Miscellaneous. 



242 



[March, 1910, 



our teeth and deal ruthlessly with a 

 number of people who must appeal to 

 our pity, lest by saving them from 

 elimination we should bring about an 

 increase in the number ot people who 

 are unable to hold their own, and so 

 weaken the nation and increase for the 

 next generation the difficulties which Ave 

 set out to cure. I do not pronounce any 

 judgment on these questions; I merely 

 wish to emphasise the immense, the 

 transcendent importance from the hu- 

 man point of view, of the investigations 

 which the study of tbe question of evolu- 

 tion has caused biologists to carry out 

 into that most difficult of all subjects, 

 heredity, and of obtaining clear ideas 

 upon the subject. These, I admit, are 

 elementary examples, and probably 

 familiar to most of you— and they might 

 be largely added to form other branches 

 of zoology, such as entomology, marine 

 fauna, and physiology— of the great 

 practical achievements which have 

 followed from the recognition of the 

 fact possibly appreciated in some ancient 

 civilisations, but in modern times first 

 understood by Bacon and his compeers, 

 that natural phenomena are in them- 

 selves, and without reference to imme- 

 diate utility, proper subjects of man's 

 inquiry, and that all progress must be 

 based on their thorough and accurate 

 investigation. 



The genesis of a new idea is so diffi- 

 cult, and the amount of work necessary 

 for its complete elucidation and develop- 

 ment so vast and detailed, that many 

 eminent men, taking only a short period 

 of time and not realising the minute 

 steps by which the advance of knowledge 

 takes place, have been led to doubt the 

 value of scientific investigation in the 

 higher realms of pure knowledge, even 

 to the extent of speaking of the bank- 

 ruptcy of science. Others, again, per- 

 ceiving the apparent aimlessness of 

 many investigations and undervaluing 

 the motive which urges them on, have 

 come to look with a certain contempt 

 upon the man of pure science and his 

 slow and plodding progress. What is 

 the good of all this work at unimport- 

 ant details? What do you get out of 

 it. and what pleasure do you find in 

 it ? they ask, and when they are told 

 that the humble worker usually gets 

 nothing out of its work except the 

 pleasure of doing it, and that his mo- 

 tive is nothing more elevated than the 

 satisfaction of his curiosity; there does 

 appear to be, it must be admitted, some 

 justification for the contemptuous in- 

 difference with which the poor re- 

 searcher is regarded by a considerable 

 section of the population, as is shown 

 by the almost entire absence of sup- 



port of pure scientific research on the 

 part of thfc Government. With the ex- 

 ception of an annual grant of £4,000 

 a year given to the Royal Society, I 

 think I am correct in stating that the 

 Government affords hardly any support 

 to science save to such as is concerned 

 with teaching or with some practical 

 problem ; and when one remembers the 

 composition of Governments and the 

 manner in which, and the reasons for 

 which, they are chosen, one cannot un- 

 resei vedly blame them for this attitude. 

 The best method of fostering research is 

 a difficult problem, and I can well un- 

 derstand that a modern democratic 

 Government, depending as it does upon 

 popular support with its attendant 

 popular mandates, should shrink from 

 dealing with it. To do so would bring 

 them no popularity and no votes, and 

 too often they are not really aware of 

 its immense importance to human pro- 

 gress, and when they are they have 

 great difficulties to face. 



For it is impossible to organise research 

 on a commercial basis. " All attempts," 

 says Prof. Nichols, of Cornel, " at a 

 machine-made science are doomed to 

 failure. No autocratic organisation is 

 favourable to the development of the 

 Scientific Spirit. No institution after 

 the commercial models of to-day is likely 

 to be generously fertile. You can con- 

 tract for a bridge according to specifica- 

 tions. No one, however, can draw up 

 specifications for a scientific discovery. 

 No one can contract to deliver it on a 

 specific day for a specified price, and no 

 employee can be hired to produce it for 

 wages received." 



This it is impossible to get the public 

 to understand even when it has under- 

 gone the process which we call educa- 

 tion. You may establish paid posts for 

 scientific research, but you cannot be sure 

 that you will get research, for science 

 is like the wind that bloweth where it 

 listeth, and that is what our educated 

 public do not like. They want some- 

 thing for their cash, and they will not 

 wait. 



Even those who are aware of the 

 immense value of pure research forget 

 the fact that the aptitude for scientific 

 investigation is as rare as the gift of 

 poetry, to which in many respects it is 

 allied, for both are creative gifts, rare 

 and precious. They forget that it is 

 impossible to ascertain without trial 

 whether a man possesses it or not, and 

 that this trial can only be made when 

 he has passed his student days and looks 

 to support himself by his own exertions. 

 To provide for this support money is 

 needed, and studentships must be estab- 



