624 
NATURE 
[April 21, 1870 
the cultivation of original experimental research show 
that it is a national necessity, and naturally suggests the 
idea, can we not by a greater degree of encouragement of 
such research still further increase employment for 
working men, and still further elevate their intellectual 
condition ? 
At the present time there is in this country no recognised 
payment for the labours of scientific discovery, and no 
provision for the support of men who investigate science ; 
any person is at liberty to take the published results of 
scientific men from the Transactions of the Royal Society, 
the Chemical Society, and other learned bodies, and 
employ them as the basis of inventions and patents, 
without the slightest payment, notwithstanding these 
results have been obtained at an immense cost of study, 
time, and labour, and a large amount of money. I do 
not mean by these remarks to conclude that scientific 
discoveries should not, on publication, become at once 
public property, but that some means of support should 
be provided for the men who make them, and thus the 
development of employment for workmen be increased. 
Experimental scientific research, in the stricter sense of 
the words, is a comparatively modern thing, and though 
it has existed in a more limited degree during many cen- 
turies, it can only freely exist and thrive in civilised 
countries. Even at the present time, in consequence of 
the peculiar nature of the occupation, its hopelessness as 
a source of emolument to the investigator, the great 
skill and extreme self-denial required, and frequently 
danger incurred in its pursuit, and the consequent great 
difficulty of achieving success in it, scarcely one person in 
one million of the population of England ts exclusively 
devoted to zt, although a much greater proportion occupy 
a small amount of their time in its advancement. 
The extension of physical and chemical knowledge by 
means of experiments and observations is zatzenal work : 
it benefits the nation, but does not pay the investigator. 
The various scientific men who discovered the chief facts 
and principles of science upon which steam-engines, 
electric telegraphs, and all the modern applications of 
science are based, received no remuneration for their 
researches. The results of purely scientific investigations 
are generally unsaleable, because, instead of benefiting a 
single manufacturer only, they benefit the whole nation ; 
the nation, therefore, being the gainer, should pay and pro- 
vide for those who make such researches. And when we 
consider that in this country upwards of 576 millions of 
pounds have been expended in the construction of rail- 
ways alone, and immense sums upon electric telegraphs, 
which would never have been expended but for such 
labours, and nearly all of which have given employment 
to numberless workmen, it is evident that the magnitude 
and national character of the results would fully justify 
national encouragement of original experimental research. 
The more abstract an experimental investigation is, 
the more important and widely diffused are its practical 
results. Who would have thought, when Oersted in his 
original abstract research in electro-magnetism first made 
a magnetized needle move by the influence of an electric 
current, that his labours would lead to the expenditure of 
many millions of pounds in the laying of telegraphs all 
over the earth, and the employment of many thousands 
of persons in their construction, maintenance, and use ? 
And who can tell how many similar important discoveries 
have been lost to the nation, and how much of the pre- 
sent deficiency of employment for workmen has arisen, 
in consequence of experimental scientific investigators 
not having been paid for their labours ? 
At present, original experimental researches are gene- 
rally made by teachers of science who expend a portion 
of their incomes in making experiments and observations ; 
but the very limited means of such men is a serious loss 
to the nation by greatly retarding the progress of dis- 
covery, and consequently also of improvements in manu- 
factures. Many of the experiments, also, necessary for the 
development of new discoveries are beyond the means of 
such persons at present, and cannot be made without the 
command of greater wealth, 
If England is to keep pace with the progress of foreign 
intellect and of foreign manufacture, and keep her work- 
men fully employed, there must not only be a general 
diffusion of scientific knowledge throughout this country, 
but there must also be national encouragement of original 
scientific investigation. 
Has it been wise in our Governments thus to over- 
look a great source of the nation’s wealth, to disregard a 
most important means of national economy, to neglect 
the great fountain-head of industry? Shall we allow 
foreigners to supplant us in manufactures, and shall our 
fellow-men continue to be driven to emigration by want 
of employment? or shall we develope for them new 
sources of labour by means of original experimental 
research? It needs only to bring the subject fairly and 
effectually before the attention of our present enlightened 
and progressive Government, to ensure its careful and 
early consideration. 
The neglect of original experimental science in this 
country by our Governments has long been noticed by 
scientific men and others, and a suggestion has been 
made to the British Association by Lieut.-Colonel Strange, 
to found “National Colleges of Original Research,” in 
which science should be investigated, but not taught. 
This would be oe way of supplying the want; the 
funds for supporting such colleges might with propriety 
be obtained from the fees paid for patents, because patents 
are in many cases based upon the published results of 
original experimental researches ; other ways of supply- 
ing the want might also be indicated. 
GEORGE GORE. 
OUR DOMESTIC FIRE-PLACES 
Our Domestic Fire-places. By Frederick Edwards, jun. 
A new edition, &c. (London : Longmans, Green, and 
Co. 1870.) 
HIS book, although bearing considerable traces of 
having for its object the advocacy of a particular 
manufactured article—nevertheless shows the author to 
have so much mastery over his subject as to justify its 
publication ; and if the work be considered merely as 
the contribution of a highly qualified producer, the duty of 
the reviewer would be almost entirely to commend it ; but 
if it is proposed as a complete and unbiassed treatise on 
the domestic fire-place he finds a good deal of reason to 
dissent. 
