NA TURE 



[July 22, 1922 



to carry out one's own researches, to regard these 

 young workers as so many extra pairs of hands. 

 Even when the responsibility of becoming a research 

 supervisor is fully recognised, how difficult it is to 

 put oneself in the position of the beginner. The 

 unexpected result is obtained, and the supervisor 

 immediately explains it out of his long experience. 

 What benefit does the student derive ? The real 

 supervisor has to curb his impatience and lead his 

 collaborator to sum up the evidence and at long 

 length reach the conclusion for himself. But that 

 takes patience, sympathy, and, above all, time. 

 The supervisor has his reward when gradually the 

 research pupil reveals himself and emerges as an 

 independent worker, but his own research output 

 fades away. There is a novel called " The Devourers," 

 in which a woman of genius finds her artistic develop- 

 ment arrested when in time her children claim her 

 every thought. Just as children are in this sense the 

 devourers of their mothers, so are research students 

 the devourers of their professors. When I relin- 

 quished my chair I was spending daily three hours at 

 teaching and seven hours with the " devourers." 

 My first two points may be summarised thus : 



(1) Research training must be thorough and 

 must be taken seriously, both by the student and the 

 supervisor. 



(2) This training must be in the hands of mature 

 investigators, who should be relieved of routine or 

 administrative work and who need undertake only a 

 limited amount of teaching. 



This will cost money, and staffs must be enlarged 

 to supply the main bulk of routine university teaching. 

 There is plenty of room in university organisation 

 for the patient conscientious teacher on whom the 

 gods have been kind enough to bestow only a modest 

 passion for inquiry. Nevertheless, the research 

 supervisor himself must be a teacher and must 

 mingle freely with undergraduates so as to recognise 

 at the earliest possible stage the potential research 

 workers of the future and to guide their studies 

 accordingly. 



The needs of the lecturer class of research workers 

 are easily defined. They require more leisure for 

 research than they get at present, and this freedom 

 must not be secured through the agency of overwork 

 and late hours. It should be defined and form part 

 of the terms of appointment. So many hours in the 

 day, so many days in the week, or weeks in the 

 academic year, should be kept free from teaching or 

 administrative work. Here again we encounter the 

 question of finance. Additional staff must be 

 provided, and for this more money is required. In 

 this connexion the research assistantships recently 

 instituted by the Carnegie . Trust are a step in 

 the right direction. One other point appeals to me 

 strongly and involves no finance. Every facility 

 should be given the lecturer-investigator to secure 

 collaborators to work under him. I do not mean, 

 of course, that the professor should take the pick 

 of the bunch and leave the residue to his juniors. 

 Every professor should pass a self-denying ordinance 

 on himself in this matter, and, frankly speaking, he 

 will find that it pays. 



The professor's needs have already been dealt 

 with, but there is another thing in which we can 

 help him. Again it is a domestic matter. It is, 

 I am convinced, a mistake for a governing body to 

 call for an annual fist of publications from their 

 research departments. Nothing could be more 

 injurious to the true atmosphere of research than 

 the feeling of pressure ; that papers must be published 

 or the department will be discredited. Thus we 

 have scrappy, incomplete accounts of topics which 



NO. 2751, VOL. I IO] 



have been chosen apparently for no other reason 

 than that results will come quickly. One point more 

 regarding the professor : Let him have as much 

 financial support for his work as can be spared, but 

 it is well to insist on his keeping these accounts 

 separate from those concerned with university 

 teaching. But these are perhaps petty details 

 compared with the greatest need of the professor- 

 investigator — the necessity to be free at intervals 

 to travel to other centres and refresh himself in the 

 company of kindred workers. 



What I have said appears to me to apply generally 

 to all forms of university research and is founded partly 

 on experiences other than my own. I turn now to 

 concrete suggestions. The first and most important 

 is that in each university there should be a Board 

 or Standing Committee entrusted with the super- 

 vision of higher study and research. We have 

 Entrance Boards, or Matriculation Boards, governing 

 and regularising the first phase of university study, 

 and it is equally necessary to have such a body 

 assisting in the highest studies. The functions of 

 such a body would be widely varied, and should 

 include the power (i) to recommend additions to the 

 teaching staff in departments actively engaged in 

 research work and to recommend promotion ; (2) to 

 allocate money voted from university funds for 

 research purposes, and to see that subjects which are 

 denied benefits from Government or public schemes 

 are properly supported (I speak more particularly 

 on behalf of classical and philosophical subjects, 

 which are in a serious position to-day) ; and (3) to 

 supervise higher degrees, including approval of the 

 topics given to students. 



These need not be elaborated ; but here are some 

 specific needs which such a body at once encounters : 

 ( 1 ) The provision of research hbraries in which reference 

 works can be consulted in the department where the 

 work is carried out ; (2) travelling grants to enable 

 workers to visit libraries, to consult authorities, to 

 inspect MSS., or carry out investigations in the 

 field ; (3) publication grants, so that where no period- 

 ical literature is available in which research results 

 can be published, the work will not remain buried 

 and obscure — the classical and philosophical workers 

 in particular have difficulty in finding a publication 

 medium ; and (4) special assistance for subjects not 

 included in National Research Schemes. 



As a matter of practical convenience the policy 

 of establishing separate suspense accounts for each 

 of the above has been adopted in the University of 

 St. Andrews, so that heavy expenditure in one year 

 is balanced by accumulations. 



An organisation such as I have outlined is, of course, 

 open to some objections. Research cannot be 

 machine-made ; it cannot be governed by regulations 

 or committees. The very word " research "is an 

 expression of intellectual freedom. But some or- 

 ganisation is necessary. It is effected on lines similar 

 to those sketched by the Carnegie Trust in Scotland 

 and in miniature within my own university. The 

 system works well in that the available money is 

 fairly distributed without reference to utilitarian 

 demands. All classes of research workers are stimu- 

 lated by the feehng that their interests are being 

 looked after and that no subject has preferential 

 treatment. The classical scholar can work in har- 

 mony with his scientific brother and without a feeling 

 of envy. Above all, it is a step towards the safeguard 

 that all subjects of inquiry will be prosecuted in the 

 universities, and we may be saved from the degradation 

 of a one-sided intellectual development. The system 

 educates even the mature investigator, and I am sure 

 it is a good thing for the twentieth century chemist to 



