Research and University Education

Abstract

IN his opening presidential address this session to the Royal Society of Edinburgh on “The Endowment of Scientific and Industrial Research” (Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, 1919, vol. xxxix., No. 1), Dr. John Home discusses the report of the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific and Industrial Research for 1917–18, and the findings of Sir J. J. Thomson's committee on the position of natural science in the educational system of Great Britain, and then turns his attention nearer home to the results of the Carnegie Trust's research scheme in furnishing trained research workers. He alludes especially to the chemistry department of St. Andrews, which has secured more research scholars and fellows under this scheme than any other educational centre in Scotland. Its favourable position in this respect is ascribed to the smallness of the number of students, to specially commodious and well-equipped laboratories, to a private research endowment which secures complete freedom bf action to the head of the department and has rendered it unnecessary for him ever to approach the University Court for help, to a special field of investigation—the chemistry of sugars—capable of providing unlimited subjects for the training not only of the organic, but also of the physical and bio-chemist, and, lastly, to the initiative of the professor in finding industrial positions for the trained workers—it is to be hoped, at a salary that interests the income-tax commissioner. In the larger Scottish universities the science departments struggle under the disadvantages of inadequate laboratories, crowded class-rooms, and overworked and underpaid staffs. One hears, in fact, of nothing now but the duplication of the notoriously large medical classes, and even of the double daily lectures being given by the same lecturer. The Carnegie Trustees are asked seriously to consider whether the funds provided for scientific study and investigation cannot be increased very largely.