February 18, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



243 



QUOTATIONS 



THE ORGANIZATION OF SCIENCE 



I AVONDEK whetlier other readers of Nature 

 besides myself caught the interference fringes 

 from three facets of this glittering subject in 

 the issue of December 2? The &st was the 

 Eoyal Society's advertisement for applications 

 for grants for scientific investigations from 

 the government fund ; the second, the editorial 

 contrast between the rates of pay for legal and 

 for scientific services ; and the third, the anni- 

 versary address of the president of the Royal 

 Society, containing the suggestion that sci- 

 ence does not take its place in the national 

 organization because the general public looks 

 upon scientific investigations as a hobby. 



What else can the general public do while 

 men of science, in dealing with one another, 

 generally act upon the principle that scientific 

 investigation is a hobby for which facilities 

 are required, not payment? The demonstra- 

 tion afforded by the Government Grant Com- 

 mittee and the Committee of Recommenda- 

 tions of the British Association is conclusive. 

 The normal practise is for these committees 

 to be asked to supply a portion — rarely the 

 whole — of the expenses of some scientific in- 

 vestigation. The applicants in reply to the 

 advertisement will think it meritorious to offer 

 their brains and the time required to use them 

 without asking for any payment. That is the 

 true criterion of a hobby. So great is the 

 power of science to transform serious occupa- 

 tions into hobbies that even lawyers some- 

 times find themselves astride and ambling with 

 the rest. 



In justification of the scientific societies, it 

 may fairly be said that they were intended for 

 the riding of hobbies, and everything in their 

 constitution and practise conforms with that 

 eminently useful ideal. Scientific societies 

 rely very largely upon unpaid work, and long 

 may they continue to do so. One of their 

 chief attractions is that within their precincts 

 there is a respite from the wearing obligations 

 of debit and credit. One can not find the like 

 about a law court or a house of business, 

 where as a rule those who are paid most are 

 treated with the highest respect. 



It is the difference between hobby and busi- 



ness that brings us to the parting of the ways. 

 If the national scientific effort is organized 

 through the agency of societies where all the 

 best work, even by the officers, is done without 

 any regard to payment, we can not expect 

 the public to look upon science as a business 

 into which pecuniary considerations enter. It 

 is, and must remain, a hobby. If, on the other 

 hand, there should be created a Privy Council 

 for Science, as Sir William Crookes suggests, 

 there would be at least a permanent staff to 

 whom the idea of paying for brains and time 

 would not be fundamentally repugnant as it 

 must be to the ofScers of a society. 



The idea of scientific investigation as a 

 hobby does not necessarily originate with the 

 general public; it is indigenous in the older 

 universities, where there are a large niunber of 

 college officials intellectually competent to 

 undertake researches, some of whom do and 

 some do not. At Cambridge in my time scien- 

 tific investigation was the occupation of the 

 leisure of men whose maintenance was pro- 

 vided by the fees and emoluments of teach- 

 ing. It was as much a hobby as chess or pho- 

 tography. There was no sense of collective 

 responsibility for providing the nation with 

 answers to its scientific questions. Scientific 

 researches had become an element of compe- 

 tition for rewards of various kinds, and some 

 " research students " were paid ; but the idea 

 of " making a living " by scientific investiga- 

 tion never reached the surface, though the 

 merit acquired by research might weigh in the 

 appointment to a post for teaching or admin- 

 istration. On the contrary, the early agitation 

 for the endowment of research was regarded as 

 finally disposed of by calling it the research of 

 endowment, as though the wish to be paid were 

 conclusive evidence of insincerity. 



The suggested council will have some diifi- 

 culty in organizing adequately paid research. 

 The endowed researcher in the national inter- 

 est must expect an occasional audit of an im- 

 perious character, and his employers must see 

 their way to act upon it. With teaching the 

 difficulty is less. If the students of one year 

 do not respond, the next year may be more 

 successful. It takes just about a lifetime to 



