The Scientific Basis of National Progress Part 8

If this plan could be carried out in our old Universities it would produce most valuable results, because the governing, wealthy, and influential cla.s.ses of this nation are chiefly educated at those inst.i.tutions, and they would then acquire habits of more accurate scientific thought, and some knowledge of the nature and importance of scientific research, and of the essential dependence of national welfare upon it.

But a great and probably insuperable obstacle exists to the carrying out of such a plan, viz., the wealth possessed by the parents of students. An original research cannot be made without considerable industry, and the greatest opponent of industry, especially with young men, is the possession or expectation of wealth. According to college tutors at our old Universities, there is no large cla.s.s of industrious students at those inst.i.tutions. The greatest cause of the idleness of the students is parental neglect and the habits of wealthy society. Many parents allow their sons too much money, and over-look too readily their idleness and frivolity; the young men also know their parents are rich, and act accordingly. Many persons send their sons to those places chiefly to form aristocratic acquaintances, and for other purposes than those of educational discipline and learning. The college authorities have also largely acquiesced in the wishes of the parents and students. And in this way {213} scientific research has been almost entirely excluded from our old Universities. If the present tutors and governing bodies of those Inst.i.tutions cannot induce students generally to be industrious, by what means can it be expected that these young men can be persuaded to exercise the still greater degree of industry and intelligence requisite to prosecute research, whilst they are decoyed from it by the attractions of wealth? In Germany the conditions are very different, the students in the Universities of that country have much less money at their disposal. Nearly the whole of the educational courses also at the Grammar schools and other educational inst.i.tutions in this country, are formed upon the plan of sending all the superior scholars to our Universities, and thus the defective state of scientific training at the Universities operates through our whole scholastic system, and depresses the entire scientific instruction of the nation. It is evident that in this way the undue wealth of this country largely r.e.t.a.r.ds national progress.

_7th._ _Local Endowment of Research Funds._ In addition to the foregoing means, local efforts might be made to encourage research in each great centre of industry; through the medium of the local scientific societies.

Nearly as early as the year 1660, Cowley in a treatise, proposed a Philosophical Society to be established near London, with liberal salaries to learned men to make experiments; but he could not get the money raised.

A plan of this kind is in operation in Birmingham and carried out by the {214} Council of the Birmingham Philosophical Society in accordance with the following:--

"SCHEME FOR ESTABLIs.h.i.+NG AND ADMINISTERING A FUND FOR THE ENDOWMENT OF RESEARCH IN BIRMINGHAM."

"The Council are of opinion that this Society would be omitting a princ.i.p.al means of the advancement of Science--the end for which all such a.s.sociations exist--if it neglected the question of the Endowment of Research. To maintain a successful investigator in his labours, even though no results of immediate or obvious utility can be shown to spring out of them, is of interest to the community at large. Indeed, it is just because the practical usefulness of such work is not immediate or obvious that it becomes necessary to give it special support, for otherwise it would have its own market value, and endowment would be superfluous. But the proper and effectual administration of an Endowment Fund is perceived to be so beset with difficulty, as often to deter even those who recognise the principle from advocating it in practice. Most of the dangers usually foreseen would, however, as a rule be avoided, simply by the distribution of such funds from local centres, under such a scheme as is now proposed.

The Council, are therefore, anxious to establish a Fund, in connection at once with the Society and the Town, for the direct Endowment of Scientific Research."[36]

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_8th._ _Local Laboratories of Research._ Another plan would be for local scientific societies to raise money by soliciting subscriptions and donations for the support of local laboratories; a prospectus of the following kind being issued:--

PROPOSAL TO FOUND A LABORATORY OF PURE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN ----.

"As the manufacturers, merchants, capitalists, land-owners, and the public generally, of this town and district, have derived and are still deriving great pecuniary and other benefits from the discovery of new knowledge by means of pure research in the sciences of Physics and Chemistry; and as in consequence of the great neglect of such research in this country, and the increased cultivation of it in other lands, our commerce is suffering, and a great many evils in manufacturing and other operations, in sanitary and many other matters dependant upon physical and chemical conditions, remain unremedied; it is proposed to found a Local Laboratory of original research in those sciences, with every suitable appliance in it; and to employ one or more investigators of repute, with a.s.sistants, who shall be wholly engaged in such labour in their respective sciences."

As it is largely the custom in this country to effect great objects by means of individual liberality and corporate enterprise, instead of trusting to State a.s.sistance, it is not improbable that when the great importance of scientific research and its claims {216} to encouragement have become more generally known, that aid which has. .h.i.therto been with-held from it will be rendered by private generosity; and local inst.i.tutions, wholly for the purpose of original scientific research will be established and supported by public-spirited wealthy persons. An inst.i.tution of this kind upon a small scale, and called "The Inst.i.tute of Scientific Research" has already been established in Birmingham, (see Note p. 40). By founding local inst.i.tutions of this kind there exist opportunities for wealthy persons to do great good to mankind, and acquire renown as philanthropists by the action.

And _9th_. In consequence of the great benefit derived from scientific research by the inhabitants of each locality, it has become a duty of each large community to promote it, and local Town Councils might with advantage and perfect justice to the public, devote a portion of munic.i.p.al funds to the purpose of aiding local scientific research. To this plan it may be objected, that as the results of research are cosmopolitan, diffusing themselves everywhere, and this diffusion cannot be prevented; the benefits arising from research cannot be restricted even to a large community. In reply to this:--As knowledge and its advantages are cosmopolitan, the duty of promoting research must be equally extensive. There is also a real return received by the public for expenditure of money in research, in the free liberty to use all new knowledge developed everywhere by such labour, and although the money expended by a {217} community upon particular researches or upon an individual investigator, does not directly produce an immediate return; practically an immediate and direct benefit is received by that community, because new scientific knowledge for the use of teachers and popular lecturers, and new inventions based upon it, of local value to that society, continually become public. Every civilized community has also received beforehand such benefits to an enormous extent; and each investigator may reasonably claim public support on the ground that he contributes to the general stock of new knowledge. Some persons however, who have not fully considered the subject, wish to receive not only the advantages accruing from the common stock of knowledge, but also to reserve to themselves the entire benefit arising from their own special contributions.

Experience alone will prove which of the foregoing schemes is the most suitable in this country, or in particular cases. At present the plan largest in operation is the system of Government Grants, next in magnitude are the other funds distributed by the Royal Society, the British a.s.sociation, the Chemical Society, the Royal Inst.i.tution, the Birmingham Philosophical Society, and those provided by the munificence of private individuals. It is greatly to be hoped that the liberal spirit of private individuals will yet further remove the great blot which lies upon the reputation of the wealthy manufacturers, capitalists, and land-owners, who have derived such great profits from {218} scientific research and have scarcely aided it at all in return. It is also to be desired that the Corporations of manufacturing towns will recognise the value of original scientific enquiry to their fellow townsmen, and will undertake the responsibility of voting money from munic.i.p.al funds to promote it.

Notes

[1] See p.p. 165 to 167.

[2] Essays and Addresses, Owen's College, 1874, pp. 172-182.

[3] See Chapter 2, Section B.

[4] In the year 1870, a gentleman of the name of Davis bequeathed 2,000 to the Royal Inst.i.tution, London, to aid original scientific research.

[5] As a notable exception to the above statement:--"Scientific research has now an Inst.i.tute of its own in Birmingham, without being indebted to the public funds. A fund has already been collected for carrying on the work. The building is called 'The Inst.i.tute of Scientific Research.'" See _Nature_, January 7th, 1881, p. 366; the _Athenaeum_, February 5th, 1881, p.

204; the _English Mechanic_, p. 537, February 11th, 1881.

[6] Professor Bache left 50,000 dollars, and Smithson bequeathed 541,000 dollars to this Inst.i.tution.

[7] Respecting the Members of our Houses of Legislature, a former Postmaster-General remarked to me, that a dose of scientific research would be too much for them.

[8] The Victoria University has recently become a partial exception to this statement.

[9] See "Royal Society Catalogue of Scientific Papers," vol. 5, pp. 719 and 890; and vol. 8, p. 1,010.

[10] See _Nature_, April 24th and May 1st, 1873, pp. 485 and 13; also _Work and Wages_, by Bra.s.sey, pp. 170 and 178.

[11] NOTE.--See "Work and Wages," by Bra.s.sey, p.p. 15-131 and 132; also the "Laboratory," vol. 1, p.p. 313-316, 378 and 380.

[12] NOTE.--The whole of this chapter, especially the Moral Section, is capable of great amplification and much more copious ill.u.s.tration.

[13] NOTE.--See also p. 95.

[14] NOTE.--Athenaeum, Aug. 3, 1877. p. 242.

[15] "Wish and Will," by L. Turner, M.A.

[16] "The Mutual Relations of Physical Science and Religious Faith."

[17] Port Royal Logic, Discourse 1.

[18] See p. 91-92.

[19] See "Waste Products and Undeveloped Substances," by P. W. Simmonds.

[20] See "Barometer Cycles," by Balfour Stewart, F.R.S.--_Nature_, Jan. 13, 1881, p. 237.

[21] See p. 165, et seq.

[22] It would I consider be an improvement in our educational arrangements, if a Professorial chair, solely devoted to teaching those laws and principles, existed in each Scientific College.

[23] See vols. 1 (1872) 2 (1874) of the Reports of that Commission.

[24] See pages 100 and 101.

[25] "_Nature_," April 3rd, 1873. p. 431.

[26] Sir Edmund Beckett, "_English Mechanic_", 1881, No. 830, p. 560.

[27] The Earl of Craufurd, "_English Mechanic_," 1881, No. 830, p. 560.

[28] See page 68, et seq. p. 134.

[29] See "_Nature_," Dec. 2nd, 1880, p. 112.

[30] "_English Mechanic_," 1881, No. 831, pp. 586, 587.

[31] "_English Mechanic_," August 17th, 1881, p. 83.

[32] The Masters.h.i.+p of the Mint is no longer given to scientific men.

[33] See Reports of Royal Commission on Scientific Instruction and Advancement of Science, Vol 2, pp. 75-92.