January 14, 1909J 



NA TURE 



527 



Yet in very truth there is nothing to prevent the Uni- 

 versity of Wisconsin, or any other of a hundred like 

 institutions, without awaiting the rare advent of some far- 

 sighted benefactor, from having, not ten, but all her pro- 

 fessorships made research professorships — nothing, alas, 

 but the deep-seated and seemingly uneradicable conviction 

 of the boards of control, that the endowments committed 

 to their charge are for some other purpose. 



A true university from the point of view of scientific 

 productiveness is a body of scholars, that is to say, of men 

 devoting themselves solely to the advancement of learn- 

 ing. Everyone in it, from top to bottom, should be an 

 investigator. The entire income of a university should be 

 expended in the promotion of science, i.e. of knowledge. 

 Teaching is a necessary factor in the advancement of 

 learning, and so a function of the university. University 

 teaching should be done by investigators, not only because 

 more investigators are to be developed, but because the 

 promotion of science, on the scale which the future 

 demands, means that science shall not remain narrowly 

 academic, but shall more and more pervade the life of the 

 people. 



From the point of view of American institutions such 

 a definition of the university is revolutionary, but it can- 

 not be said to be impracticable or Utopian, for upon pre- 

 cisely such ideals the most successful university systems 

 in the world have been built. 



That this type will bear transplanting to American 

 soil was triumphantly demonstrated in the work of Daniel 

 C. Oilman, who gave the Johns Hopkins University at 

 its inception the essential characteristics of the German 

 universities as regards research. This successful experi- 

 ment should have marked an epoch in the history of 

 higher education, but a generation has passed and we 

 have not as yet a university system devoted primarily to 

 the advancement of learning. We still consider investi- 

 gation merely as a desirable adjunct to university activi- 

 ties, never as the thing for which the university exists. 



Germany, on the other hand, has for a century con- 

 sistently developed the university as a centre of research, 

 and through the promotion of pure science in the university 

 has made German civilisation what it is to-day. 



I would not be understood as urging German or other 

 European methods in all details upon a country where 

 quite different conditions exist, but one general principle 

 is of universal application. In whatever we have to do, 

 whether it be municipal administration, sanitation, road- 

 making, the construction of water-ways, the development 

 of industries, or the conservation of natural resources, the 

 fullest and latest scientific knowledge should be utilised. 

 Practice should not be permitted to lag indefinitely behind 

 theory, and that they may go hand in hand public work 

 and private enterprises should be in the hands of those isiho 

 knoiv. .\t the same time, science should be persistently 

 advanced by every possible agency. 



To my mind, the future of science in America, as else- 

 where, is essentially a question of the future of the 

 universities. It is conceivable that institutions may so 

 long continue blind to their chief function as to be sup- 

 planted by some new agency called into existence to take 

 up their neglected work. Already great endowments for 

 the promotion of research, quite without any pedagogical 

 feature, have corne into existence. For all such science 

 has need, and will have increasing need, as the situation 

 becomes more acute and we are brought closer to the 

 great crisis. 



But it will be found that the conditions for maximum 

 scientific productiveness are precisely those which would 

 exist in the ideal university. ."Ml attempts at a machine- 

 made science are doomed to failure. Science-making 

 syndic.ntes are likely to meet shipwreck on the very rocks 

 on which the American educational system is already 

 aground. No autocratic organisation is favourable to the 

 development of the scientific spirit. No institution after 

 the commercial models of to-dav is likely to be generously 

 fertile. You can contract for a bridge according to specifi- 

 cations. If a railway is to be built and operated, a highly 

 organised staff with superintendents and foremen and an 

 elaborate system reaching every detail may be made to 

 yield the desired results. No one, however, can draw up 

 specifications for a scientific discovery. No one can con- 



NO. 2046, VOL. 79] 



tract to deliver it on a specified day for a specified price. 

 No employee can be hired to produce it in return for 

 wages received. 



To the investigator the considerations I have endeavoured 

 to present are unimportant. Science for its own sake is 

 his sufficient incentive ; but it is all-important for the com- 

 munity at large to realise that no real addition to know- 

 ledge is useless or trivial ; that progress depends on scien- 

 tific productiveness ; that science, which must be fostered 

 if we are to continue to prosper, is a republic the watch- 

 words of which are liberty, equality, fraternity. 



World power in the near future is to be a question of 

 knowledge— not of battleships— and what is now spent 

 on armaments is to be devoted to its pursuit. Beyond lies 

 that future in which it will no longer be a question of 

 supremacy among nations, but of whether the race is to 

 maintain its foothold on the earth. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



To perpetuate the memory of the late Sir George Livesey 

 it is proposed to endow a Livesey professorship in gas 

 engineering and fuel at the Leeds University. The com- 

 mittee having the matter in hand announces that contribu- 

 tions to the fund should be sent to the secretary of the 

 Institution of Gas Engineers, 39 Victoria Street, West- 

 minster. A sum of at least io,oooZ. is required for the 

 object in view. 



The University of Liverpool has received an offer from 

 Mr. Alexander Elder, of Southport, formerly of Elder, 

 Dempster, and Co., Liverpool, to contribute 12,500!. for 

 the establishment of a chair of naval architecture in the 

 University. The proposal will be considered by the Uni- 

 versity council at its next meeting. The foundation of 

 such a professorship would of necessity mean a great 

 expenditure in fitting and equipping lecture-rooms and 

 laboratories, and in maintaining the work of the new 

 department. It is hoped that other gifts will be forth- 

 coming to make it possible for the council to accept Mr. 

 Elder's generous offer. 



The Rev. Lord William Cecil is proceeding to China 

 at the request of an influential committee of graduates of 

 Oxford and Cambridge to try to found a Christian and 

 educational university there. At present much educational 

 work is being done by the .American missions, but very 

 little by the English. It is thought that one union 

 university will be more efficient and more economical than 

 many smaller establishments working without method. It 

 is hoped to avoid the difficulties of divergent religious 

 teaching by founding a university on the lines of Oxford 

 and Cambridge. While each college of the university will 

 be under the control of some mission body, the university 

 itself, like Oxford and Cambridge, will not be attached to 

 any one denomination. The university will concern itself 

 chiefly with the teaching of arts, science, and engineering. 

 The university is not intended to be a permanent foreign 

 settlement in China. With the growing body of Chinese 

 Christians, it is expected that the chairs may_ be filled 

 soon with those who have been students in the university. 



We have received a printed copy of a lecture delivered 

 by M. Jules Gautier, director of secondary education in 

 F'rance, last October, under the auspices of the British 

 Education Section of the Franco-British Exhibition, on the 

 progress of secondary education in France since the time 

 of Napoleon I. It is interesting to notice in the lecture 

 that science was introduced in the curriculum of French 

 secondary schools so far back as 182 1, while in 1829 the 

 idea was prevalent that Latin and science formed a suit- 

 able training for young men wishing to enter the Army 

 or the Diplomatic Service. In 1852 the system was intro- 

 duced of dividing pupils, after the preliminary stages into 

 two groups, those who wanted a literary or classical educa- 

 tion and those who wanted a scientific education, but this 

 system was short-lived. It was not until 1902 that the 

 present system was inaugurated. To-day French secondary 

 education is divided into two cycles ; the first is concerned 

 with the years from ten to fourteen, and the second with 

 the remaining school years. In the first cycle science is 



