48 



NATURE 



[September 12, 19 12 



plosives; and to many other useful objects. In coi- 

 nection with the manufacture of explosives the public 

 should know that the ability to wage war is becoming 

 more and more dependent on the work of chemists. 

 When the supply of mineral nitrates is exhausted, 

 or even before that event, the requisite nitrogen 

 compounds will have to be provided in some other 

 way, and almost certainly they will be obtained syn- 

 thetically from the atmospheric gases which even now 

 are becoming a commercial source. 



The Time-spirit and Science. 

 But students of history know that there are certain 

 periods that for some unexplained reason are 

 speciallv fruitful in certain departments of intellectual 

 or artistic development. Prof. Sir Walter Raleigh, 

 for instance, a high authority on this subject, says : — 

 "The human body, so far as we know, has not 

 been improved within the period recorded by history ; 

 nor has the human mind, so far as we can judge, 

 gained anything in strength or grace." Further, 

 regarding literature: — "The question is not by how 

 much we can excel our fathers, but whether with toil 

 and pains we may make ourselves worthy to be 

 ranked with them." Again : — " In the beautiful art 

 which models the human figure in stone or some 

 other enduring material, who can hope to match the 

 Greeks? In the art of building who can look at the 

 crowded confusion of any great modern city, with 

 all its fussy and meaningless wealth of decoration, 

 like a pastrycook's nightmare, and not marvel at 

 the simplicity, the gravity, the dignity and the fitness 

 of the ancient classic buildings? How can the 

 seasoned wisdom of life be better or more search- 

 inglv expressed than in the words of Virgil or 

 Horace, not to speak of more ancient teachers?" 

 Thus all things are not progressing. The time- 

 spirit now, and for some two centuries past, seems to 

 have chosen to take under its particular guardianship 

 the physical and natural sciences, their cultivation 

 and applications, rather than philosophy or architec- 

 ture or sculpture, or painting or literature. We shall 

 do well to recognise this, and not waste our resources 

 in striving to fight against it. 



Present Indiscriminate Elementary Teaching and 

 Neglect of Research. 



Large sums of money are expended in this country 

 on the diffusion of some knowledge of chemistry 

 among all classes of scholars and students ; in fact, 

 scarcely anyone escapes from a smattering, largely 

 undigested if not indigestible, either forced on them 

 by regulations or by allurements of bribes in the form 

 of prizes, scholarships, or academic laurels. And if 

 this is not good for scholars and students, it is worse 

 for masters or professors. Our professors work 

 "whole time" at this "stall-feeding" process, and if 

 they happen to be strong men mentally and physically 

 they may be able when weary with work to devote 

 any overtime to — what I submit is far the more 

 important matter for the State — the advancement of 

 science by research. But this pursuit requires, for its 

 successful prosecution, for resource and initiative to 

 be at their best, that all the faculties should be in 

 readiness in their fullest strength, freedom, and 

 adaptability. How many, alas! are not strong mei;, 

 .-ind in their nraiseworfhv endeavours, notwithstand- 

 ing, to contribute something to the achievements of 

 their time succumb as martyrs to their devotion. The 

 truth of this statement, I fear, is too well known to 

 many of us here. In Germany this strain of elemen- 

 tary tr-arhipp' is more recent, and is only now being 

 felt. Prof. Emil Fischer in his address (Joe. cit.) says 

 of it : " During the last ten years a scheme of prac- 



NO. 2237, VOL. 90] 



tical education of the masses has developed." " But 

 this very education of the masses tends mentally to 

 exhaust the teacher, and to a great extent, certainly 

 to a higher degree than is desirable or indeed com- 

 patible with the creative power of the investigator, 

 there prevails in modern educational laboratories a 

 condition of overstrained activity." And again, " In 

 the harassing cares of the day the teacher too readily 

 loses that peace of mind and broad view of scientific 

 matters necessary for tackling the larger problems 

 oi research." Laboratories, he says, are wanted 

 " which should permit of research in absolute tran- 

 quillity, unencumbered by the duties of teaching." I 

 have given these quotations from Prof. Fischer's 

 address as indicating the matured judgment of a 

 highly competent authority, communicated in the 

 presence of the German Emperor on an historic 

 occasion. His words are words of great weight, and 

 no country which regards its future welfare can afford 

 to ignore them. 



Sir Walter Raleigh (loc. cit.) says that every 

 university is bound to help the poor . . . but that 

 does not mean that a university is doing good if it 

 helps those who have no special bent for learned 

 pursuits to acquire with heavy labour and much 

 assistance — just so much as may enable them to pass 

 muster; on the contrary, it is doing harm. I would 

 like to invite the attention of all who are seriously 

 interested in the country's welfare to reconsider the 

 present policy in the teaching of chemistry : and this 

 applies also to other sciences. For the advancement 

 of civilisation, for the increased welfare of the race 

 by the technical applications of our science, it is not 

 the indiscriminate teaching of the masses and the 

 multiplication of examinations that is wanted, but 

 the training of the few, of capable investigators. I 

 do not propose necessarily that we should interfere 

 with, or much less abandon, much of our present 

 elementary teaching, and I know that elementary, 

 largely technical, training in chemistry is needed for 

 medicine and engineering ; but I do propose that our 

 first endeavour should be to secure under present 

 conditions in the present college or works laboratories, 

 or in laboratories to be specially provided, that capable 

 inen, of whom we have many, should be able to 

 devote themselves to research without the worry of 

 teaching and examining or of providing the ways and 

 means of livelihood. There is, happily, reason to 

 believe that this vital need is to some extent becoming 

 known ; for there have been several recent instances 

 where a particular investigator has been afforded the 

 means, financially, of prosecuting his particular 

 researches in tranquillity. The diversion of endow- 

 ments to such purposes, instead of their going to 

 the foundation of additional school or undergraduate 

 scholarships, cannot be too highly commended. 



We may learn a lesson which bears on this from 

 that remarjcably prolific period of our science, the 

 close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the 

 nineteenth centuries. It was then no easy matter to 

 pass the precincts of a chemical laboratory; only the 

 fittest survived the ordeal. At the beginning of tlie 

 nineteenth century the traditions of Berthollet and 

 Lavoisier in Paris were kept alive by Gay-Lussac ; 

 in England those of Cavendish and Priestley by 

 Davy; and Berzelius in Sweden worthily maintained 

 the older school of Bergmann and Scheele. By a 

 happy fate the interest of Alexander v. Humboldt 

 was the means of both Liebic and Dumas being 

 admitted to the intimacy of Gay-Lussac; and in 

 Sweden Wohler was fortunate to gain the confidence 

 of Berzelius; and in London, Faradav that of Davy. 

 The achievements of these men — Liebig, Dumas. 

 Wohler, and Faraday — are part of the history of 



