On the scientific investigation of disease in animals and man / by a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal College of Physicians.

  • Lionel Smith Beale
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the scientific investigation of disease in animals and man / by a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal College of Physicians. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    5/18 page 3
    jfor the rewards that even the greatest success may brmg. ilu many instances the hope that the inquiry itself, al- 1 though leading to no useM results, may stimulate others I to work on beyond the point arrived at, or the conviction Ithat practical results may follow after many years, stimulates imen in the prosecution of laborious research. And there can ibe no doubt that the man engaged in minute research is I often buoyed up by hopes, vain though they often prove, that tthe special inquiry in which he is engaged may at length tenable him to amve at some important, highly interesting, fand, perhaps, usefal generalisation. But it is scarcely worth while discussing what particular I motives men have in pursuing unremunerative work. It is ■> (■sufficient that the work is done, for it is well known that real ^advance is made by those who work for work's own sake, and mot by those who are obliged to work that they may Hve, or Iby those who work that they may hve easily. Much labour and money have been spent in obtaining ^statistical information concerning many diseases. Careful (observations of a general kind have been prosecuted, and (doubtless thoroughly well prosecuted, and accm-ately recorded ifor Government, and an enormous amount of information has I been pubhshed in Blue books. But why can we not have, in I addition to this, the results of very minute and careful investi- cgations by several physicists, chemists, and microscopists ? But it may truly be said that scientific men have ah'eady been called upon to undertake scientific work for several, departments of Government and for Royal Commissions, but (the sums awarded on few occasions for purely scientific work have been so very small, that it seems probable that those vwho advised the expenditure were either quite ignorant of ;the nature of the work to be undertaken and of the time it would occupy, or were careless whether Government and the ipubHc were informed of the advantages likely to result from the continued and thorough prosecution of such work. The public does not object to spend money in scientific experi- nents relating to the construction of guns and ships, and ivery man of common sense is convinced that it is right that B 2
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3