10 Anniversary Address by Prof. C. S. Sherrington. 



is a real organisation. It did nob spring fully equipped from the head of 

 Jupiter. It has grown up rather than been planned. In that respect it is 

 an organisation essentially British, and it seems qualified to do its work for 

 the country well. We hear of adventures, political and other, the offspring 

 of the day. But these were no adventures, these, to my mind, welcome, 

 long-overdue, steps forward by the State toward the succour of Science and 

 its welfare, steps that help to strengthen and consolidate the organisation 

 for research by such adjuncts as the Medical Besearch Council and the 

 Department of Scientific and Industrial Besearch. One of the strengths of 

 this organisation that has arisen is, in my view, that it interlocks with the 

 educational system of the country. It is an organisation which proceeds 

 on the wise premiss that, in the case of Science, the best way to get the 

 fruit is to cultivate the tree. It is an organisation which is proving successful 

 and economical. Its output has proved a more than liberal return on the 

 funds at its disposal. 



But essential to its own continuance is continuance of adequate financial 

 support from the Government. A tripod cannot stand upon two legs. The 

 State-contribution in this country is relatively not large, but it is most 

 important. Important as it has been in the past, it has now an importance 

 most especially great. The cost of investigation is now higher, much higher 

 than it has been. Endowment funds carry less far than they did carry. 

 Brivate benefactions and voluntary generosity, although willing, are less 

 able to be found and less capable at this time ; already gauged as 

 inadequate of themselves alone before the War, they obviously cannot 

 alone cope with the necessary undertakings now. The present is a time 

 when a large-scale withdrawal of the Government's financial support must 

 prove most formidably crippling. Such crippling will be greater than the 

 actual measure of the sum withdrawn would entail in ordinary times. 



None can fail to see the urgent need for national economy. It may be 

 objected that the plea to which I am speaking is, in fact, one for the 

 preferential treatment of Science. That is not so. Faced with need for 

 stringent economy, there must, of course, be a rigorous cutting -down of 

 expenditure that is unnecessary. But a first enquiry is the discrimination 

 between expenditure upon the inessential and the essential. Otherwise the 

 economies seemingly effected may be no economies. The savings may be 

 made in a fashion most costly in the end. Conceded that there must be 

 some reduction in the moderate State expenditure on research, it would be 

 no true economy if that reduction were pushed to the point of causing 

 collapse of the fabric for the production of much-needed knowledge or of 

 whole compartments of that fabric. 



