15.— CHEMISTRY. 31 



value the materials saved, and a correct balance must be adjusted. 

 It is often instructive to lay before a research worker an estimate of 

 the cost of an investigation in which these factors of time and material 

 are taken into account. As a general rule it will be found that the 

 saying of material is of greater moment than the loss of time. The 

 point may not be vitally important in the academic laboratory, but 

 in the factory, to which most of these workers eventually migrate, 

 tliey will soon have the lesson thrust upon them that their time and 

 salary bear a small propoi-tion to costs of production. 



You will see I have changed my warning from the professor to the 

 student. A student generation is short. In a few years, when almost 

 as a matter of course the best of young chemists will quahfy for the 

 Doctor of Philosophy degree, it will be forgotten that these facilities 

 have come to us, not as a right, but as a privilege. Those who reap 

 the advantages of these privileges must prove that the efforts made on 

 their behalf have been worth while. 



Looking at the position broadly, if one may criticise the research 

 schemes of to-day, it is in the sense that the main bulk of support is 

 afforded to the research apprentice, and the situation has become infinitely 

 harder for the supervisor in that new ajid onerous tasks are imposed 

 upon him. To expect him to undertake his normal duties and, as a 

 voluntary act, the additional burden of research training is to force 

 him into the devastation of late hours and ovei^work. The question 

 is at once raised — Are we using our matui-e research material to the 

 best advantage, and is our policy sufficiently focussed on the require- 

 ments of the experienced investigator? I think it will generally be 

 agreed that members of the professor or lectm'er class who join in 

 the movement must be relieved in great measure of teaching and 

 administrative work. I am decidedly of the opinion that the research 

 supervisor must be a teacher, and must mingle freely with under- 

 gi'aduates, so as to recognise at the earliest possible stage the potential 

 investigators of the future and guide their studies. To meet this 

 necessity universities and colleges must realise that their curriculum has 

 been extended and that staffs must be enlarged accordingly. There 

 could then be definite periods of freedom from official duties for those 

 who undertake research training as an added task. Opportunities must 

 also be given to these ' exceptional men ' to travel occasionally to other 

 centres and refresh themselves in the company of kindred workers. 

 It is evident thnt our universities are called upon to share the financial 

 burden involved in a National Research scheme to a nuich greater 

 extent than possibly tliey kiiow. 



I may perhaps sunnnarise some of the conclusions I have reached 

 in thinking over these questions. The first and most important is that 

 in each institution there should be a Board or Standing Conmiittee 

 entrusted with the supervision of research. The functions of such a 

 body would be widely varied and would include: — ■ 



1. Tho alloc-ation of money voted specifically from utiiversitv or 

 college funds for research expenses. 



2. The power to' i-ecommend additions to the Teaching Staff in 

 departments actively engaged in research. 



1922 E 



