NA TURE 



[March 4, 1909 



SCIENTIl'lC RESEARCH AND THE CARNEGIE 



TRUST. 

 T^HE seventh annual report, that {or the year 1907-8, of 

 the executive committee to the trustees of the 

 Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, was sub- 

 mitted at a meeting held in London on February 24. The 

 report contains a review of the activities of the trust during 

 the seven years of its existence. In the first place, the 

 committee directs special attention to the scheme of endow- 

 ment of post-graduate study and research, which completed 

 its first lustrum on September 30, 1908. The committee 

 -submitted the results of the scheme over the five years to 

 independent authorities for examination and report. For 

 Ihis purpose the services were obtained, in the physical 

 and chemical sciences, of Dr. J. J. Dobbie, director of the 

 Royal Scottish Museum, and formerly professor of chem- 

 istry in the University College of North Wales ; in the 

 biological and medical sciences, of Dr. J. Ritchie, super- 

 intendent of the Royal College of Physicians' Laboratory, 

 and formerly professor of pathology in the University of 

 Oxford ; and in the historical, economic, and linguistic 

 sciences, of Prof. P. Hume Brown, Historiographer-Royal 

 for Scotland. 



The assistance offered by the scheme was of three kinds 

 — scholarships, fellowships, and grants — in order, so far 

 as possible, to reach all classes of workers. Selection was 

 made, not by competitive examination, but for fellowships 

 on the merits of original work already published, and 

 for scholarships on the evidence of experts regarding the 

 applicant's special fitness for the work proposed. No fixed 

 number of foundations, nor even a definite total sum, was 

 assigned to any one year. The aim of the scheme wa^, 

 within the limits of the trust deed, to discover and supply 

 the demand for assistance in higher study and research 

 throughout Scotland. The actual expenditure upon the 

 scheme for the first quinquennial period was 27,755/. 



Two points in connection with the reports of the experts 

 referred to above are mentioned. The first is that the re- 

 ports must be taken as representing only part of the out- 

 put of the universities of Scotland in higher study and 

 research ; for in many departments, and not merely in 

 those outside the scope of the trust, much independent 

 work of the kind is being done. The second is that in 

 providing the scheme with so many able workers, as well 

 as in affording laboratory accommodation and supervision, 

 the universities deserve much of the credit due to its 

 success. 



In summarising the grants to universities and extra- 

 mural colleges, the report states that, of the total grants 

 during the past si.x years, amounting to 246,374/., 

 23.000/. has been allocated to libraries, 131,644/. to build- 

 ings and permanent equipment, and 91,730/. to teaching. 

 In this allocation the committee was guided by the special 

 needs of each institution as set forth by its governing 

 "body. It is gratifying to find, in the statements received 

 from the universities and other institutions regarding their 

 claims under the second quinquennial distribution, their 

 general recognition of the great Ijcnefits that have accrued. 



The second quinquennial scheme of distribution, besides 

 making contributions of 65,250/. to buildings and per- 

 manent equipment and 20,500/. to libraries, will at the 

 close of the period of five years have increased the re- 

 sources of teaching in the four university centres by per- 

 manent endowments amounting to 87,500/., and have 

 ulTorded during the five years an annual income of about 

 4i=;o/. 10 meet ordinary expenditure. 



During the period of seven academic years in which the 

 scheme of payment of class fees has been in operation, the 

 individual students whose fees have been paid by the trust 

 number 8263, and the fees paid reach the total of 298,687/. 

 Fifly-li\'e beneficiaries under the scheme have made 

 volunt.irv repavment of fees paid on their behalf, amount- 

 ing in ail to 881/. 



With regard to school education of applicants, the com- 

 mittee has been able since the year 1907-8 to demand of 

 all applirants a standard equivalent to that of the uni- 

 versities arts and science preliminarv examination, or of 

 the leaving certificate of the Scotch Education Department. 



The expenditure for 1907-8 upon the research scheme 

 and upon the laboratory was respectively 6340/. and 2185/., 



NO. 2053, VOL. 80] 



towards the latter of which the Colleges of Physicians and 

 of Surgeons have together contributed 950/. Under the 

 head of grants to university centres a sum of 

 73.998'- S-s- 9^. was available" for distribution during 

 1907-8. 'Ihe statistics of the payment of class fees for 

 the academic year 1907-8 give the total number of bene- 

 ficiaries as 3269, the total amount of fees paid as 43,256/., 

 and the average amount in fees paid per beneficiary as 

 13/. 4s. Sd., an increase as compared with the preceding 

 academic year of 107, 2154/., ifai., and 4^. Sd. respectively. 



In his report on the scheme of endowment of post- 

 graduate study and research. Dr. J. J. Dobbie, dealing 

 with tlie physical and chemical sciences, remarks that a 

 careful examination of the papers relating to the work 

 of the Carnegie fellows, scholars, and grantees in the 

 mathematical and experimental sciences has confirmed and 

 strengthened the conclusions expressed in the report of 

 January 19, 1905, as to the satisfactory working of the 

 scheme for the encouragement of post-graduate study and 

 research. The high standard set in the appointment of 

 the first fellows and scholars has been well maintained in 

 subsequent appointments. With few exceptions, the bene- 

 ficiaries have fully justified their selection by the trustees. 

 They have carried out successfully a large amount of re- 

 search work. During the past five years thirty-seven 

 individuals have been appointed to fellowships or scholar- 

 ships, and twenty-five, not including fellows, have received 

 grants. The detailed numbers, excluding grantees, are : — 

 mathematics, 2 ; physics, 8 ; engineering, 4 ; chemistry, 23. 

 It is a noteworthy circumstance that the fellows and 

 scholars in chemistry outnumber the total of all the other 

 branches of the mathematical and physical sciences. This 

 • nay, perhaps, be accounted for to some extent, but not 

 altogether, by the fact that the comparatively fresh field 

 of physical chemistry offers certain attractions to students 

 who formerly would have devoted themselves to purely 

 physical research. Some students are thus classed with 

 the chemists, who might with equal reason be reckoned 

 amongst the physicists. 



The fellows and scholars have contributed together one 

 hundred and seventeen, and the grantees twenty-two, 

 papers to the scientific journals. The papers in every case 

 embody the results of original investigations conducted by 

 their authors, and in the aggregate contain a very large 

 number of new observations, some of which h.ave proved 

 of real value in furthering the development of the branch 

 of science to which they relate. Nearly all the papers of 

 the beneficiaries have been published in the journals of 

 one or other of the great societies. It is well known that 

 since the inauguration of the trustees' scheme the output 

 of experimental work by the Scottish universities has 

 greatlv increased. In chemistry alone, in the course of 

 the last two years, the number of papers dated from the 

 laboratories of the Scottish universities whiclT have been 

 published in the Journal of the Chemical Society is twice 

 as great as the number appearing in the two years 

 immediately preceding that in which the scheme came into 

 operation ; and a still more important result is to be found 

 in the opportunity which the scheme has afforded for co- 

 operation within our laboratories. Although Scotland has 

 in the past produced many eminent investigators, they 

 have, with a few notable exceptions, been solitary workers. 

 It is only within the last few years that " schools " of 

 research, such as have long been the strength of the scien- 

 tific departments of the German universities, have come 

 into existence there, and the encouragement which the 

 Carnegie sclieme has given to this movement is not the 

 least of its claims upon the gratitude of the scientific 

 world. 



Dr. James Ritchie, in reporting on. the biological and 

 medical sciences, states that during the period under re- 

 view eighteen fellows have been at work. Of the total 

 number, ten had previous to election to fellowships been 

 beneficiaries of the trust, either as scholars or grantees. 

 The distribution of the fellowships as regards the different 

 branches of science were as follows ; — agriculture, two ; 

 zoology, two (including one in protozoology) ; anatomy, 

 three (including one in embrvology and one in anthro- 

 pology) ; physiology, six (including one in experimental 

 psychology) ; pathology, five (including one in neurology). 

 Of those appointe^l to scholarships, numbering in all forty- 



