The national importance of scientific research / by George Gore.

  • Gore, George, 1826-1909.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The national importance of scientific research / by George Gore. 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.

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    coal has especially, been obtained Avithout commensurate effort. To draAv upon a mine of coal is much like clraAving upon a bank of money, because coal is a great store of poAA’’er; it differs from nearly all other abundant substances by containing an immense amount of latent chemical energy, ■which may at any moment, and Avith scarcely any expenditure of labour on our part, be converted into heat and mechanical poAver in the steam- engine. Every ])iece of coal contains sufficient latent poAver to lift itself a height of more than tAvo thousand miles, but it costs only a small pro- portion of that poAver to extract and raise it from the mine. We do not mean by these remarks to imply that the AA'ealth accruing from this gi-eat store of poAvor in coal, is derived chiefly by the owners of coal mines. ■ An excess of money or poAver, obtained Avithout commensurate effort, fails to properly develop the intelligence of its possessor, and nations have been hastened to ruin in this Avay. The AA'^ealth of the upper classes of this nation has, by decoying from study undisciplined young men at our old Universities, kept doAvn the general standard of scientific instruction throughout the country, and by leading to neglect of scientific research, is noAv retarding our progress in arts, manufactures, commerce, and civi- lization. The great poverty of the AAmrking classes is also producing similar effects by retarding education, and increasing the gi'eat Avant of skilled labour of which our inventors, manufacturers and others, so strongly complain in the working of their scientific processes. Had a just share of the great amount of money gained by the applications of science to useful purposes, been applied to the payment and maintenance of scientific discoverers, as it should have been, the wealthy would have been more intelligent, the poor would have had more employment and money, and the happiness and civilization of all would have been greater. Of the great multitude of rich manufacturers, merchants, capitalists, and landowners in this country, who have derived such gi’eat pecuniary benefits from original scientific research, we believe there is scarcely a man existing who has ever given to a scientific society, institution or in- vestigator, a single thousand pounds for the aid of pure research in experimental physics or chemistry; the nearest approach to exceptions are a very few wealthy persons who have devoted themselves personally to scientific discovery. Many of those manufacturers and others would however willingly give money towards such an object, if they understood the value and necessity of scientific research. Whilst many millions of pounds are annually expended in this country upon religious, philanthropic, and other good objects, there is scarcely a scientific society or institution (with the exception of the British Associ- ation), which expends even the small sum of five hundred pounds a year on pure experimental research in physics or chemistry. In the Eoyal Institution of Great Britain, the average annual expenses relating to experimental research, including salaries to assistants in the laboratory, from the year 1867 to 1871, did not amount to tAvo hundred and fifty pounds. Considering the multiplicity and variety of philanthropic institutions m K