574 
WA TORE 
[April 19. 1883 
Political Economy is only taught by the incumbent of the 
Chair of Moral Philosophy. The recommendations of the 
Inquiry Commissioners stated urgent wants of the Uni- 
versities five years ago which would amount to much 
more than the added 25 per cent. now to be given to the 
Com nissioners to settle upon the Universities for ever. 
It is true that Scotland is now both a rich and a liberal 
country, and that much may be expected in future 
from the direct contributions of her people. But ex- 
perience has abundantly shown that private benevo- 
le:ce is never organised benevolence, and that sums 
which might in the aggregate be sufficient to meet 
all the most urgent wants of the Universities are not 
to be expected to be provided by voluntary contribu- 
tions where or when they are most wanted. To re- 
organise the Scotch Universities, a liberal provision of 
public money is probably necessary, and it seems strange 
to throw the burden of such a provision on a fixed and 
moderate sum, which is declared to be for ever incapable 
of increase. It is not for us of course to consider whether 
Parliament would act wisely in placing the grants for the 
Scotch Universities on the annual estimates, where they 
are always open to comparison and challenge, or on the 
Consolidated Fund, where they are practically liable 
neither to increase nor to diminution. But it seems a 
strange policy to declare beforehand that the grants for 
objects which are admitted to be of national importance 
shall never exceed a severely limited sum. The demands 
of science alone are continually increasing in pecuniary 
severity, and we say no more than every one will admit | 
when we add, that it is not for the public advantage that 
the natural teaching of science should be hindered in any 
of the three kingdoms by a too rigid or mechanical 
economy. It is not placing her in her true position to 
compel her to an undignified struggle with a host of other 
claimants for her fair share of a moderate allowance 
which cannot be increased. If the Scotch Universities 
had great College estates and ample revenues like Oxford 
and Cambridge, her claims might be met from time to 
time as they have been in England. 
they have been very moderately provided institutions, 
and there are no available funds for the extensions 
of the future but the freewill offerings of her people. 
The State in our opinion, reasonably expected 
from time to time to organise, or to help to reorganise 
them in the interests of the nation. We should like 
to see it ready to do something more in that way than 
to offer to cut them adrift with a little extra money, and 
to provide Commissioners to whose absolute discretion is 
to be intrusted the reconstructive duties which naturally 
devolve on Parliament. The Oxford and Cambridge Act 
of 1877 gave the Commissioners then appointed very 
extensive powers, but it was in marked contrast, in the 
precision and fulness of its enacting clauses, and in the 
checks under which the Commissioners were to exercise 
their functions, to the Scotch Universities Bill of 1883. 
is, 
THE SCHEME OF THE GROCERS’ COMPANY | 
FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF ORIGINAL 
RESEARCH IN SANITARY SCIENCE 
HE relation of man, whether savage or civilised, to 
his surroundings is one of constant exposure to 
influences which are hostile to his bodily well-being. 
Until of late years | 
Some of these are dangerous chiefly by reason of their 
insidiousness; others, although not concealed, are in 
their nature unavoidable; others, though both known 
and avoidable, are yet for various reasons not avoided. 
All of them, of whichever class, are subjects of earnest 
study to the pathologist, one part of whose science is for 
this reason called etiology as relating to the causes of 
disease, the other being concerned with the disturbances 
which these causes induce inside the living human or- 
ganism. “Sanitary Science” in so far as it is a science, 
is identical with etiology, and is therefore a branch of 
pathology. In this sense it is the science on which the 
art of preventing disease, or “ Preventive Medicine,” as 
it is commonly called, is founded, and it will be admitted 
that, whatever doubt may exist as to the utility of exact 
knowledge of the nature of disease for its cure, there 
can be none as to its direct applicability to prevention. 
The Grocers’ Company, one of the oldest and most 
distinguished of the City Guilds and second to none in 
the liberality with which it has always bestowed its funds 
for the general good, has thought fit to create an endow- 
ment, or rather a system of endowments, for the en- 
couragement of “ Original Research in Sanitary Science.” 
This it defines as relating to the “causes of important 
diseases and the means by which the respective causes 
may be prevented or obviated.’ The endowments which 
the Company have created are of two kinds. The one 
is intended ‘fas maintenance for work in progress in fields 
of research to be chosen by the worker,’ the other as 
reward for actual discovery; the former intention being 
carried into effect by the establishment of three “ Re- 
search Scholarships,” each of 250/. a year, the latter by 
the appointment of a ‘‘ Discovery Prize” of 1ooo/., to be 
given once in every four years. With a special view to 
the promotion of pathological study in the United King- 
dom and its dependencies, the Scholarships are limited 
to British subjects who must be under thirty-five years of 
age; but in all other respects they are entirely open to 
persons cujuscungue ordinis stve professionis, Candi- 
dates are expected to state precisely the researches they 
propose to undertake, and are invited to refer, in support 
of their applications, to any work they may have in pro- 
gress or may have published in the same or in any 
kindred field of study. In the appointment to Scholar- 
ships preference will be given to those candidates whose 
researches are judged likely to result in increase of know- 
ledge of the “ Causation or Preventability of some impor- 
tant Disease or Diseases.’ It is further provided that 
towards the close of his year of scholarship each scholar 
shall publish the result of his research or researches either 
in print, or, if desired, in a lecture to be delivered at 
Grocers’ Hall or elsewhere. 
The Quadrennial Discovery Prize is intended to reward 
original investigations, irrespectively of the country in 
which they may have been made, which shall have resulted 
in important additions to exact knowledge in particular 
(previously defined) subjects. The subject for the first 
Discovery Prize will be announced in May next, and the 
award will be made in May, 1887, when a further subject 
for investigation will be proposed. Any treatise which 
the candidate may have published, whether in England 
or in any other country, at any time during the period 
allowed, will be accepted as a competition-treatise, 
