State Aid for Scientific Research

Abstract

AT the Institution of Civil Engineers on Friday last, December 1, the Marquess of Crewe, Chairman of the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, with members of the Committee and of the Advisory Council to the Committee, received a deputation from the Board of Scientific Societies. Sir J. J, Thomson, president of the Royal Society, in introducing the deputation, referred to the functions of the board, which had been formed to promote co-operation between those interested respectively in pure and applied science. The deputation wished to urge the necessity for further grants in aid of research, both in pure science and in its applications to industry. It was often difficult to foresee, at the time a research in pure science was carried on, what its ultimate applications might be. The Rontgen rays, discovered incidentally in a purely physical investigation, but now of inestimable value in connection with surgery, furnished an instance. Therefore men who devoted themselves to such researches, with little prospect of immediate personal benefit, should receive from the State sufficient assistance to enable them to do their work in comfort. The neglect of pure science might be compared with the ploughing and manuring of a piece of land, followed by an omission to sow any seed.