June 6, 1872] 



NATURE 



99 



cireds of millions of pounds are being expended in covering 

 the earth with telegraphs, and thousands of millions in 

 covering it with railways, gasworks, waterworks, &c., and 

 Birmingham and its district has its share in supplying the 

 rails, the wire, and the machincrj-. In this country alone 

 more than 550,000,000 of pounds have been already 

 expanded upon railways only. On'i^iital sciiiitijii rt-scarch 

 is the great foiiittain-ltcad of iiu/iistry, and its capability 

 of developing increased trade is practically unlimited : it 

 is at present quite in its infancy, and we are only on the 

 very threshold of a knowledge of the forces of nature, and 

 of the constitution of material substances ; and if such 

 enormous results are being produced by the beginnings of 

 unaided science, what may be expected from its future 

 developments, especially if scientific research is assisted 

 in an efl'ectual manner ? 



" Numerous important subjects of investigation, capable 

 of yielding valuable results bearing upon the trades of this 

 town, exist in all directions. Researches in electricity 

 and in inorganic chemistry, particularly the metals and 

 their compounds, would probably lead, as they have done 

 before, to the establishment of new trades, and to im- 

 provem.ents in local manufacture?, and thus lay the foun- 

 dation of future commercial prosperity. Discoveries in 

 science, however, are best made, not by trying to obtain 

 some valuable commercial or technical result (that object 

 belongs to an inventor), but by making new, reliable, and 

 systematic investigations. By investigating the chemical 

 action of electricity upon saline bodies, Sir Hunjphry Davy 

 isolated sodium and magesium. which has led to the 

 recent establishment in Manchester of the manufactures 

 of those metals. By the abstract researches of Hofmann 

 and others upon coal-tar, the immensely profitable manu- 

 facture of the splendid coal-tar dyes was originated. 



" .Scientific discovery is the most valuable in its ultimate 

 practical results when it is pursued from a love of truth 

 as the ruling motive, and any attempt to make it more 

 directly and quickly remunerative, by trying to direct it 

 into practical channels, will decrease the importance of 

 its results, diminish the spirit of inquiry, and sooner or 

 later reduce it to the character of invention. The greatest 

 practical realities of this age had their origin, not in in- 

 vention or a search for utilities, but in a search after im- 

 portant new truths, entirely irrespective of what utilities 

 they might lead to. 



" I do not intend by these remarks to imply that any 

 new trades or improvements in manufactures have been 

 or can be effected without the labours of inventors and 

 practical men ; but that there should be a more judicious 

 division of labour, one man to discover new truths, 

 another to put them into the form of practical inventions, 

 and the practical business man to work them ; because it 

 is proved by experience that in nearly all cases these 

 different kinds of labour require men of widely different 

 habits of mind, and that the faculties of discovery, inven- 

 tion, and practical manufacture, are very rarely united in 

 one man. 



" Our large manufacturers and men of business have 

 accepted and employed the advantages of science in an 

 endless number of ways in their occupations, and have 

 thereby acquired great wealth ; but, notwithstanding this, 

 and that the greatest trades of this district were originated 

 and improved largely by means of scientific investigation, 

 scarcely any of the wealthy manufacturers or landholders 

 of the locality, who have derived such great benefits from 

 the increase of trades, give the least assistance to scientific 

 research ; that which is the duty of all has been attended 

 to by none. The probable explanation is, origin.al scientific 

 research is a subject quite outside the experience and 

 knowledge of persons in general. It may be objected 

 that such research is not aided, because it sometimes takes 

 a long time to acquire a practical shape and make it pay. 

 We do not omit to plant an acorn because it requires 

 many years to become an oak ; we do not neglect to rear 



a child because he may not live to become a man ; but 

 we leave scientific discovery to take care of itself." 



England's present and special weakness is then re- 

 ferred to : — 



" Our practice with regard to science is very different 

 from the plan carried out in Germany. Within the last 

 few years great laboratories have been erected in Berlin, 

 Leipzig, Aix la Chapelle, Bonn, Carlsruhe, Stuttgardt, 

 Griefswald, and other places, at the expense of the State, 

 and special provision has been made in them for original 

 scientific research. A glance at the frequently published 

 list of scientific investigations made in different countries 

 will show us that the Germans are making a far greater 

 number of discoveries in science than ourselves. If we 

 are to maintain our position as a manufacturing nation, 

 we also must adopt special means to promote scientific 

 research ; for how can we expect to obtain new arts and 

 manufactures, or improvements in old ones, if we do not 

 make new discoveries in the properties of matter and its 

 forces ? I need not multiply instances of the essential 

 dependence of our present commercial success upon 

 abstract scientific research, but may safely affirm that 

 nearly all our great manufactures have been originated by 

 means of experiment, observation, and study of matter 

 and its forces ; and that the great bulk of the improve- 

 ments jnade in manufactures by practical men could not 

 have been effected had not scientific investigators dis- 

 covered, and made known in books, the properties of 

 bodies. The inference from these conclusions is obvious : 

 by adopting similar means, but in a more effectual way, 

 we shall obtain similar but more successful results." 



And this being so, what is the actual condit ion of things ? 

 According to Mr. Gore, "at present, original scientific re- 

 searches are generally made by teachers of science, who 

 spend a portion of their scanty incomes in making experi- 

 ments, and lead lives of great self-denial in the labour. 

 There is absolutely no provision in this country for the 

 support of scientific investigators, and thus the great 

 source of new trades and improvements in manufactures 

 remains undeveloped." 



Surely if scientific men are convinced, first, that the 

 future of our national industries depends upon research, 

 and secondly, that there is no research, the time has 

 arrived when action of some sort is incumbent upon 

 them if they are ever to take action in any subject what- 

 ever: for it is perfectly obvious that any bettering of such 

 a state of things can only proceed from the action of the 

 scientific men themselves. 



We have let Mr. Gore speak for himself thus at length, 

 as in his article there is ample endorsement of much that 

 has already appeared in this journal, but he is by no means 

 the only witness that we can appeal to. Even the Presi- 

 dent of the Chemical Society is compelled to acknowledge 

 that the original researches brought before that Society 

 have fallen nearly to zero. Commenting on this, the 

 Brilisli Medical Journal points out that the institutions 

 which were formerly considered the homes of research, 

 are now silent. If these things be true, then if those who 

 hold that research is a national necessity are right, our 

 future position is not far to seek. 



THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA 



The Highlands of Central India. By Captain J. Forsyth, 



Bengal Staff Corps. (London : Chapman and Hall.) 



THIS is a book descriptive of that great tract of hill 

 and forest country which is situated in the very 

 centre of the Indian Peninsula, and whose drainage forms 



