24 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 
In addition to awards for the results of successful research, Scholarships 
began to be founded to enable students who had just taken their degrees 
to get a post-graduate training in research. The rate of increase in the 
number of these was very slow in the last century, but this century it has 
got faster and faster and now grants for training in research are given 
by most of the Colleges, by some of the great City Companies, who have 
done so much for the promotion of Science and Education, by bodies 
like the Commissioners for the 1851 Exhibition, and, above all, by the 
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, who have in the last 
ten years made grants to students in training of £228,970, the average 
number receiving grants in each year being 184. 
In Cambridge the number of students doing post-graduate research 
increased rapidly after 1895 when a regulation came into force which _ 
enabled students who had graduated at other Universities to obtain a 
Cambridge degree after two years’ satisfactory research work in Cambridge. 
This degree was at first the B.A. degree, but in 1920 a new degree, the 
Ph.D., was instituted by the University for which Cambridge men as well 
as graduates of other Universities are eligible. There are now forty-five 
of these students in residence taking Physics. Of these, by far the 
greater number hold Scholarships or are in receipt of grants. Indeed, 
I think it can now be said that a really first-class man has an excellent 
chance of getting, if he is in need of it, sufficient assistance to enable him 
to get a training in research. 
The problem of training a large number of students in research in 
Physics is by no means an easy one, many things have to be taken into 
consideration and provided for, otherwise the post-graduate course may 
do more harm than good. 
It is very necessary to remember that the importance of the research 
work done by these students lies not so much in the scientific results 
obtained as in the training it affords. On this point I should like to read 
an extract from the report of a Commission on the place of Science in 
Education, of which I was Chairman :— 
‘The training afforded by the study of Natural Science will be in- 
complete unless the student undertakes some piece of research in which, 
relying as far as possible on his own resources, he applies his knowledge of 
Science and of the methods of scientific investigation to the solution of 
some scientific problem. ‘The effect of a year’s work of this kind on the 
general mental development of the student is most striking. He gains 
independence of thought, maturity of judgment, self-reliance, his critical 
powers are strengthened, and his enthusiasm for science increased, in fine 
he is carried from mental adolescence to manhood. We think that 
whenever possible a year spent mainly on research should form part of 
the course at the University of those whose work in life will be concerned 
with the industrial applications of science as well as those who will devote 
themselves to research and teaching. It is important, however, that at 
this stage the teachers at the University should regard research mainly 
from the point of view of its value as an educational training and not as a 
means of getting within the year as many new scientific results as possible. 
The student should be encouraged to overcome his difficulties by his own 
efforts and the assistance given by the teacher should not be more than is 
a a 
