NA TURE 



[January 14, 1909 



planting of ihcse barbarous . methods . by . more ictinL-d and 

 rational processes, but they often persist long after they 

 are known to be injurious to the . public . welfare because 

 they happen to. serve some, selfish individual or corporate 

 purpose. In such cases it is to . science again that we 

 must look for the development of an enlightened public 

 opinion that will end them. . 



.\ country that has many investigators will have many 

 inventors also. A scientific atmosphere dense enough to 

 permeate the masses brings proper suggestions to many 

 practically inclined minds. Where science is there will its 

 by-product, technology, be also. Communities having the 

 most thorough fundamental knowledge of pure science will 

 show the greatest output of really practical inventions. 

 Peoples who get their knowledge at second-hand must be 

 content to follow. Where sound scientific conceptions are 

 the common property of a nation, the wasteful efforts of 

 the half-informed will be least prevalent. The search after 

 perpetual motion, the attempt to evade the second law of 

 thermodynamics, and the promotion of the impracticable 

 are all simply symptoms of a people's ignorance. 



Modern invention is a very near neighbour to the pure 

 science of the laboratory, and the relation becomes daily 

 more intimate. Nothing could apparently be more 

 academic in its early development or further from the 

 practical workaday world than the subject of electric 

 waves. For years it was regarded as a fine field for the 

 speculations of the mathematical physicist. Then at the 

 hands of Hertz and his followers it became a fascinating 

 topic for experimental investigation by men devoted to 

 science for its own sake. Suddenly it was launched into 

 the realm of hard-headed commercialism by a practical 

 man, daring, enthusiastic, and optimistic enough, at a 

 time when electric waves could be produced in one room 

 of the laboratory and detected in the next room, to dream 

 of sending such waves across the sea as bearers of human 

 messages. 



At every step of its development the things that have 

 made wireless telegraphy possible have been borrowed 

 from pure science. 



While Marconi was still struggling to adapt the apparatus 

 of Righi to long-distance transmission, the antenna and 

 the coherer were already in use by Popoff in the study 

 of oscillatory lightning. In the thermal detector of 

 I'essenden the almost invisible platinum wires produced 

 years before by Wollaston for the cross-hairs of telescopes 

 appear in a new field of usefulness. The " lead-tree " 

 familiar as a simple and beautiful lecture experiment in 

 electrolysis forms the basis of the responder of De Forrest. 

 Another form of electrolytic detector, introduced independ- 

 ently as the receiver of wireless signals by Schloemilch and 

 by Vreeland, traces back to the Wchnelt interrupter. 

 Marconi's latest receiver, the magnetic detector, is an 

 ingenious modification of Rutherford's device for the studv 

 of electric waves, and this in turn was based on the 

 classical experiment of Jo.seph Henry on the effects of the 

 discharge of Leydcn jars on the magnetisation of steel 

 sewing needles. 



It is needless to multiply examples. In the history of 

 science and of invention this intimate relation appears to 

 be almost universal. The environment of science has 

 always been academic. Science has its home in the 

 university. From Galileo and Newton to our own time 

 the men who have laid the foundations upon which 

 rivilisation is built have nearly all been teachers and pro- 

 fessors. 



.\ few notable exceptions there are, such as Darwin, 

 whose centenary we are about to celebrate. Each branch 

 has its short list of unattached investigators — Franklin, 

 Rumford, Carnot, Joule in physics, &c. — but the honour- 

 roll of science is essentially an academic list. 



It is necessary, in considering the place of .America in 

 science, to contrast the standing of its educational institu- 

 tions, not pedagogically, but as centres of research, with 

 ihose of other countries. The United States has less than 

 its share of men of science, because it has not, as yet, 

 nnivcrsities that sufficiently foster and encourage research. 

 When in any of its institutions a man distinguishes him- 

 self by productive work, he is frequently m.ide a dean, 

 d-rector, or even president, and is thus retired from what 

 might have been a great rnreer .is an investigator. There- 



NO. 2046, VOL. 70] 



after he is compelled tu devote himself to administrative 

 duties, which someone not equipped for the important task 

 of adding to .the world's stock of knowledge might just 

 as well perform. It is as though the authorities were to 

 say, X has written an admirable book, we must appoint 

 him book-keeper; or Y is developing a decided genius 

 for landscape, . we will increase his salary and ask him 

 to devote all his time to painting the woodwork of the 

 university buildings. Nor does the mischief stop with the 

 sacrifice of a few bright spirits. It extends to the bottom. 

 The head of each department is a petty dean, cumbered 

 with administrative detail. He is expected to hold every- 

 one under him to account, not for scholarly productive- 

 ness, but for. the things which chiefly hinder it. 



In this exaltation of administrative ability over creative 

 gifts, which are much rarer and more precious, our 

 institutions share the weakness which pervades our in- 

 dustrial establishments, where the manager or super- 

 intendent usually gets larger pay and is regarded as more 

 important, than the most expert craftsman. In both we 

 see the same striving for a certain sort of efficiency and 

 economy, of operation and for the attainment of a com- 

 pletely standardised product. This tends in both cases to 

 the elimination of individuality and to sterility. In the 

 university it retards instead of developing research, in 

 industry it discourages originality. I would that there 

 might be displayed in the administrative offices of every 

 institution of higher education this testy remark, once 

 made by an eminent scholar : — " Voii cannot run a 

 university as you iL'ouId a saw-mill! " 



If anyone questions the responsibility of the American 

 university for the shortcomings of American science, and 

 is inclined to seek some more obscure cause for the con- 

 ditions that I have endeavoured to portray, let him 

 consider the history of astronomy in the United Stales. 

 This science, for some reason, was from the first accorded 

 favours not vouchsafed to any other branch of learning. 

 Colleges that made no pretence of research, and had 

 neither: laboratories nor libraries worthy of the name, were 

 ambitious to have observatories, and rich men were found 

 to establish and endow them. The observatory implied, 

 somehow, to the minds of the authorities an astronomer 

 — not merely someone of good moral character who could 

 teach the subject — and so it came about that there was 

 one member of the college faculty who was expected to 

 do scientific work, and was left comparatively free to 

 observe and investigate. Modtst as most of these early 

 provisions for astronomy were, they bore fruit, and 

 .American astronomy gained standing and recognition 

 while her sister sciences were struggling for existence. 

 Later, it is true, there arose an ambition for laboratories, 

 and there were laboratories ; but, unfortunately, save in 

 very rare instances, the laboratory has not implied an 

 investigator. The conditions which made astronomy what 

 it was have not been repeated. Productiveness has not 

 been demanded nor expected ; neither have the inmates of 

 our laboratories been accorded that exemption from 

 excessive pedagogical duties which would enable them to 

 give their best strength to research. 



A recent event in the educational world well illustrates 

 the weakness of our academic attitude toward science. 

 The head of one of our strongest, most modern, most 

 progressive, and best equipped institutions has announced, 

 as one of the details of a noble bequest to the University, 

 the endowment of ten research professorships. President 

 \'an Hise declares : — 



" The provisions for their support, including liberal 

 salaries, assistants, materials, a limited amount of instruc- 

 tional work, and relations with students, are an epitome 

 of the situation in the best German universities, which 

 are admitted to stand first among the institutions of the 

 world in the advancement of knowledge." 



This is indeed an event to warm the heart of every- 

 one who is interested in the promotion of science. .Ml 

 who are devoted to learning for its own sake or who 

 realise the importance of science to the welfare of the 

 nation will applaud that .portion of the will in wh'rh this 

 great gift is made, which reads : — 



" The university may best be rf'sed to the highest 

 excellence as a seat of learning and education hv abundant 

 support in pushing the confines of knowledge." 



