September 16, 1922] 



NA TURE 



387 



be to hand on the ideas inspired by his genius to the 

 ordinary investigator. 



I have no intention of wearying you by elaborating 

 my views on the training required to produce these 

 different types. My task is greatly simplified if you 

 will agree that the first step must be systematic ex- 

 perience in pure and disinterested research, without 

 any reference to the more complicated problems of 

 applied science. This is necessary, for if our technical 

 research is to progress on sound lines the foundations 

 must be truly laid. I have no doubt as to the prosperity 

 of scientific industries in this country so long as we 

 avoid hasty and premature specialisation in those who 

 control them. We may take it that in the future the 

 great majority of expert chemists will pass through a 

 stage in which they make their first acquaintance with 

 the methods of research under supervision and guid- 

 ance. The movement is already in progress. The 

 Government grants are awarded generously and widely. 

 The conditions attached are moderate and reasonable, 

 and there is a rush to chemical research in our colleges. 

 Here, then, I issue my first note of warning, and it is 

 to the professors. It is an easy matter to nominate 

 a research student ; a research laboratory comfortably 

 filled with workers is an inspiring sight, but there are 

 few more harassing duties than those which involve 

 the direction of young research chemists. No matter 

 how great their enthusiasm and abilities, these pupils 

 have to be trained, guided, inspired, and this help can 

 come only from the man of mature years and experience. 

 I am well aware that scorn has been poured on the idea 

 that research requires training. No doubt the word is 

 an expression of intellectual freedom, but I have seen 

 too many good investigators spoiled and discouraged 

 through lack of this help to hold any other opinion than 

 that training is necessary. I remember, too, years 

 when I wandered more or less aimlessly down the by- 

 paths of pointless inquiries, and I then learned to realise 

 the necessity of economising the time and effort of 

 others. 



The duties of such a supervisor cannot be light. He 

 must possess versatility ; for although a " research 

 school " will doubtless preserve one particular type 

 of problem as its main feature, there must be a sufficient 

 variety of topics if narrow specialisation is to be avoided. 

 Remember, also, that there can be no formal course 

 of instruction suitable for groups of students, no com- 

 mon course applicable to all pupils and all inquiries. 

 Individual attention is the first necessity, and the 

 educative value of early researches is largely derived 

 from the daily consultations at the laboratory bench 

 or in the library. The responsibility of becoming a 

 research supervisor is great, and, even with the best 

 of good will, many find it difficult to enter sympathetic- 

 ally into the mental position of the beginner. An 

 unexpected result is obtained, an analysis fails to agree, 

 and the supervisor, out of his long experience, can 

 explain the anomaly at once, and generally does so. 

 If the pupil is to derive any real benefit from his diffi- 

 culties, his adviser must for the moment place himself 

 in the position of one equally puzzled, and must lead 

 his collaborator to sum up the evidence and arrive at 

 the correct conclusion for himself. The policy thus 

 outlined is, I believe, sound, but it makes severe 

 demands on patience, sympathy, and, above all, time. 



NO. 2759, VOL. I io] 



Research supervision, if conscientiously given, in- 

 volves the complete absorption of the director's energy 

 and leisure. There is a rich reward in seeing pupils 

 develop as independent thinkers and workers, but the 

 supervisor has to pay the price of seeing his own 

 research output fade away. He will have niore con- 

 joint papers, but fewer individual publications, and 

 limitations will be placed on the nature of his work by 

 the restricted technique of his pupils. 



I have defined a high standard, almost an ideal, but 

 there is, of course, the easy alternative to use the 

 technical skill of the graduate to carry out the more 

 laborious and mechanical parts of one's own researches. 

 to regard these young workers as so many extra pairs 

 of hands. I need not elaborate the outcome of such 

 a policy. 



There is another temptation, and that, in an institu- 

 tion of university rank, is for the professor to leave 

 research training in the hands of his lecturers, selecting 

 as his collaborators only those workers who have passed 

 the apprenticeship stage. This, I am convinced, is a 

 mistake. Nothing consolidates a research school more 

 firmly than the feeling that all who labour in its interests 

 are recognised by having assigned to them collaborators 

 of real ability. 



I am not yet done with the professor and his staff, 

 for they will have other matters to attend to if research 

 schools are to justify their existence and to do more 

 than add to the bulk of our journals. In many cases 

 it will be found that the most gifted of the young 

 workers under their care lack what, for want of a better 

 expression, is known as " general culture." Remember, 

 these graduates have just emerged from a period of 

 intensive study in which chemistry and the allied 

 sciences have absorbed most of their attention. For 

 their own sake and in the interests of our subject, they 

 must be protected from the criticism that a scientific 

 education is limited in outlook and leads to a narrow 

 specialism. The research years are plastic years, and 

 many opportunities may be found in the course of the 

 daily consultations " to impress upon the student that 

 there is literature other than the records of scientific 

 papers, and music beyond the range of student songs." 

 I mention only two of the many things which may be 

 added to elevate and refine the research student's life. 

 Others will at once occur to you. but I turn to an en- 

 tirely different feature of research training, for which 

 I make a special plea : I refer to the inculcation of 

 business-like methods. You will not accuse me, I 

 hope, of departing from the spirit of scholarship or of 

 descending into petty detail, but my experience has 

 been that research students require firm handling. 

 Emancipated as they are from the restrictions of 

 undergraduate study, the idea seems to prevail that 

 these workers ought to be excused the rules which 

 usually govern a teaching laboratory, and may there- 

 fore work in any manner they choose. It requires, 

 in fact, the force of a personal example to demonstrate 

 to them that research work can be carried out with all 

 the neatness and care demanded by quantitative 

 analysis. Again, in the exercise of their new freedom 

 young collaborators are inclined to neglect recording 

 their results in a manner which secures a permanent 

 record and is of use to the senior collaborator. As a 

 rule, the compilation of results lor publication is not 



