Januabt 5, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



other chemists. A physicist in knee- 

 breeches and an embroidered coat is im- 

 posing and, if a cocked hat under his arm 

 be added, quite irresistible. But all this 

 glory is not for us in this country — as yet. 

 Nor can we expect that the coveted title 

 of Geheimrath will be bestowed by our gov- 

 ernment. The gTcat prizes must neces- 

 sarily be in the form of money, either as 

 pensions or gifts. To have any real value 

 a pension must be something of which both 

 the amount and the date on which one may 

 count with certainty on receiving it are 

 fixed years in advance. To expect a pen- 

 sion, which some one else may receive, is 

 hardly a consolation. If money is to be 

 given outright how much is necessary to 

 be considered a great prize? When we 

 consider that even incompetent presidents 

 of insurance companies consider their serv- 

 ices cheap at a hundred thousand a year, 

 one wonders what sum would be considered 

 a proper reward for years of valuable work 

 done by competent scientific men during 

 the best years of their lives. Even at the 

 best, the most that could be given to scien- 

 tific men would be a mere pittance com- 

 pared with what the other captains receive. 

 It is unnecessary to try to answer the ques- 

 tion, even if modesty did not forbid, for 

 the principle of bestowing a few large 

 prizes with the expectation of benefiting 

 science is a delusion and it is to be hoped 

 that no benevolent person will make the 

 mistake of establishing one or more great 

 prizes. What is wanted is not the possi- 

 bility of sometimes receiving a large sum, 

 but the certainty that the amount received 

 annually will be sufiicient to enable one to 

 live and work without discomfort in the 

 present and without anxiety for the future. 

 The ways in which the public may aid 

 scientific men are directly by endowments 

 for paying salaries and indirectly by pro- 

 viding properly equipped laboratories and 

 other necessary equipment, and especially 



for paying for the services of assistants. 

 Both forms of help are necessary, for a man 

 capable of managing and getting the great- 

 est amount of good work out of a well- 

 equipped establishment deserves more than 

 a meager salary. On the other hand, those 

 with what appears to be a respectable sal- 

 ary may have to spend a good part of it 

 to make good the deficiencies in their equip- 

 ment. In deciding whether a man is well 

 paid or not it is necessary to ask not only 

 what salary he receives, but what are the 

 means of work provided for him. It is not 

 my intention here to call attention to the 

 special ways in which scientific establish- 

 ments would be benefited by gifts from 

 the public nor to discuss the question what 

 is a proper salary for a scientific man. 

 The latter depends upon too many compli- 

 cated conditions and can not be separated 

 from the more general question of what 

 those in equally important positions in 

 other walks of life are paid. The question 

 of proper equipment, including the ques- 

 tion of assistants, has already been brought 

 before the public on a good many occasions 

 and in a good many ways, and a good deal 

 has been given in recent years, although by 

 no means enough. 



If, as it appears, the public have reached 

 a better conception of the position of the 

 scientific man in this country and of his 

 pecuniary needs, it may be added that he 

 has the right to hope that he can appeal to 

 the public not only for pecuniary but for 

 moral support, for, in many cases, the pub- 

 lic are the final arbiters where differences 

 arise and unfavorable conditions often dis- 

 appear quickly as soon as it is felt that one 

 side or the other is backed by public opin- 

 ion. It may, therefore, be well to state 

 somewhat explicitly some of the conditions 

 which are unfavorable to the progress of 

 science in this country or which tend to 

 retard it. Here it is, not so much a ques- 

 tion of money as of a just appreciation of 



