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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 681 



his own country, and it is well known that he 

 left the distribution of the prizes with certain 

 Swedish institutions for the express pui^pose of 

 putting Sweden in closer contact with the 

 great scientific, literary and peace movements 

 of the rest of the world. 



As for the right of the executors to change 

 the stipulations of the will there are several 

 points to be taken into consideration. The 

 will was very general in its wording, and all 

 who have had to execute a general order of 

 any kind know that when coming down to the 

 details the exact directions given often have 

 to be somewhat modified. In this special 

 case there are many instances where the ac- 

 tual provisions of the will are not only difii- 

 cult, but impossible to carry out. The testator 

 directed that prizes be awarded to " those per- 

 sons who shall have contributed most ma- 

 terially to benefit manljind during the year 

 immediately preceding." This may seem very 

 easy to accomplish, but as a matter of fact, 

 very few discoveries of any importance have 

 been immediately acknowledged. Let us say 

 that an investigator within the province of 

 medicine makes a discovei-y this year, which 

 he himself and probably some of his friends 

 would recog-nize as a valuable and epoch- 

 making discovery of the greatest " benefit to 

 mankind." But it is not very likely that the 

 medical world in general would immediately 

 . accept the discovery as correct or acknowledge 

 its superiority above anything else done the 

 same year. This would not be in accordance 

 with the scientific spirit to investigate thor- 

 oughly before accepting a statement as truth. 

 Nor could it be expected that any scientific 

 body in the world could be ready to imme- 

 diately , pronounce this discovery 'as the 

 greatest accomplishment during the year. In 

 no single case where Nobel prizes have been 

 awarded has the work on which the award was 

 based been recognized as a great work during 

 the same year. All those critics who are so 

 ready to offer their advice in regard to the 

 execution of Nobel's will apparently do not 

 realize that the exact words of the will are 

 impossible to follow literally in practise. It 

 is most difiicult to fix the exact date for an 

 important discovery. Moreover, the author 



may not be able to publish and prove his dis- 

 covery within a year's time, and if the provi- 

 sions of the will were to be taken literally, a 

 discovery made in 1905 but published in 1907 

 would be disqualified for competition in 1909, 

 the year in which it was ascertained that the 

 discovery was really of great " benefit to man- 

 kind." Such an interpretation would be 

 ridiculous, but it is really what many of the 

 critics claim as the only right one. 



In the execution of Nobel's last will it has 

 also been found necessary to provide that: 



If it be deemed that not one of the works under 

 examination attains to the standard of excellence 

 required, the sum allotted for the prize or prizes 

 shall be withheld until the ensuing year. Should 

 it even then be found impossible, on the same 

 grounds, to make any award, the amount in ques- 

 tion shall be added to the main fund, unless three 

 fourths of those engaged in making the award 

 determine that it shall be set aside to form a 

 special fund for that one of the five sections, as 

 defined by the will, for which the amount was 

 originally intended. Tlie proceeds of any and 

 every such fund may be employed, subject to the 

 approval of the adjudicators, to promote the ob- 

 jects which the testator ultimately had in view in 

 making his bequest, in other ways than by means 

 of prizes. 



This is often objected to as " illegal," " in 

 direct violation of the provisions of the will," 

 etc. Any one who cares to reflect over the 

 proviso in the will that the prizes be given 

 annually will, find that this latter may not 

 always be possible. In the constant stream of 

 literature appearing each year it may be found 

 that no work can be singled out for its excel- 

 lence or considered worth a prize of about 

 $40,000. What would these practical, well- 

 meaning critics do in such a case? Award at 

 all events. It is very doubtful if such a 

 course would be to the " benefit of mankind " 

 or in accordance with the general tendency of 

 the testator's will. 



Professor Svante Arrhenius, of Stockholm, 

 wrote me in regard to this question, a letter 

 dated May 28, 1905, and I give here a transla- 

 tion of some extracts : 



It can hardly be said that any violation of 

 Nobel's will has been committed. The will is so 

 briefly worded, that it could hardly serve as a 



