OCTOBEB 12, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



507 



private fortunes have devoted themselves ■ to scien- 

 tific investigation. Not only have we, iu all parts of 

 the country, numerous dilettanti,^ who, especially in 

 various branches of biology, do valuable work in con- 

 tinually adding to knowledge, quietly pursuing their 

 favorite study without seeking to reach to any gre.it 

 eminence, but it is the fact that many of the greatest 

 names of English discoverers in science are those of 

 men who held no professional position designed to 

 maintain an investigator, but owed their opportunity 

 simply to the fact that they enjoyed a more or less 

 ample income by inheritance. Thus, Harvey pos- 

 sessed a private fortune, Darwin also, and Lyell. 

 . Such, also, is true of some of the English naturalists, 

 who more recently have most successfully devoted 

 their energies to research. Those who wish to de- 

 fend the present neglect of the government and of 

 public institutions to provide means for the carrying 

 on of scientific research in this country are accus- 

 tomed to declare as a justification for this neglect, 

 that we do very well without such provision, inas- 

 much as the cultivation of science here flourishes in 

 the hands of those who are in a position of i)ecuniary 

 independence. The reply to this is obvious. If those 

 few of our countrymen who by accident are placed 

 in an independent position show such ability in the 

 prosecution of scientific research, how much more 

 would be effected in the same direction, were the 

 machineryjprovided to enable those also who are nut 

 accidentally favored by fortune to enter upon the 

 same kind of work! The number of wealthy men 

 who have distinguished themselves in scientific re- 

 search in England is simply evidence that there is a 

 natural ability and liking for such work in the Eng- 

 lish character, and is a distinct encouragement to 

 those who have it in their power to do so, to offer the 

 opportunity of devoting themselves to research to a 

 larger number of the members of the community. 

 It is impossible to doubt that there are hundreds of 

 men amongst us who have as great capacity for scien- 

 tific discoverj' as those whom fortune has favored 

 with leisure and opportunity. It cannot be doubted, 

 that, were the means provided to enable even a pro- 

 portion of such men to givV themselves up to scientific 

 investigation, great discoveries, of no less importance 

 to the world than those relative to the causes of dis- 

 ease, and the development of living things from the 

 egg, — which I have cited, — would be made as a direct 

 consequence of their activity; whereas now we must 

 wait until, in due course of time, these discoveries 

 shall be made for us in the laboratories of Germany, 

 France, or Itussia. 



It should further be pointed out, that it is altogeth- 

 er a mistake to suppose that the existence amongst 

 us of a few very eminent men is any evidence tliat 

 we are contributing largely to the hard work of care- 

 ful study and observation, which really forms the 

 material upon which the conclusions of eminent dis- 

 coverers are based. You will find in every depart- 



1 I U0U this word in lu best and truest sense, and would rcft-r 

 those who have been nccustumed to associate with it some im- 

 plication of contempt to the wise and appreciative remarks of 

 Ouethe on ' dilittantl.' 



nient of biological knowledge, that the hard work of 

 investigation is being carried on by the well-trained 

 army of German observers. Whether you ask the 

 zoologist, the botanist, the physiologist, or the an- 

 thropologist, you will get the same answer : it is to 

 German sources that he looks for new information; 

 it is in German workshops that discoveries, each 

 small in itself, but gradually leading up to great con- 

 clusions, are daily being made. To a vei7 lar<»e ex- 

 tent, the business of those who are occupied with 

 teaching or applying biological science in this coun- 

 try consists in making known what has been done in 

 German laboratories. Our English students flock to 

 Germany to learn the methods of scientific research' 

 and to such a state of weakness is English science re- 

 duced, for want of proper nurture and support, that 

 even on some of the rare occasions when a capable 

 investigator of biological problems has been re<iuired 

 for the public service, it has been necessarj' to obtain 

 the assistance of a foreigner trained in the laborato- 

 ries of Germany. 



Let me now briefly explain what are the arrange- 

 ments, in number and in kind, which exist in other 

 countries, for the purpose of promoting the advance- 

 ment of biological science, which are wanting in this 

 country. 



In the German empire, with a population of 4.5,- 

 iK)0,(X)0, there are twenty-one universities. These 

 universities are very different from any thing which 

 goes by the name in this counti-y. Amongst its other 

 arrangements, devoted to the study and teaching of 

 all branches of learning and .science, each university 

 has five institutes, or establishments, devoted to the 

 prosecution of researches in biological science. These 

 are respectively the physiological, the zoological, the 

 anatomical, the pathological, and the botanical. In 

 one of these universities of average size, each of the 

 institutes named consists of a spacious building con- 

 taining many rooms fitted as workshops, provided 

 with instruments, a museum, and. in the last in- 

 stance, with an experimental garden. All this is 

 provided and maintained by the state. At the head 

 of each institute is the university professor respec- 

 tively of physiology, of zoology, of anatomy, of pa- 

 thology, or of botany. He is paid a stipend by the 

 state, which, in the smallest university, is as low as 

 i'lio, but may be in others as much as £700, and 

 averages, say, £400 a year. Considering the relative 

 expenditure of the professional classes in the two 

 countries, this average may be taken as equal to £800 

 a year in England.' Besides the professor, each in- 

 stitute has attached to it, with salaries paid by the 

 .state, two qualified assistants, who, in course of time, 

 will succeed to independent positions. A liberal al- 

 lowance is also made to each instilutp, by the state, 

 lor the purchase of instruments, material for study, 

 and for the pay of servants ; so that the total expendi- 

 ture on professor, assistants, laboratory service, and 



^ From the fact tliat the ttalarics of judges, civil servants, mil- 

 itary and naval oHicers, parsonn, and schoolmasters, as also the 

 fees of pbyslclana and lawyers, are in Germany even less than 

 half what Is paid to their representatives In England, I think ibst 

 we are ju^tiHed in makinv this estimate. 



