Jan. 27, 1881J 



NATURE 



305 



The necessity for making provision for the devotion of fit 

 men to scientific worlc has occurred to many, and doubtleis 

 private generosity lias often enabled such men to prosecute 

 labours by which the world has greatly gained. One of the most 

 striking instances is that of Priestley. His own remarks con- 

 tained in his diary are full of interest. He says that Dr. 

 Fothergill "having observed that many of my experiments had 

 not been carried to their proper exte it on account of the expense 

 that would have attended them," proposed a subscription from 

 himself and some of his friends, and named 100/. per annum. 

 He consented to receive 40/., which was regularly paid to him, 

 three other gentlemen aiding. Afterwards for good reasons 

 Fo'hergiil proposed "an enlargement of the allowance for my 

 experiments, and likewise for my maintenance, -uit/iout lieing 

 under the necessity of giving my time to pupth, which I mu^t 

 otherwise have done." This was accepted, as Priestley preferred 

 it 1 1 any pension from the Court. He gives a miimte list of the 

 numerous donations, legacies (one of 2000.'. ) and subscriptions 

 given to him, while he dilates on Mr. Wedgwood's gifts of 

 pottery, retorts, tubes, &c., and presents in glass from another 

 gentleman, among which figures "a capital burning-lens, sixteen 

 inches in diameter." The Duke of Gr.-ifton remitted him annually 

 40/. When he w-ent to America forty of his friends, without 

 solicitation, raised the sum of 450'., "which was meant to have 

 been continued annually while he lived," as stated by his son. 



Vou will hear these details with the interest naturally belong- 

 ing to the subject, and doubtless ask the question, Have succeeding 

 generations improved on this ? I believe that there is no example 

 of an equal generosity on the part of their fellow-countrymen to 

 a man of science, although there are some agreeable exceptions 

 to the rule of neglect. A few years ago the Fishmongers' 

 Company presented the sum of 50/. to Prof. Parker, and an 

 annual gift of 20/. for three years, to assist him in bearing the 

 expenses of his researches on vertebrate animals. For three 

 years the British Pharmaceutical Society voted So/, in aid of 

 pharmaceutical research, 'ihe principle of promoting research 

 has also been recognised by the Government in their grant of 

 iood/., and in the fund of 4000/. placed at the disposal of the 

 Koyal Society. Our Government has, however, as yet made no 

 payment for the labour of pure research in experimental physics 

 or chemistry. "A grant from the above sum," says Dr. Gore, 

 "is often an unprofitable gift to accept, because it is in some 

 ca.ses only sufficient to pay expenses out of pocket for chemicals 

 and apparatus, and allows nothing for skill or labour." 



The mention of our able associate's name compels me to 

 draw attention to the invaluable services he has rendered for ten 

 years past to the cause of the endowment of research. His 

 numerous articles and papers form a repository of facts and 

 arguments of which I have large'y availed myself. Any one 

 wh> studies them will need no other evidence of the importance 

 of the qu.;stion, both in view of the progress of truth and of the 

 maintenance of our national welfare. In one of them he men- 

 tions the difficulty experienced in the proper employment of the 

 Government money, and proceeds as follows: — "By far the 

 greater part of the expense of an invetigation in physics or 

 chemistry is the exceedingly large amount of time it occupies. 

 Many necessary preliminary experiments have to be made, which 

 yield either negative, unsuccessful, or incomplete results, and 

 make the undertaking expensive." Further, " By order of the 

 Council, all instruments, apparatus, and drawings, made or 

 obtained by aid of the Government grants, shall, after serving the 

 purpose for which they were procured, and in the absence ot 

 any undertaking to the contrary, be delivered into the ctrstody of 

 the Royal Society." 



Research, then, in any fair sense of the word may be said to 

 be unprovided for by pubUc funds. The British Association 

 annually bestows grants of varying amounts for specific re- 

 searches. The Royal Institution helps. Yet ue feel surprised 

 when told that the average annual expenses relating to experi- 

 mental research, including salaries to assistants in the laborator)', 

 from the year 1867 to 1871, did not amount to two hundred and 

 fifty pounds. 



When it is remembered that not a single college, nor even 

 a professorship, for pure scientific research exists in this country, 

 we must feel humiliated when we cast a glance at what is going 

 on in other countries. In France and Germany varied resources 

 have been placed at the disposal of men of science, which I 

 cannot now minutely specify. Nor will I delay to speak in 

 detail of the importance of pure research in science, of the 

 mighty material results as regards our comfort and national 



wealth which have sprung from the labours of men of science, 

 for it may be assumed that all this is known. It is certain too 

 that valuable inventions in various arts and manufactures will 

 follow upon fresh discoveries regarding the principles involved 

 in them. When we know more of the materials and forces of 

 nature, new apjilications of them will soon follow. The pro- 

 gress of invention depends upon that of discovery ; the various 

 inventions wanted by manufacturers and others cannot be per- 

 fected until "suitable knowledge is found." The money of the 

 capitalist, the hand of the inventor, await the products of the 

 brains of the searcher after truth. 



It is only too well known that other countries have for some 

 years past distanced Britain in the field of research ; that while 

 Germany' is sending her trained sons to all parts of the world, 

 we scarcely even supply our own colonies. A writer in the 

 Monthly Journal of Science said last year that " to a very great 

 extent, both in the home kingdoms and the colonies, we find 

 ourselves compelled to import that intellectual eminence which 

 we refu-e to cultivate in our midst. Foreigners occupy profes- 

 sorial chairs in our colleges ; they fill the posts of botanists and 

 geologists in our colonial governments ; they hold high positions 

 in the respective staffs of the British Museum, of the Geological 

 Survey of India, and of our exploring expeditions." 



Now as these results cannot be owing to any inbred deficiency 

 in the countrymen of Newton, Faraday, and Darwin, it behoves 

 us to ask if our educational system is at fault, and if fair provision 

 is made for those able and willing to make original research. 

 The latter question is already answered by the facts .adduced. 

 How far our great universities have provided for science-teaching 

 can be learned by reading between the lines of certain resolu- 

 tions passed a few years ago by an " Association for the organi- 

 sation of academical study," the composition of which was an 

 ample guarantee of competence. The resolutions were as 

 follows : — 



"That the chief end to be kept in view in any redistribution of 

 the revenues of Oxford and Cambridge is the adequate mainten- 

 ance of nature study and scientific research, as w'ell for their own 

 sakes as with the view of bringing the higher education within 

 the reach of all who are desirous of profiting by it." 



"That to have a class of men whose lives are devoted to 

 research is a national object." 



"That it Ls desirable in the interests of national progress and 

 education that professorships and special institutions shall be 

 founded in the universities for the promotion of scientific 

 research,'' 



"That the present mode of awarding Fellowships as prizes, 

 has been unsuccessful as a means of promoting nature study and 

 original research, and that it is therefore desirable that it should 

 be discontinued." 



The state of things here pointed at has improved and is im- 

 proving, yet the verdict of a candid observer must still be summed 

 up in the one word inadequacy. 



Numerous suggestions have been made regarding the en- 

 dowment of research, but most of them are unpractical. Those 

 who imagine that the object wiU be gained by establishing 

 adequate teacherships of science, seem to be too sanguine. The 

 labour involved in the work of teaching, in the way of acquisi- 

 tion, preporation, and performance, is too great to permit the 

 devotion of sufficient time and thought to the search after new 

 truth. If it is desirable that new facts and principles be searched 

 after, why should fit inquirers be put, either partly or wholly, to 

 other work ? I know that many of our teachers have hitherto 

 been at a great disadvantage ; that managers of institutions have 

 had a sharper eye on their prospectus than on their internal 

 arrangements ; that they have thought of a college rather as a 

 body of bricks than as productive of a body of learning ; and that 

 apparatus and assistants, though well enough in Berlin or Leip- 

 zig, are needles in prudent England. Yet the ideal Profes:or is 

 rather the head of a department than a mere speaker by the yard 

 of so many lectures ; a man with numerous hands in the shape of 

 demonstrators and assistants, themselves the possessors of well- 

 trained brains ; a director of work with all its .apparatus freely 

 supplied to him. Such a man adequately remunerated may be 

 safely left to his own tendencies. Contact with nature breeds 

 the desire to know her better. In favourable conditions the 

 teacher becomes the investigator, and while seeking after new 

 truth builds up his own fame. 



After all, however, the question recurs, how can we best pro- 

 mote research, as the undivided life's work of fit persons ? I 

 believe that the solution lies, so far as this time is concerned, in 



