316 REPORT— 1876. 



"Wycombe, Haslemere. 



" I believe that the result of chemical iiiquii'y would be greater and more 

 important in nature if the suggestions made Isy j-our Committee could be 

 efficiently carried out. I must confess, however, that my fears shape them- 

 selves very much after the fashion expressed by paragraph 5 of your Circular. 



" Original workers, I believe, always are under the hope that eventually 

 time and opportunity will present themselves, so that they wiU allow them 

 personally to work out their brightest and most promising ideas. If this be 

 so, but few of such will find a place in the contemplated list. Again, hesita- 

 tion might be felt amongst some lest the most promising subjects should 

 be negatived by the results of an inexperienced hand. 



" The number of skilled hands in our laboratories is certainly larger than 

 formerly, yet probably in this country latterly the harvest of original work 

 has not been in due proportion to this number. 



" If so, the steps proposed towards the organization of chemical inquiry by 

 way of a list will, I think, be beneficial. 



" G. B. BtrCKTON." 



" Manchester, May 4, 1876. 



" We know that the scientific faculty is of slow growth in the case of any 

 individual student. He becomes interested in a particular line of inquiry, 

 and in pursuing it becomes further interested by the acquisition of new facts. 

 The original inquiry will naturally ramify, and there will be a completeness 

 about his work and also an accuracy which could not be expected from that 

 done as it were to order. I think, too, that the mere suggestions of a research 

 may tend to make it unpalatable to many minds. We know that mere sug- 

 gestions have in some instances been claimed as discoveries. On this account 

 many would feel some delicacy in even suggesting an inquiry, necessarily 

 accompanied by the suggestion of the expected result, simply because it looks 

 like a forestalling to some extent of the merit of the actual labourer. 



"Then, in order to be in a position to suggest, a scientific man must have 

 mentally worked out the methods and anticipated the results of the proposed 

 train of investigation, and would doubtless prefer to work it out himself, or, 

 at any rate, to have the work done by his pupils under his immediate super- 

 intendence — first, because he naturally wishes that full justice should be done 

 to the subject from his own point of view ; and second, because he considers 

 himself to a certain extent in the light of a jiroprietor. 



" I do not think it desirable to use any extra stimulus to induce students 

 to work. If their own tastes and abilities and information do not lead them 

 to find a vein of knowledge and work it, the application of such stimulus 

 would probably result in the accumulation of incomplete and erroneous results 

 to the hindrance of real scientific advancement. 



" James P. Jouie." 



In order that the proposed scheme should be successful it ought to meet 

 with very general support. This has been far from being the case, and there- 

 fore the Committee have not thought it advisable to proceed further in the 

 matter. 



