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SCIENCE 



[jST. a Vol. XXXIX. No. 1009 



in a good locality here the rent will be about 

 a quarter of his income. . . . The smallness of 

 income results, in my case, in my being un- 

 able to buy books, subscribe to scientific jour- 

 nals, or join all the learned societies I ought, 

 or to travel to see other universities." Similar 

 complaints are made from elsewhere; and the 

 conditions in Britain are notorious. 



Of course, very junior posts are generally 

 financed by scholarships; and are naturally not 

 highly paid because the holders are young 

 men who are, practically, being apprenticed to 

 their labors. The senior posts are those which 

 must be considered in drawing any comparison 

 between the payment for scientific work and 

 other lines of effort; and even in this respect 

 other conditions besides the payment must be 

 taken into account. On the whole, however, 

 such comparison leads to a very unfavorable 

 conclusion regarding the present payment of 

 scientific workers in Britain. It is bad, com- 

 pared even with the Church. In middle posts, 

 the salaries may be slightly higher; but in 

 academical life the incumbents are obliged to 

 live in towns and are rarely provided with 

 housing. The highest appointments open in 

 science certainly seem to be paid much less 

 than the highest appointments in the Anglican 

 Church — though the latter figures can not be 

 very easily ascertained ; and, at least, no scien- 

 tific men have a seat in the House of Lords 

 by virtue of their ofiice or work. The highest 

 salaries for scientific work are very much less 

 than those given in the Army and Navy — 

 which reach to £4,000 or £5,000 a year, and 

 probably more when certain allowances are 

 added. The scientific and academical sides of 

 the medical profession show a similar state 

 of affairs when compared with the clinical 

 side — the incomes of the former seldom if ever 

 exceeding £1,000 a year, while those of the 

 latter are well known to run to many times 

 that amount, especially in surgery. Compared 

 with the law, science stands nowhere at all in 

 Britain, either in payment or in position. The 

 disparity is still greater in comparison with 

 " husiness " ; and the enormous fortunes made 

 in innumerable directions by manufacturers, 

 shipowners, retail and wholesale traders, vend- 



ors of registered articles, financiers, and so on, 

 would in many single cases cover the whole 

 funds allotted to science throughout the great 

 British Empire. Even certain branches of 

 art, such as the drama, singing and acting, 

 have a large advantage compared with scien- 

 tific work. 



It is in no grudging spirit that men of 

 science will draw such comparisons. That 

 good pay should be given for good work is an 

 elementary principle governing all lines of 

 effort; but another principle must be held in 

 view — that, if possible, payment should bear 

 some proportion to the value of the kind of 

 work done. We pay an architect or a general 

 more than we pay the bricklayer or the soldier, 

 because the labors of the former are the more 

 important; and the same principle should 

 carry weight in comparisons of the emolu- 

 ments of the several professions. In the two 

 previous numbers of Science Progress, a sur- 

 vey of the value of scientific work to the world 

 has been attempted. It is probably of greater 

 advantage to the world than any other line of 

 effort. Science has become our premier indus- 

 try, and governs every other industry just as 

 the work of the architect governs that of the 

 individual bricklayers. The world receives not 

 only " fairy tales " from science, but also the 

 most wonderful fairy gifts — -a greater knowl- 

 edge of the universe in which we live, a 

 greater power over nature and over barbarism, 

 greater precision in invention, in the treat- 

 ment and prevention of disease, and in our 

 manner of judging regarding all matters un- 

 der discussion. Can it be truly said that the 

 labors of any other professions are so valuable 

 to mankind? Where the priest, the clinician, 

 and the lawyer do good service to the few 

 people surrounding them, and the soldier, 

 sailor and politician do good service for their 

 country, the discoverer confers benefits upon 

 the whole world, and not for the present gen- 

 eration only, but for all times. We have 

 already argued the case. Mathematics, chem- 

 istry, physics, physiology and pathology have 

 practically built up all those great and won- 

 derful additions which modern civilization 

 has added to the civilization of the past, and. 



