September 29, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



447 



eludes chemical engineering in addition to 

 the usual courses in chemistry, and I hope 

 that a place will be found for this subject 

 by other universities. 



On the whole, there is not much fault 

 to be found with the training for chemists 

 supplied by the universities and technical 

 colleges, but there is still room for improve- 

 ments which could and would be carried 

 out if it were not that the scientific depart- 

 ments of these institutions are as a rule 

 hampered by lack of funds. The facilities 

 for practical instruction with respect to 

 accommodation and equipment are gen- 

 erally adequate, but, on the other hand, the 

 personnel could with advantage be largely 

 increased, and at least the junior members 

 of the staffs are miserably underpaid. It 

 would doubtless be regarded as insanity to 

 suggest that a scientific man, however 

 eminent, should receive more than a frac- 

 tion of the salary to which a music-hall 

 "artiste" or a lawyer politician can as- 

 pire; but if the best brains in the country 

 are to be attracted towards science, as they 

 ought to be, some greater inducement than 

 a mere living wage should be held out. 

 Hence no opportunity should be lost of im- 

 pressing upon the government the neces- 

 sity for increasing the grants to the scien- 

 tific departments of our higher teaching 

 institutions, and for the provision of re- 

 search scholarships. It is much to be de- 

 sired also that wealthy men in this country 

 should take an example from America and 

 acquire more generally the habit of devot- 

 ing some part of their means to the endow- 

 ment of higher education. The private 

 donations for science and education made 

 in the United States during the last forty- 

 three years amount to the magnificent sum 

 of £117,000,000, and recently the average 

 annual benefactions for educational pur- 

 poses 'total nearly £6,000,000. Of course 

 there are few, if any, of the universities and 



colleges in this country which are not 

 deeply indebted to the foresight and gen- 

 erosity of private benefactors, but the lav- 

 ish scale on which funds are provided in 

 America leads to a certain feeling of ad- 

 miring envy. 



After all, the chief difficulty which eon- 

 fronts those who are eager for progress in 

 educational matters is that so many of our 

 most famous schools are still conducted on 

 medieval lines, in the sense that the "edu- 

 cation" administered is almost wholly 

 classical. Consequently, "though science 

 enters into every part of modern life, and 

 scientific method is necessary for success 

 in all undertakings, the affairs of the coun- 

 try are in the hands of legislators who not 

 only have little or no acquaintance with 

 the fundamental facts and principles sig- 

 nified by these aspects of knowledge, but 

 also do not understand how such matters 

 can be used to strengthen and develop the 

 state. Our administrative officials are also 

 mostly under the same disabilities, on ac- 

 count of their want of a scientific training. 

 They are educated at schools where science 

 can receive little encouragement, and they 

 do not take up scientific subjects in the 

 examinations for the civil service, because 

 marks can be much more easily obtained by 

 attention to Latin and Greek; and the re- 

 sult of it all is that science is usually treated 

 with indifference, often with contempt, and 

 rarely with intelligent appreciation by the 

 statesmen and members of the public serv- 

 ices whose decisions and acts largely deter- 

 mine the country 's welfare. The defects of 

 a system which places the chief power of 

 an organization which needs understanding 

 of science in every department in the 

 hands of people who have not received any 

 training in scientific subjects or methods 

 are obvious. ' ' 2 The remedy is also obvious. 



Here, again, the prospects are now 



z Nature, February 10, 1916. 



