Januaby 17, 190S] 



SCIENCE 



109 



there are two or three other institutions in 

 Sweden which " are on the same footing " as 

 the academy, while the professors of literature, 

 history and esthetics at Swedish universities 

 do not number more than a dozen. 



The nominating power for the medical prize 

 lies with members of the medical faculties at 

 the Caroline Medical Institute, Upsala and 

 Lund universities in Sweden, Christiania Uni- 

 versity in Norway, Copenhagen University in 

 Denmark, and Helsingfors in Finland, while 

 members of at least six other medical faculties 

 " selected in the way most appropriate of the 

 just representation of the various countries," 

 and in addition any number of scientists whom 

 the staff of the Caroline Institute may see 

 fit to select, are empowered to nominate candi- 

 dates. It does not seem that the charge of the 

 writer in The Popular Science Monthly is just. 

 In regard to the scientific prizes the right to 

 nominate candidates belongs to " home and 

 foreign members of the Eoyal Academy of Sci- 

 ence in Stockholm, members of the Nobel 

 Committees of the physical and chemical sec- 

 tions of the Nobel foundation, scientists who 

 have received a Nobel prize, professors of 

 physics and chemistry at the universities above 

 referred to, as well as at the Eoyal Technical 

 College in Stockholm, and professors of the 

 same sciences at at least six other universities, 

 as well as other scientists to be selected by the 

 Academy of Science of Stockholm. Also in 

 this case by far the smaller number of persons 

 with right to nominate are Swedes. 



The article in The Popular Science Monthly 

 referred to also says that as Nobel's " large 

 fortune was made in Great Britain by the dis- 

 eovery and manufacture of dynamite, it seems 

 likely that the instructions of his will would 

 have been more adequately carried out if their 

 execution had been entrusted to the Eoyal So- 

 ciety and the British courts." Of all the 

 charges made in regard to the Nobel prizes 

 this is certainly one of the most extravagant. 

 Nobel's will directs that " the prizes for 

 physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the 

 Swedish Academy of Science in Stockholm; 

 the one for physiology or medicine by the 

 Caroline Medical Institute in Stockholm; the 

 prize for literature by the academy in Stock- 



holm (Svenska Akademien), and that for 

 peace by a com m ittee of five persons to be 

 elected by the Norwegian Storting." It is 

 difiicult to see the reason why the Eoyal So- 

 ciety or the British courts should have been 

 entrusted with the execution of the will, which 

 particularly mentions the institutions in whose 

 power the distribution of the prizes is placed. 



That the instructions of the will " would 

 have been more adequately carried out " by the 

 Eoyal Society is a statement which, I am sure, 

 no fellow of that august institution would 

 ever claim. 



The writer in The Popular Science Monthly 

 further says that " it is truly sad and dis- 

 couraging that there should be lack of good 

 faith in the administration of a fund intended, 

 as the testator states, ' to benefit mankind.' " 

 His further charge that " the prizes have so 

 far been awarded annually, but it is to be 

 feared that when the money is needed in 

 Sweden, it will be kept there," is as slanderous 

 as it is undignified. 



In an editorial in the same journal (Vol. 58, 

 pp. 107-108) for November, 1900, it is also 

 stated that 



Nobel's intentions have not been exactly car- 

 ried out; the chief deviations being that part of 

 the money is used for the establishment of certain 

 Nobel institutes, the objects of which are not ex- 

 actly defined. . . . Any attempt to divert the funds 

 to the encouragement of the local institutions or 

 to the education of inferior men should be care- 

 fully guarded against. Nobel's will explicitly or- 

 dered that the money be awarded in prizes for 

 eminence and without any consideration of nation- 

 ality. 



If the writers of these articles referred to 

 and all those others who appoint themselves 

 judges in regard to this question had taken 

 the trouble to inquire about the actual cause 

 of the apparent " violations " of Nobel's will, 

 they would have found that the executors of 

 the will appointed by the testator were men 

 who knew him intimately, and subsequently 

 acted in full accordance with the wishes ex- 

 pressed by the testator during his lifetime. 



Nobel was a patriot as good as any one, and 

 although his main object was in the interest 

 of mankind generally, his second thought was 



