A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 



" To the solid ground 

 Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye." — Wordsworth 



THURSDAY, NOVEMBER S, 1874 



THE PROSPECTS OF THE ENDOWMENT OF 



RESEARCH 

 ^^riTH this number a new volume of Nature is 

 ' ' commenced, and consequently it will not be 

 inappropriate to take the opportunity of presenting some 

 sort of review of the present position of a subject to- 

 wards which we Iiave always been ready to devote much 

 of our space. We propose to show that the important 

 evidence given before the Royal Commission on the 

 Advancement of Science, and the Reports which that 

 Commission has already issued, have not been without in- 

 fluence in the matter, whilst the publication of the Report 

 of the University Commissioners renders it the more 

 necessary not to relax our efforts in"pressing this question 

 continually upon the public. It is most encouraging also 

 to notice as another symptom that ordinary opinion is 

 gradually coming round to the views we have so long 

 advocated, that the daily and weekly press have during 

 the past month opened their columns to articles and 

 correspondence on this subject, and that journalists no 

 longer regard the proposal to endow scientific research as 

 a visionary and wild scheme, but now consider it worthy 

 of much consideration and intelligent criticism. Even at 

 the Universities considerable progress in the right direc- 

 tion seems to have been made, which is the more deserv- 

 ing of attention when it is recollected that the Colleges 

 have in most cases great constitutional difficulties to 

 overcome before that they can carry into execution the 

 smallest reform. 



At the end of the first volume of the Report of the 

 University Commissioners there is printed in the Appen- 

 dix a comprehensive scheme for a redistribution of their 

 revenues, which has in principle been unanimously 

 adopted by the governing body of New College, Oxford. 

 It represents a plan of reform, the most fundamental in 

 its principles and the most elaborate in its details which 

 has yet been offered to the public," and shows in all its 

 features how wilhng the more enlightened Colleges are to 

 adapt themselves to modern requirements. The date of 

 the adoption of the report of a select committee embody- 

 VOL. XI. — No. 262 



ing this scheme is October 8, 1873, and the contents of 

 the report prove no less certainly than the date of its 

 adoption that the labours of the Royal Commission 

 on the Advancement of Science have not been thrown 

 away. " The encouragement of mature learning, as 

 distinct from teaching," is expressly recognised as one 

 of the four objects which College Fellowships should 

 serve; and accordingly, "this purpose is met by provid- 

 ing for the election to Fellowships, and for the retention 

 in Fellowships, of persons who have given proof of real 

 interest and aptitude in literary or scientific studies." 

 These Fellowships are elsewhere described as "held merely 

 on the general condition of study," and the election may 

 be without examination in the case of a person already 

 eminent in literature or science. All the Fellowships to 

 which no educational or bursarial duties are attached are 

 limited to a period of seven years, and the proposed 

 emolument is 200/. per annum; but "the College shall 

 have power to re-elect once or more times, for periods ol 

 seven years, any Fellow who is engaged in literary or 

 scientific study, which is likely to produce results of per- 

 manent value in published writings." These proposals 

 form part of a scheme in which the College committee 

 dispose in various ways of a total annual sum of 16,000/., 

 at which amount they estimate their divisible revenue at 

 the end of the present century ; and though there may 

 be several details in the entire scheme which suggest 

 criticism, yet New College will always deserve a high 

 meed of praise for being the first college to break through 

 the ancient traditions which have hitherto prevented the 

 corporate revenues of these institutions from being directly 

 utilised for objects disconnected with education. The 

 revised statutes of University College, which have been 

 approved by her Majesty in Council, also deserve notice 

 in that they reserve power to the College to elect to a 

 Fellowship without examination " any person of special 

 eminence in literature, science, or art." It is true that 

 this clause is merely a modification of one which already 

 occupies a place in the ordinances of the majority of the 

 Oxford Colleges, which gives the same power, with the 

 proviso that such person shall have received an honorary 

 degree from the Convocation of the University. But as 

 this clause has never yet, to our knowledge, been acted 

 upon, the necessary inference is that the proviso, which 



