shown a special capacity for research to exert his powers ; 
and we are of opinion that, unless an effort is made to do 
this, one of the great purposes for which learned bodies, 
such as the Colleges, exist, may run the risk of 
being wholly lost sight of. Scientific discoveries rarely 
bring any direct profit to their authors, nor is it desirable 
that original investigation should be undertaken with a 
view to immediate pecuniary results. ‘ Research, as 
Lord Salisbury has observed, is ‘ unremtinerative ; it is 
highly desirable for the community that it be pursued, 
and, therefore, the community must be content that funds 
should be set aside to be given, without any immediate 
and calculable return in work, to those by whom the re- 
search is to be pursued.’ 
“Tt may be that properly qualified candidates. for such 
scientific offices would not at. first be numerous, but we 
believe that eventually a considerable number of Fellow- 
ships might be advantageously devoted to the encourage- 
ment of original research. 
We think that such Fellowships as might be expressly 
destined for the advancement of Science and Learning 
should only be conferred on men who by their successful 
labours have already given proof of their earnest desire, 
and of their ability, to promote knowledge ; and we believe 
that appointments, made with a due regard to this prin- 
ciple, would be abundantly justified by results. A man 
who has once acquired the habit of original scientific 
work, is very unlikely ever to loseit, excepting through a 
total failure of his health and strength; and even if it 
occasionally happened that a Fellowship awarded on the 
grounds of merit, as shown in original research, should 
only contribute to the comfort of the declining years of an 
eminent man of science, there-are many persons who 
would feel that it could not have been better expended in 
any other way. 
“We should not wish to attach any educational duties 
properly so called to a Fellowship awarded with a view of 
encouraging original research in Science, But for many 
reasons we should think it desirable that the holder of 
such a Fellowship should be expected to give an account, 
from time to time, in the form of public discourses, of 
the most recent researches {in his own department of 
Science.” 
The last section of the Report dealing with the duty of 
the Universities and Colleges with regard to the advance- 
ment of Science is so important that we give it at length :— 
“ Research a primary Duty of the Universities 
“ Qn no point are the witnesses whom we have exa- 
mined more united than they are in the expression of the 
feeling that it is a primary duty of the Universities to 
assist in the Advancement of Learning and Science, and 
not to be content with the position of merely educational 
bodies. We entirely concur with the impression thus con- 
veyed to us by the evidence, and we are of opinion that 
the subject is one to which it is impossible to call atten- 
tion too strongly. We think that if the Universities should 
fail to recognise the duty of promoting original research, 
they would bein danger of ceasing to be centres of intel- 
lectual activity, and a means of advancing Science would 
be lost sight of which, in this country, would not easily 
be supplied in any other way. There is no doubt that at 
the present time there is a very strong feeling in the 
NATURE 
country in favour of the wide diffusion of education, and — 
of the improvement of all arrangements and appliances — 
which tend to promote it, from the simplest forms of pri- — 
mary instruction up to the most advanced teaching that — 
can be given in*an University. ,But there is some reason — 
to believe that the preservation and increase of knowledge 
are objects which are not as generally appreciated by the 
public, and of which the importance is not so widely felt 
as it should be. On this point we would direct especial 
attention to the remarks of Sir Benjamin Brodie: ‘For — 
education we construct an elaborate and costly machinery, 
and are willing, for this end, to make sacrifices: but, on 
the other hand, the far more difficult task of extending — 
knowledge is left to the care of individuals, to be accom- 
plished as it may ; and yet it is this alone which renders ~ 
education itself possible. I really am inclined to think that 
in former days a more real and earnest desire must have - 
existed to preserve knowledge as a valuable national com- 
modity for its own sake than exists now ; and the reason 
that I say this.is, that we have existing in the Universities 
of Oxford and Cambridge records of another condition 
of things with regard to knowledge than that which — 
exists at present. In the first place we have extensive 
libraries which could only have been founded and pre- 
served for the sake of the preservation of knowledge 
itself; and in the next place the collegiate foundations in — 
the Universities were originally and fundamentally, 
although not absolutely and entirely, destined for 
the same objects. . . . This object is certa‘n'y not 
less important in modern than in ancient society. I 
presume that in the middle ages knowledge would 
altogether have perished if it had not been for such 
foundations, and it appears that now from other causes 
the pursuit of knowledge and of general scientific inves- 
tigation is subject to very real dangers, though of another 
kind to those which then prevailed, and which make it | 
very desirable for us to preserve any institutions through 
which scientific discovery and the investigation of truth 
may be promoted. . The dangers to which I refer are 
dangers which arise partly even from the growing percep- | 
tion of the practical importance of knowledge, which 
causes a very great draught indeed to be made upon the 
scientific intelligence of the country. In the first place, 
almost every scientific man is caught up instantly for 
educational purposes, for the object of teaching alone ; 
and, in the next place, a very great draught indeed is 
made upon Science for economical purposes ; I mean for 
purposes connected with practical life. In sanitary 
matters we have numerous examples of the vast amount 
of work done by scientific men for public and practical 
objects. So that the supply of scientific men is not equal 
to the demand for those objects alone. Manufactures 
offer another great field of scientific employment, and it is 
to ‘be observed that these are the only ways through 
which an income can be obtained, the pursuit of scientific 
truth being an absolutely unremunerative occupaticn.’ - 
“We believe that the dangers referred to in these 
remarks are real ; and their existence induces us to lay 
down, as emphatically as possible, the position that the 
promotion of original work in Science should be regarded 
as one of the main functions of the Universities, and 
should be specially incumbent upon the holders of those 
fellowships which, as we have already recommended, 
