highest motive--viz., a love of truth in preference to all things; and this
is a condition which very few persons really understand, and a principle
which a still smaller number practise. Men in this country are so
accustomed to be actuated by the less noble motive of immediate
self-interest or of some apparent practical result, that they cannot
perceive that in scientific investigation the most valuable results can
only be obtained by employing the highest motive. However necessary and
effective the motive of immediate self-interest or of apparent practical
result may be in ordinary affairs of life, it will not enable a man to make
many discoveries, because it leads him away from those which are possible
to search for others which may or may not be possible. The beginning of
discoveries are often so very small, that it requires acute senses and
observation in order to perceive them; and if the mind is preoccupied with
a desire to discover some particular practical object, new phenomena are
overlooked. In discovery, man must follow where Nature leads.
Another cause of want of encouragement of research, is the natural
selfishness which exists, {43} though in very different degrees, in all
men. Many wealthy persons wish things to remain as they are. Some
manufacturers would not aid research unless they could monopolize its
advantages. Students also generally prefer those subjects which are best
rewarded, and do not sufficiently consider their intrinsic value. The love
of truth for truth's sake alone is very weak in most men, and but few men
make the greatest good their chief object in life.
The extreme ignorance in this country of the value of scientific research,
is also largely due to the narrowness of the "practical" character of the
English mind; men cannot perceive the deep-seated and universal sources of
their wealth, and they prefer those occupations which yield the most
obviously remunerative results. It is also partly due to scientific
investigators themselves not having pleaded their own cause; such men have
been so absorbed in the more important occupation of discovery, that they
have, probably more than any other class of persons, neglected to enforce
the just claims of their own subject. It is, however, chiefly caused by the
influence of misapplied wealth, operating through the old Universities and
large public schools. The sons of the wealthy are most of them educated at
those institutions, and according to evidence supplied by University
authorities to Royal Commissioners, many persons send their sons to those
places for other purposes than to acquire learning, and allow them too much
money. The considerable wealth of {44} these young men supplies them with
attractions which decoy them from industrious study, and the wishes of the
parents and students have been largely acquiesced in by the tutors and
college authorities. At our old Universities also, physical and chemical
knowledge is very much less rewarded than some other subjects, though
latterly a considerable improvement has been made in this respect, but even
now there is not a University in the kingdom in which a knowledge in
scientific research is necessary in order to obtain the highest scientific
honour.[8] In these various ways physical and chemical science has been
kept very low in our chief seats of learning; and scientific research is
greatly neglected by the governing authorities.
It is reasonable to suppose that Universities should be fountains of new
theoretical scientific knowledge, as well as be the disseminators of it,
and that they (especially the old ones with their rich endowments) would be
certain to promote scientific research, as being especially a part of their
functions; but such is not the case. Our old Universities have not
established any professorships of original research; they make no payment
for such labour, nor reimburse any expenditure incurred in such occupation,
and afford but little facility for the prosecution of pure scientific
inquiry. Further, they discourage scientific discovery by giving the
greatest emoluments, and the {45} highest honours in science they have to
bestow, to young men who have never made a single original research, or
discovered a new fact in science. The money paid in the form of
comparatively sinecure fellowships, or retiring pensions to young men in
Oxford alone, "now amounts to about eighty or ninety thousand pounds a
year." It may be objected that young men are not capable of doing original
research, but as they do it in German Universities, they can also do it in
England, if they are properly disciplined, and are not decoyed from
industry by the possession or expectation of wealth. A man who has never
made a scientific research is not the most worthy recipient of the highest
scientific honours, and in Germany it would not be given to him; he is not
properly disciplined in the detection of error or the discernment of truth
in matters of science; he is deficient in accuracy of scientific judgment,
and in the true spirit of scientific inquiry.
It is unnecessary to speak of what has been done during the last few years
at our old Universities and great public schools, in the erection of
laboratories, and in other ways for the promotion of science, because it
has been for the purposes of instruction, and not of original research. No
amount of ordinary instruction in science will remedy the evils caused by
want of original inquiry, because such instruction does not produce new
knowledge, but only disseminates that already possessed. {46}
Many persons in this country think that all scientific men are
investigators, and that a portion of the funds of scientific institutions
generally are expended upon investigation, but such is rarely the case.
Many also consider that those scientific men who are applying new knowledge
are discovering new truths. And nearly all persons look upon inventors as
the only really practical scientific men, and upon discoverers as
unpractical enthusiasts who spend their lives in pursuit of vague theories.
But whilst the inventor is a great and useful agent of civilization, there
is one behind him who is greater than he, viz., the man who provides him
with the new knowledge upon which all his inventions must be based.
The general aspect in which scientific research is viewed by many persons
in this country, is that of a refined intellectual pursuit, which may be
encouraged and honoured for the purpose of maintaining the tone of society.
The question, however, is not whether this nation shall encourage research
as a refined intellectual occupation, but whether it will contribute
towards its own welfare by aiding scientific discovery.
Many persons also look upon scientific research as a hobby or as
unpractical, and upon discoverers as mere accumulators of knowledge, but
this is simply in consequence of their ignorance of the subject; if
discoveries were commercial commodities, the practical character of
research would be within their {47} comprehension. A man who discovers
knowledge for the use of invention is quite as practical a person as he who
converts that knowledge into inventions fit for practical uses. The men who
thus lead practical men must be practical themselves. Scientific
discoverers may be considered the most practical men in existence, because
their labours give rise to greater and more numerous practical results than
those of any other persons. The discovery of a single substance, such as
oil-of-vitriol, or washing-soda, has led to the formation of many valuable
inventions, patented or otherwise, and to the establishment of thousands of
manufactories. It is well known also that scientific discoverers are ardent
lovers of truth, and are therefore very willing to communicate their
knowledge for the good of mankind, and that manufacturers, men of business,
and others, not unfrequently obtain from them and from their published
researches, information of great value to themselves without even expecting
to pay for it; forgetting that a scientific man may communicate in a
passing remark, information which cost him years of labour to obtain.
Some persons also think that science is changeable and uncertain--that the
discoveries of one generation are disproved by those of another, because
they occasionally see scientific theories altered and superseded. But the
real truth of the case is that the changes in the aspect of science which
we continually witness do not often result from _alterations_ in our {48}
stock of positive knowledge, but from _additions_ made to it. Demonstrable
truth is imperishable. It is true that many theories have been invented and
entertained for a while in the minds of scientific men, and have then
passed away, but we must remember that these are only the scaffolding of
science, and no part of its real fabric. They consist of ideas which,
whilst they assist us in understanding science, and in making discoveries,
form no real part of our positive knowledge.
Other persons seem to think that the laws of matter are different in the
laboratory from what they are in the workshop; that the principles which
regulate a scientific experiment are different from those which govern a
large manufacturing process; but this is a wrong idea. The laws of matter
are universal, substances have nearly the same properties in all places and
in the hands of all men; water boils at the same temperature whether in the
retort of a chemist, the saucepan of a kitchenmaid, or the pan of a
soap-boiler; iron wire is as readily deprived of its rust in a chemist's
acid bottle as in a wire-drawer's pickling tub; a piece of phosphorus will
as readily ignite in the hands of a chemist as in those of a match maker; a
galvanic battery yields the same quantity of electricity whether it be in
the hands of an experimentalist or in those of a working electro-plater.
It is true that many things which have appeared very promising in theory or
in experiment, have {49} failed altogether in practice, but why is this? it
is not that the principles of nature operated in the one case and did not
operate in the other, but that we have imperfectly understood them, that
from some unforeseen circumstances we have been unable to apply them; or
that we have indolently abandoned them without sufficient or proper trial.
In many cases we are unable to obtain the same conditions of success upon
the large scale that we have upon the small one. In other cases a process
fails because of its too great expense; many attempts have been made to
supersede steam as a motive power by means of electro-magnetism, and
engines driven by that force have been constructed of five or ten
horse-power, but the cost of driving them has been found to be at least ten
times the amount of that of the steam-engine of equal strength. And in
other cases we fail because we attempt _at once_ to carry out upon a large
scale that which has only been the subject of limited experiment, instead
of enlarging the process by small degrees, and adapting the apparatus, the
materials and the treatment, to the size of the operation.
That also which appears very simple in the hands of an experimentalist,
almost invariably becomes much more complex when carried into practice in a
manufactory, simply because there is then a greater number of conditions to
be fulfilled. Electro-plating a piece of steel with silver is to a chemist
a very simple matter, because it is of no importance to him {50} whether
the silver adheres firmly, is of good colour, or is deposited at a certain
cost; but with a _manufacturer_ unless _all_ these conditions are
fulfilled, the process is a failure. These matters, however, belong to
invention and not to original discovery.
We should not condemn theoretical science because we are not able, even
with fair and persevering trial, to apply it to any useful purpose, but
wait patiently until circumstances ripen for its application. Many
inventions which are inapplicable in one state of knowledge become
applicable by the progress of scientific research. The idea of an electric
telegraph, attempted by Mr. Ronalds, in the year 1816, with the aid of
frictional electricity, had to wait the development of the galvanic battery
and the discovery of electro-magnetism before it could be successfully
applied.
Many manufacturers seem to think that because some of their operations are
completely routine, and have been handed down to them by their predecessors
in nearly their present state, they are not at all indebted to science; but
there is no manufacture, especially among metals, which has not in some
degree been aided by scientific discovery.
In addition to the great benefits accruing from original research to all
classes of society, our Governments have also derived immense advantages
from the same source. The revenues have been greatly increased by the
universal advantages conferred upon all kinds of industry and commerce by
{51} scientific knowledge. The additional taxes upon increased incomes from
agriculture, arts, manufactures, mines; increased value of land and rents;
investments in railway, telegraph, steam-ship and other companies, have
been extremely great. From the sale of patents alone, a surplus sum of
nearly six hundred thousand pounds has already accumulated. Our Governments
are also indebted to original research for the use of percussion-powder,
gun-cotton, improvements in cannon, projectiles, rifles, armour-plated
ships, the ocean telegraph, field telegraph, the telephone, rapid postal
communication, the speedy transport of troops and war-material, and a
multitude of other advantages. The value of science to Governments in the
prevention of war by means of more ready correspondence through telegraph
is incalculable. Mr. Sumner, of America, at the period when the Atlantic
telegraph was first employed, stated that the use of that telegraph averted
a probable rupture between Great Britain and America. There was a period
when we did not possess such evidence of the great value of science; but
that time has now passed away, and our governing men have had abundant
proof of the national importance of scientific discovery, and of the
essential dependence of the welfare of this country upon scientific
research.
Whilst vast sums of money are spent upon the applications of science in
military and naval affairs, research itself is neglected; the
superstructure is {52} attended to, but the foundations are left to decay.
A very small proportion of the money which is expended upon military
affairs would, if devoted to research, save a great deal of expense in
warfare:--
"Were half the power, that fills the world with terror,--
Were half the wealth, bestowed on camps and courts,
Given to redeem the human mind from error,
There were no need of arsenals nor forts."--LONGFELLOW.
Our Government has as yet made but little payment for the labour of pure
research in experimental physics or chemistry; it has, however, given four
thousand pounds a year for five years to be distributed by the Royal
Society among scientific investigators, partly as personal payment. Income
tax is deducted from these grants.
Want of recognition of the value of science has been so general in this
country, that it is quite pleasing to quote a somewhat different case from
the _Illustrated London News_, January 4th, 1873, viz., that of the late
Archibald Smith, L.L.D., F.R.S. That gentleman was an investigator in pure
mathematical science, and devoted the latter part of his life to the
_application_ of mathematics in the computation, reduction, and discussion
of the deviation of the mariners' compass in wooden and in iron ships, and
made practical deductions therefrom in the construction of those vessels.
He published those practical applications of his scientific knowledge in
the form of an Admiralty Manual, which was afterwards reprinted in various
languages. Her Majesty's Government {53} subsequently "requested his
acceptance of a gift of two thousand pounds, not as a reward, but as a mark
of appreciation of the value of his researches, and of the influence they
were exercising on the maritime interests of England and the world at
large." The kind of labour rewarded in this case was not scientific
discovery, but the practical application of previously existing scientific
knowledge.
The case of the late Dr. Stenhouse, F.R.S., is one of rather an opposite
kind. That gentleman devoted his life throughout to pure investigations in
organic chemistry, and published several of his researches in the
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.[9] His discoveries are
very numerous, and although not much applied to practical uses by himself,
the result of his researches on Lichens, and the yellow gum of Botany Bay,
have been applied extensively by other persons in the manufacture of
"French purple" and picric acid, and will doubtless continue to be applied
to valuable uses. He held the Government appointment of Assayer to the
Royal Mint, London, an office for several years unprofitable to him, but of
increasing remunerative value, and which would have been subsequently worth
L1,200 a year; but after the decease of his colleague, Dr. Miller, in 1870,
that office, which was then worth to him about L600 a year, was abolished
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and he lost the {54} appointment,
receiving, however, L500 as compensation. An application was therefore made
to the Government, and a partial recompense to him was obtained, by Her
Majesty granting him one hundred pounds a year "for eminence in chemical
attainments, and on account of loss by suppression of office in the Mint."
The only difference in these two instances, was, that in the second there
was a very much greater amount of pure research and discovery, and a much
smaller degree of applied knowledge.
These instances illustrate the statement, that however great an amount of
valuable knowledge in pure science a man may discover and publish, or
however freely he may provide others with the materials of invention and
wealth, if he never invents anything, nor applies his knowledge to useful
purposes, he is usually less rewarded even than an inventor. "The more
intrinsically valuable the labour, and the greater the degree of profound
original thought required to direct it, the less is it usually appreciated
by the governing men of a nation." Absorbed in exciting questions relating
to political emergencies, and national matters requiring immediate
attention, even men of great administrative ability fail to appreciate the
less direct though more fundamental sources of a nation's happiness and
wealth. In harmony with these instances also, we find that it is not the
pure sciences, but the concrete and applied ones, such as meteorology,
geology, natural history, &c., in the Meteorological Department, the {55}
Geological Survey, the British and South Kensington Museums, the Geological
Museum, &c., and the National Gallery of Art, which have received the
greatest degree of support from our Governments.
That discoverers are not treated by us as we treat other valuable members
of the community is quite clear; either a physician, a judge, divine,
lawyer, or railway superintendent of high ability, obtain from one to many
thousand pounds a year, but a discoverer in pure physics or chemistry is,
in scarcely any case, paid anything for his labour. That most eminent
discoverer, Faraday, received for his scientific lectures at the Royal
Institution of Great Britain, only L200 a year and apartments, during many
years, and absolutely nothing for his great discoveries; and during the
remainder of his life he only received a few hundred pounds per annum,
including a pension of L300 pounds a year from Government. In contrast with
this, the general manager of the Midland Railway has L4,000 a year. A
General of our army receives L2,000, and a Field Marshal L4,000 a year (See
"Whitaker's Almanack," 1873, pp. 121 and 138). A Head Master of either of
the great public schools obtains from L3,000 a year upwards. An Archbishop
of Canterbury receives L15,000 a year, besides a great amount of influence
and power in the form of patronage to 183 livings, a palatial residence,
and a seat in the House of Peers. A Bishop of London has L10,000, the
patronage of 98 livings, and a seat in the House of Lords. I do not, {56}
however, mean to imply that these large emoluments are not deserved. Whilst
also there are nearly 13,000 church benefices in England (See the "Clergy
List," also "Whitaker's Almanack," 1873, pp. 153 and 155, and "Walford's
County Families," 1872, pp. 173 and 610), there is scarcely a single
appointment entirely devoted to scientific discovery, nor a single
professorship in original research in science. I leave my readers to judge
to what extent these instances illustrate the statement that discoverers
are not treated by us as we treat other valuable members of the community.
Partly in consequence of the foregoing neglect, the proportion of persons
wholly devoted to scientific research in this country probably does not
much exceed one in one million of the population.
It is scarcely credible that in a wealthy and civilized country, whilst the
non-productive classes are protected in the enjoyment of titles and
material wealth which in many cases they have not earned, the greatest
scientific benefactors of the nation are constrained to live in straitened
circumstances whilst working for the pecuniary and other advantages of
those classes, and of manufacturers, capitalists, land-owners, and the
nation in general. By these remarks it is not intended to imply that
discoverers are intentionally neglected; but that the injustice they suffer
is a disgrace to this country, and reflects discredit upon the governing
classes, and especially upon those who reap the greatest advantage. {57}
The men who are rewarded highly in this country are not always those who
yield the greatest service to the nation, but frequently those who render
the most immediate or most apparent benefit; to stop short at this cannot
produce the greatest degree of success. The national services of a great
discoverer are probably not equalled by those of any man. Who can estimate
the value of the commercial, social, moral, political, and other great
advantages to the world, of Oersted's discovery of the principle of
electro-magnetism, which enabled the invention of the electric telegraph to
be made? The men we reward the highest are not those who discover
knowledge, but those who use or apply it; physicians, judges, bishops,
lawyers, railway managers, military and naval officers, and head masters of
schools, all of them gentlemen who render great services to the nation, by
using, diffusing, and applying knowledge already possessed.
It requires less rare ability to apply knowledge to new purposes by means
of invention, than to discover it; it is still less difficult to diffuse it
by means of tuition and lectures, because the labours of a teacher consist
largely of a repitition of other men's discoveries and inventions; and to
use scientific knowledge in the ordinary business of every-day life,
requires a still more common degree of ability.
A chief reason why ordinary business capacity is paid for whilst original
research is not, is the fact that research is not considered a necessity;
many {58} persons do not perceive its immense future value. Men perform
those duties first which they feel they must: they are also willing to pay
for the performance of those duties which press most urgently upon them,
and defer all other kinds of labour that they consider will bear
postponement. Most men act upon this rule, until they acquire a habit of
sacrificing the future to the present, of neglecting more important matters
in order to attend to less, and of living too much for money, without
sufficient regard for the more valuable condition, viz., individual and
national improvement. These circumstances also largely explain the fact
that it requires more pressure to induce individuals or governing bodies to
aid original research than to assist any other good object. Other chief
reasons why persons in general cannot perceive the great practical value of
new scientific truth are, because the perception of it requires a
scientifically trained mind. The greatest truths are frequently the least
obvious, and are therefore valued the least.
It may be objected that research is not aided, because it sometimes takes a
long time to acquire a practical shape and make it pay. We do not omit to
plant an acorn because it requires many years to become an oak; we do not
neglect to rear a child because he may not live to become a man; but we
leave scientific discovery to take care of itself. The intense desire which
exists in this country for "quick returns" has shewn itself in the much
greater readiness to aid technical education than to promote {59} permanent
progress by means of original research. But the discoveries made in such a
place as the Royal Institution of Great Britain have had a vastly greater
beneficial effect upon civilization than that of any technical institution
which has ever existed.
In a letter received by me from the Duke of Somerset, and which I have
permission to publish, the true state of things in this country in relation
to pure research is stated with remarkable accuracy and brevity:--
"The hindrances to scientific studies in this country are very many. The
gentry are almost invariably educated by the clergy, and the clergy have
seldom had time or opportunities for any scientific study. They usually
take pupils or become tutors as soon as they have taken their degrees, and
can only teach the Latin and Greek which they have themselves learned. The
commercial classes value what they call practical science; this means some
application of science for the purpose of making money. Competitive
examinations may promote a superficial acquaintance with the elements of
science, but are unfavourable to the development of scientific culture. The
scientific associations tend to degrade science by exhibiting scientific
men as candidates for applause from assemblies which seek amusement and
startling results from lectures and experiments. The advancement of
science, is therefore, left to comparatively few men, who are unregarded
and unrewarded." {60}
To remedy this state of things we require a general encouragement of pure
scientific inquiry by the State and Universities. It is thought by some
persons who have given special attention to the subject, that the State
ought to encourage such research and science in general, by appointing a
Minister of Science possessing scientific knowledge and good administrative
ability; a Scientific Council to advise our Governments in all important
matters relating to science; and by establishing State laboratories for
pure scientific inquiry, with discoverers of repute in them wholly engaged
in research in their respective subjects.
There are also many new experiments, investigations, and explorations,
which neither private individuals, nor even corporate bodies, such as the
Royal Society, the British Association, Geographical Society, can
effectually make, and which only a Government can carry out, such as Arctic
expeditions, trigonometrical surveys, deep sea dredging operations,
magnetic observations, determinations of longitude, meteorological and
astronomical observations, researches on tides, observations of
earthquakes, determinations of the height of mountains and the density of
the crust of the earth, experiments on the best form of ships, geographical
explorations, and many others.
It is clear from the enormous advantages which this nation has already
derived from scientific discovery in physics and chemistry, pursued with
only {61} the aid of the very limited means of private persons, that had
research in those subjects been sufficiently supported, the manufactures,
arts, commerce, wealth, and civilization of this country would have been
much greater than they are; emigration also of the industrious classes,
disease, pauperism, crime, the evil effects of famine, etc., would have
been much less. The amount of knowledge and riches obtainable by means of
research and invention is practically unlimited, and it is astonishing that
this immense source of industry and wealth in a nation should have been so
neglected by our Governments. The practical value of new scientific
knowledge is vastly greater than that of all our goldfields or even of our
coal supply, because it would not only enable us to obtain from coal
several times the amount of available heat and mechanical power we now
secure, but also to apply to our wants the numerous other materials
composing the crust of our globe and the contents of our oceans; also all
terrestrial forces, the internal heat, the tidal energy and atmospheric
currents, and the immense amount of power this Earth is continually
receiving from the Sun. Whilst at present vast amounts of materials and
energy remain unutilized, nearly all those terrestrial substances and
forces might probably be rendered of service to us if we possessed
sufficient knowledge.
That scientific research is a far greater source of wealth and wellbeing
than our stores of coal is easily proved. At present we obtain in our best
{62} steam-engines only about one-seventh (or less) of the mechanical power
producible by the combustion of the coal, the remainder being lost in
various ways. And this occurs simply because we have not yet discovered a
method of wholly converting heat into mechanical power. In some other
instances we are able to convert one force wholly into another without
loss, as for example: the chemical action of a voltaic cell into
electricity; and by means of research we shall probably be enabled to
effect a similar complete conversion of other powers into each other. The
effect of converting heat wholly into mechanical power would be equal to
increasing our stock of coals for that purpose to seven times its present
amount. This instance is only one of the many thousand possible ways in
which research may yet prove of value to mankind.
It is true that a very large amount of original research in physics and
chemistry has been done in this country; the contents of our scientific
journals and of the publications of our various Learned Societies prove
this. It is also true that the English nation has been pre-eminently active
in applying scientific knowledge to practical uses by means of inventions,
and has been generally the first in carrying out inventions on a large
scale. We have been either the first, or nearly so, in developing
steam-engines, railways, locomotives, rapid trains, gas works, flour mills,
blast-furnaces, cotton machinery, cheap postage, light-houses,
electro-plating, lucifer-matches, {63} electric-telegraphs, submarine
electric cables, great engineering establishments, iron ship-building, and
many other important enterprises. Three out of four of all the great ocean
steamers, and three-fourths of all the locomotives of the world were
constructed in this country.[10] By means of our enterprise and capital
also, the first railways, telegraphs, gas works, cotton mills, modern water
works, suspension bridges, water wheels, harbours, lighthouses, &c., &c.,
in nearly all parts of the world were constructed; and foreign nations have
been inducted into the practical methods of working our great manufacturing
and technical applications of science.
By means of English enterprise and skill the cities of Aix-la-Chapelle,
Altona, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Berlin, Bordeaux, Brussels, Cologne,
Frankfort-on-Maine, Ghent, Haarlem, Hanover, Lille, Rotterdam, Stolberg,
Toulouse, Vienna, and others were lighted with gas. We formed Water
Companies or Waterworks in Amsterdam, Berlin, and other cities, and drained
Naples. We utilized the falls of the Rhone at Bellegarde, and thus obtained
10,000 horse-power for the use of the French manufacturers. We also sent
the first steam-boat to Coblentz in 1817, and the first to America. We laid
the first Atlantic cables. And as a general truth, we have been foremost in
invention, application and enterprise.
{64}
Recent International Exhibitions however, and the migration of various
branches of our trade to the Continent and America, have shown that the
degree of our relative superiority in manufacturing skill is diminishing.
Other nations, especially the German and American, perceiving the
dependence of invention upon research, and the enormous pecuniary and other
advantages gained by us, by the application of scientific knowledge to
manufacturing and other purposes, have within the last few years aroused
themselves, and are now pursuing pure science much more energetically than
ourselves. A few years ago the relative number of original researches made
per annum in England, France, and Germany were in the proportion 127, 245,
and 777. Many of those made in Germany were valuable ones, and were made by
Students in order to obtain a degree. Other nations are rapidly gaining
upon us in the application of science to industrial purposes, and have even
surpassed us in the extent of some of their manufacturing and technical
operations. Many persons who have visited Europe and America at intervals
during the last twenty years have testified to this.
The Vielle Montagne Zinc Company in Belgium employ 6,500 workmen, and
produce annually 32,000 tons of zinc. The John Cockerill Company,
engine-builders, Seraing, near Liege, employ nearly 8,000 men. Krupp, the
great engineer at Essen, near Dusseldorf, employs about 10,000 workmen; his
works at Essen alone cover 450 acres, and 1,000 tons {65} of coal are
consumed in them daily. The Anzin Company (Valenciennes) "is the largest
coal company in the world, producing no less than 1,200,000 tons per annum,
and employs 8,000 hands." The Chatillon and Commentry Iron and Coal Company
(France), produce annually from 300,000 to 350,000 tons of coal and coke,
nearly 70,000 tons of iron and steel, and employ nearly 9,000 workmen. At
the Creuzot Ironworks (France), "the mineral concessions cover an area of
nearly six square miles, the coal-fields nearly twenty-five square miles,
the building 296 acres. There are nearly forty-five miles of railway
between various parts of the works, upon which are generally running
sixteen locomotives. The galleries in the mines are more than twenty miles
long." 10,000 persons are employed in the works and the annual amount of
wages paid equals L400,000.[11]
Our practice with regard to original science has been very different from
the plan carried out in Germany. Within the last few years great
laboratories have been erected in Berlin, Leipzig, Aix la Chapelle, Bonn,
Carlsruhe, Stuttgardt, and other places, at the expense of the State, and
special provision has been made in them for original scientific research. A
glance at the frequently published list of scientific investigations made
in different countries will shew us that the Germans have been making a far
greater number of discoveries in science than ourselves.
Sir R. B. C. Brodie, Professor of Chemistry at {66} Oxford, speaking of his
experience when a student at Geissen, in Germany, states: "I say that the
enthusiasm and earnestness of the young men in the laboratory was quite
unparalleled in my experience at Oxford. The dilettante sort of way in
which things go on there is very inferior indeed to the way the German
students study. At Heidelberg, I have been told, there are about eighty
professors, and amongst those professors are some of the most eminent men
in Europe, so that they have a staff quite unsurpassed."
The industry of the Germans in scientific research is quite remarkable,
they are availing themselves of the great fountain of knowledge to a much
greater extent than ourselves, and are already beginning to reap the
reward. Within the last few years they have succeeded, by means of
researches, in making alizarine, the colouring principle of madder.
"England produces immense quantities of benzene, the greatest part of which
goes to Germany, there to be converted into aniline dyes, a considerable
quantity of which goes back to England. No other country is so far advanced
in the manufacture of the coal-tar colours as Germany. The quantity of
alizarine manufactured by the German makers far surpasses the English
production." (See "Alizarine, Natural and Artificial," by F. Versmann, New
York, 1873). Statements of this kind are frequently published, and made by
our manufacturers and others, of the departure of branch after branch of
our manufactures to the Continent, and of continually increasing
importation of foreign-made articles. {67}
Some persons, having become aware of the cosmopolitan nature of scientific
research, have suggested that it is a matter of no importance to us as a
nation whether we make researches or not, as foreigners would make them,
and we could apply them. But no honourable man would, after reflection,
seriously maintain such a proposition, because it implies a willingness to
obtain from the labours of other persons, advantages without paying for
them. It is partly this absence of a desire to pay for the labour of
investigation, which is now damaging the manufacturing and commercial
prosperity of this country. It is also certain that however much we may
have hitherto succeeded commercially, without making payment for research,
we should have succeeded much better had we properly assisted investigators
in pure science. Our success has hitherto been obtained, not in
consequence, but in spite of the disadvantageous circumstances under which
discoverers have laboured.
The commercial argument in favour of encouraging research, although the
most effective with the great mass of persons, and therefore much dwelt
upon in this chapter, is however quite a secondary one; the encouragement
of truth for the sake of its own intrinsic worth, in preference to the
material or extrinsic value of its results, should be the foundation of all
aid to discovery. Justice, also, ought to come before all minor
considerations, and no upright man would wish for a moment that anyone, and
much less the greatest scientific intellects in the country, should work
for his benefit without being remunerated. {68}
It has been objected that Continental nations, the Germans in particular,
have pirated our patents, infringed our designs, imitated our labels, used
our names, and taken our improvements wholesale, and this may be true. But
we still have had by far the largest portion of the reward of our greater
energy and inventive skill; we have had the great advantage of being first
in the markets of the world; and that advantage can only be retained by our
being the first in the pursuit of original research, as we have so long
been in the application of science to industrial arts, and not by
purchasing foreign inventions, nor by accepting gifts of unrecompensed
researches.
Nations as well as individuals are apt to push to an extreme the means by
which they have succeeded in gaining either riches or power. We have
devoted ourselves relatively too much to the pursuit of money and too
little to the pursuit of knowledge. The desire for wealth is in this
country so great, that probably nothing but a loss of that wealth will ever
make us properly encourage the pursuit of new knowledge.
Whilst research is being neglected, manufacturers and others in all
directions are asking for improvements in their machines and processes;
employers of steam engines want to obtain more power from the coals; makers
of washing soda wish to recover their lost sulphur; copper smelters, want
to utilize the copper smoke; glass makers wish to prevent bad colour in
their glass; iron puddlers want to economise heat; gas companies are
desirous of diminishing the {69} leakage of gas; iron smelters wish to
avoid the evil effects of impurities in the iron; manufacturers in general
want to utilise their waste products and prevent their polluting our
streams and atmosphere; and so on without end. And inventors are
continually trying to supply these demands, by exercising their skill in
every possible way, with the aid of scientific information contained in
books; but after putting manufacturers and themselves to great expense,
they very frequently fail, not always through want of inventive skill, but
often through want of _new_ knowledge attainable only by means of pure
research. Judging from the vast amount of inventive skill already expended
upon the steam engine, and the small proportion of available mechanical
power yet obtained from the coals consumed in it, it is highly probable
that a machine for completely converting heat into mechanical force cannot
be invented until more scientific knowledge is discovered.
It must not be supposed from these remarks, that discoveries which will
enable a man to make any particular invention, can be produced to order;
that is only true to a very limited extent. Men are beggars of nature, and
must not expect to be permitted to choose her gifts, or dictate what
secrets shall be disclosed. We may however be certain that if we acquire a
very much greater supply of new scientific knowledge, we shall then be able
to perfect many good inventions, though not always of the kind we wish, or
in the way we expect. The great sewage question {70} may perhaps be solved
in quite an unexpected way, possibly by the discovery of some substance
capable of precipitating ammonia and organic matter from their solutions.
Nearly all our manufacturing processes are full of imperfections; thus the
loss of gas by a single large provincial gas company, after that substance
has left the works, amounts to nearly one hundred and fifty millions of
cubic feet per annum, and to a value of about L18,000; and the soil of all
our large cities and towns is permeated and rendered foetid by coal gas.
And it has been stated by an eminent authority in such matters that we
might save 500,000 tons of coal a year by economizing the waste heat of
furnaces, by purifying the coal, coking it, etc. In a single chemical
manufactory, out of about two thousand tons of hydrochloric acid used per
annum, about eight hundred tons have been allowed to flow away as a
polluting substance, because it was not possible to utilise it. The loss of
material from a single large glass works equals fourteen hundred tons per
annum, and a value of L8,000. Similar grave defects might be pointed out in
nearly all our large manufactures, by those acquainted with the subject.
Inventions are wanted for quickening the process of vinegar making, and
diminishing the percentage of loss of the acid. For bleaching discoloured
fats. For quickening the process of converting cast iron into malleable
iron. To easily separate nitrogen from the oxygen of the atmosphere. To
economically convert {71} the nitrogen of the air into valuable products,
such as nitric acid and ammonia. To find uses for the immense quantities of
minerals which abound all over the earth; to utilise wolfram and find
applications for tungstic acid; to apply titanic acid to great industrial
purposes; to produce aluminium on the large scale, as we now produce iron.
To tan leather more quickly, and without detriment to its quality. To
prevent the rusting of iron. To more perfectly prevent smoke. To collect
and use the sulphuric acid of the salt cake consumed in the glass
manufacture. To make window glass by means of common salt. To deodorise
offensive substances. To find larger uses for phosphorus, sodium,
magnesium, and common salt. To remove phosphorus and sulphur from iron
ores, and sulphur from coal and coke. To obtain a good white alloy as a
cheaper substitute for German silver. To convert white phosphorus into the
red variety by a less dangerous process than the present one. To prevent
the putrefaction of "peltries" in glue making. To obtain better and cheaper
materials for colouring glass. To more perfectly prevent animal food from
change. To obviate or prevent explosions in mines. To perfectly purify
ordinary red lead for making flint glass. A cheaper process for converting
common salt into washing soda; and so on without end.
We also very badly require a method of recording our thoughts in readable
forms upon paper, without the slow and laborious process of writing. An
incalculable amount of brains and of intellect, especially of {72} the
greatest thinkers, would be saved by such a discovery. The curative arts
also are permeated with empiricism, and thousands of lives of persons of
all classes of society, are annually lost in this country through want of a
more perfect scientific basis of medicine, attainable only by means of
experiment and observation.
In this country, such great practical results have been obtained by means
of invention, that many persons suppose a sufficiency of inventive skill
will enable us to effect every possible scientific object, and are
surprised that no one can invent a plan of utilising the entire heat of
coals, or a mode of overcoming the sewage difficulty, or prevent the great
leakage of coal gas, or arrest epidemics, or produce a steam engine which
shall work without waste of power. The progress of invention however
depends upon that of discovery, and these various inventions, etc., wanted
by manufacturers and others probably cannot be perfected until suitable
_new_ knowledge is found. Every new invention has its own appropriate
discoveries, by means of which alone it can be perfected; it was not
possible to perfect the idea of an electric telegraph before the
discoveries of Volta and Oersted were made. According to scientific laws,
out of everything proceeds everything, and out of nothing, nothing can
come, even ideas are not created. An unlimited number of inventions cannot
be made by means of a limited amount of scientific knowledge; and our
present stock of such information applicable to {73} invention, is very
insufficient. One great reason why only a small portion of patents are of
practical value; and so many useless ones are taken out is, that in
consequence of our so-called "practical" spirit, we overestimate the power
of invention and under-value the discovery of new abstract truths; because
also invention has done so much, we think it will continue to do so, but
the latter depends upon a continued supply of discoveries.
Nearly every manufacturer is aware by painful experience of the great and
almost incessant variation that occurs in the quality and properties of the
materials used in his trade, and the frequent risk of failure of his
process. In the manufacture of iron, for example, the presence of much
phosphorus, sulphur, or silicon in the ore is liable to be very detrimental
to the quality of the iron produced from it; in the manufacture of glass,
the least quantity of iron in the materials will seriously injure the
colour of the product; in the selection of copper for telegraph wire, if it
contains the least trace of arsenic, the wire will not conduct the
electricity properly. The difficulties experienced in procuring suitable
materials for a manufacturing process are in some cases very great; and
when they are procured, additional difficulties arise from the inability of
the manufacturer or his manager to analyse them.
Every manufacturer is also aware that the difficulties encountered in
manufactures are not limited to the substances employed, but extend to all
the different {74} processes and stages of processes through which these
substances have to pass, and to all the forces, tools, machinery, and
appliances employed in those processes; in the manufacture of glass, for
example, the greatest care has to be exercised in the making and gradual
heating of the pots in which the glass is melted, the proportions of the
materials, the construction of the furnaces, the management of the heat,
and a whole host of minor conditions too numerous to mention, all of which
must be attended to with the greatest care. In the manufacture of iron and
steel, the smelting of copper, the refining of nickel, the preparation and
baking of porcelain, and in many other trades, innumerable difficulties,
all having their origin in the properties of matter and forces, continually
beset the manufacturers. In some cases difficulties occur which perplex
both the workman and the scientific man called in to his aid, and so far
from an unscientific workman being able to overcome them, even with the aid
of the scientific man, he is unable to do so.
The hidden difficulties which beset a manufacturer are not unfrequently so
inscrutable that the present state of knowledge in science fails to explain
them. Who can tell why it is that wire-work of brass or German silver
becomes gradually brittle by lapse of time? Or why varnish made in the open
country has different properties from that made in a town? Or why silk dyed
in Lyons should possess a finer colour than the same silk dyed by the same
process in Coventry? {75} With our present extremely imperfect knowledge of
Physical and Chemical science, we can perhaps hardly form an idea of the
amount of knowledge yet to be discovered respecting the phenomena which
manufactures present.
One of the inevitable results of these difficulties in manufacturing
processes and of deficiency of knowledge, is the production of a large
amount of goods of an inferior quality; and useless goods, technically
called "wasters," the cost of which has to be laid upon the saleable ones,
and thus the price of the latter is enhanced to the consumer. For instance,
flint glass discoloured by iron has sometimes to be sold at a loss for
making common enamel; waste window glass has to be sold as "rockery" for
ornamenting gardens, and defective articles of glass or metal have to be
re-melted.
In consequence of this want of new knowledge, manufacturers continue to
suffer losses which might be avoided; high prices of useful articles are
maintained; defects in their quality are not improved; preventable
accidents still continue to happen; the health of workmen continues to
suffer; many means of curing diseases remain unknown; medical practice
remains full of empiricism, &c., &c.
The great sewage question is apparently in this predicament; we are
probably trying to solve it without first discovering the requisite
knowledge; inventors, engineers, and consulting chemists have racked their
brains, and have not been able to devise a satisfactory {76} remedy, and
meanwhile the health of the entire population of this country is suffering.
If we so neglect the fundamental means of ameliorating our condition we
deserve to suffer. One would suppose that cholera, contagious diseases,
colliery accidents, pollution of air and water, enormous waste of heat from
fires, and a multitude of other evils which depend upon physical and
chemical conditions, are of but little importance, that we should so
neglect one of the most effectual means of preventing them; and it is
perfectly clear that by neglecting to aid research, those who gain so much
money and advantage from original science, and render no return, are
unwittingly sacrificing national interests upon a large scale to personal
benefit.
The practice of some manufacturers using and deriving great profit from new
knowledge evolved by research, without recompensing the discoverers,
sometimes causes injury to the public welfare by preventing the publication
of discoveries which have an immediate practical application. Experience of
this kind has constrained me to postpone the publication of a method I have
found of readily and quickly converting lumps of white phosphorus into the
red variety in a state of powder without protracted heat or grinding.
"What will be the next chapter of British enterprise and invention, and who
and where the men to perform the chief part in it? As to the work to be
done, there can be no doubt or mystery, for not a day passes {77} without
loud complaints, indignant remonstrances, fatal oversights, sad
mis-calculations, terrible shortcomings, social or material evils to be
remedied if possible, whole masses of people, indeed whole classes to be
succoured and lifted out of the slough, and enormous difficulties placed by
nature in our way evidently that we may exercise our wit and our virtues in
the attempt to overcome them. Here, from all these Isles, there arises a
despairing cry from agriculture, as if it had really reached the end of its
tether, and had found itself landed in utter helplessness and insolvency--a
bad speculation altogether. Here are countless problems, and at the same
time countless discoveries, which if they lead to nothing else, prove the
inexhaustible nature of our dominion over the elements. Then, for the sea,
with its terrible average of wreck and total loss running on without
intermission and with but rare abatement, who shall say there is here no
work for the discoverer and inventor who will give his heart and soul and
mind to it?"
It is indeed high time, that by means of discoveries which will enable us
to predict with certainty the nature of coming seasons, we shall be better
enabled to cope with adversities in agriculture; also, that the numerous
wrecks, and the thousands of lives lost with them every year on our coasts,
should be diminished. But these desirable results cannot be effected by
invention based upon insufficient knowledge; invention must be preceded by
general as well as special research, because the former often discloses
important {78} truths which we cannot predict. Our present electric lights
in light-houses and on large ocean steamers, had their origin, not in
direct inventions or special researches for the purpose, but in abstract
researches on apparently remote subjects.
It is nothing less than a national crime that proper provision has not yet
been made for investigating scientifically the causes of famine and
pestilence, also physiology and pathology, and the discovery of the laws
which regulate diseases and epidemics. What can be more painful to behold
than a mother and father deprived of a whole family of five or six children
in rapid succession by scarlatina or other contagious disease, and both the
parents and medical men utterly unable to save them; and this is a common
occurrence. Persons who are ignorant of science look with an abject feeling
of helplessness upon great national calamities, and even upon private
afflictions, such as a local epidemic, as if there was absolutely no
remedy, whilst scientific men believe that by extension of knowledge, such
evils might be largely avoided or prevented.
Many persons however, actuated by the very kindest of motives, but
insufficiently acquainted with the necessity, conditions, results, and
advantages of experiments, unwittingly obstruct the discovery of new
knowledge in physiology and pathology, by attempting to prevent experiments
being made upon animals.
We should not strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Nearly every step in
life involves a choice {79} between two alternatives, and this is the case
with experiments upon living creatures, either such experiments must be
made, or the wholesale slaughter of men and other animals, by pestilences,
epidemics, small-pox, foot and mouth disease, &c., must continue. Many of
the properties of living bodies, like those of dead ones, can only be
ascertained by means of experiments, no other course is possible; and the
knowledge so obtained enables us not only to prolong the lives but also to
alleviate the sufferings of all kinds of living creatures. Nearly all our
medical and surgical knowledge has been obtained by observation and study,
either of the results of experiments made by ourselves, or by the course of
nature for us; and the former is often attended by immeasurably less pain
and expence than the latter. No one who has ever made in a proper manner
new experiments, would venture to assert that valuable knowledge is not
gained by them; and this statement is as correct of experiments in
physiology as in all the other sciences.
The total amount of pain inflicted upon animals by vivisection experiments
in this country is infinitesimally small--because, firstly, the proportion
of experimentalists in so-called "vivisection," does not amount to one
person in one million of our inhabitants:--secondly, students cannot be
induced to enter upon scientific research in physiology, because such
labour is unrewarded, either by enabling them to obtain certificates,
degrees, or money. Whatever pain also, {80} is inflicted in such
experiments, is by men of the highest eminence in physiology, and therefore
by the most competent persons.
Experimental research is an occupation requiring an exceptional kind of
ability and experience; and persons who have never made experiments, nor
studied their relation to human welfare, are largely incompetent to
determine when and how they should be made, the real effects of them, or
the value of the knowledge they afford. To persons inexperienced in
scientific research, many experiments appear useless, which have great
practical value, either immediately or at a later period. Our greatest
curse is ignorance; and knowledge, by enabling us to avoid the fatal
effects of pestilences, and epidemics, is as necessary as food to mankind.
The "Anti-vivisection" movement however is but one of the phases of the
ever-existing conflict between the advancing and retarding sections of
mankind.
Greater sympathy with suffering accompanies greater civilization. The
increased humanity of the present age over that of previous ones, is
largely due to the discovery and extension of new scientific knowledge.
Science, by showing more clearly to man his true position in nature and in
relation to his fellow-men and other animals, has rendered more evident the
concrete fact, that the happiness of each depends upon the happiness of
all, and the happiness and welfare of all upon that of each individual. It
has also operated in a more apparent, though less {81} important way, by
inculcating better systems of hygiene, improved sanitary arrangements, &c,
&c. It is not to the zeal of "anti-vivisectionists," but to the
well-directed labours of experimental medical men, that mankind are
indebted for the discovery and invention of nearly every known method of
preventing and alleviating animal suffering and of prolonging human life.
This statement is true of vaccination, the use of chloroform in general
surgery, dentistry, and midwifery, of carbolic acid spray in surgical
operations; the abolition of the practice of searing amputated limbs with a
red-hot iron; and many other improvements. Ferrier's comparatively recent
vivisection experiments have already enabled medical men to treat more
successfully those formidable diseases, epilepsy and abcess of the brain.
What this nation badly requires, is not less experimental research, but
more. When famines result from insufficiency of Solar heat, instead of
investigating the conditions of the Sun's surface to enable us to predict
their occurrence and provide accordingly, we allow them to come upon us in
our unprepared state and produce their fearful effects. When contagious
disease overtakes us, what do we do? Instead of previously employing and
paying scientific investigators to make experiments in physiological and
chemical science, to enable us to combat it successfully, we vainly attempt
to apply our present stock of chemical and physiological knowledge to ward
off the difficulty. When high price of fuel intervenes, instead {82} of
previously giving discoverers the means of finding new principles relating
to heat, and to chemical, and electrical action, we ineffectually endeavour
by means of invention, to economise fuel. These are the pottering,
short-sighted, and ignorant ways in which "the great English nation"
temporises with great evils, and permits national welfare to be sacrificed
to private gain, instead of employing for the discovery of new knowledge
some of that superfluous wealth which in many instances is a curse to its
possessors.
* * * * *
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