SALARIES OF SCIENTIFIC MEN.
[At the last meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, a resolution was passed, that " copies of the two last Reports of the Parlia- mentary Committee be transmitted to each member of the General Committee, with a request that opinions may be expressed as to the important subject, Whether any measures could be adopted by the Government or Parliament that would improve the position of Science and its cultivators.'" Among the replies, was the following, by Dr. John Gray, of the British Museum ; who places a copy of his letter at our disposal for publication.]
British Museum, 24th September 18.56. Sin—In reply to your circular of the 20th of August, I beg to observe, in reference to the questions on which my opinion is asked— Firstly, that I am firmly convinced that the position of science in this country will be best improved by its being left entirely unfettered by any interference on the part of Government or of the Legislature ; by giving it, in short, " a fair field and no favour." I have no doubt, under such cir- cumstances, of science maintaining and improving the high position and the great practical importance which it has attained in this country, and which, in my. opinion, are superior to those which it has reached in any other. Secondly, in regard to the position of the cultivators of science, I would in like manner deprecate any direct action of the Government ;for I should be most unwilling to see the great body of scientific men in this country converted, as in the despotic states of the Continent, into servants and pensioners of the Government, and dressed out in orders and other gewgaws in order to render their dependent position palatable. For the same reason, I should regret to see the number of scientific offices under the Government increased. I think it., however, highly desirable, at least before an increase is made„—and it is to this point that I would specially direct attention,—that scientific men now holding office under Government, or under private Societies, should be fairly remunerated for their labour, their remuneration bearing a just proportion to that of other public employes. The ground for this is sufficiently obvious. The offices held by scientific men are generally quite as laborious, and require quite as much general knowledge, as other official situations, with the superaddition of a special scientific education. But the salaries of such offices are almost universally calculated on a much lower scale ; and thus advantage is taken of the love of his subject, inherent in a man of science, to exact from him a 'sacrifice which would not be expected from any other professional person, civil, military, or diplomatic.
I believe that this under-payment of scientific offices arises chiefly from the peculiar position of science in this country, and from the want of pro- fessional esprit de corps among its followers. It is hardly necessary to say, that a man's social position (except among his own peculiar class) is chiefly determined by his income ; and as very few scientific men (exclusive of those by whom science is applied to practical purposes) depend upon science for their means of living, they can scarcely be said to form a profession among us. All our scientific societies are self-supporting, by means of the contributions of their members; and their officers and councillors are for the most part if not entirely honorary. The same may be said of the go- verning bodies of all the Government scientific institutions, with the ex- ception of one or two of those most recently established. Take, for instance, the British Museum and the Royal Observatory, in which the governing power resides in a Board of Trustees or of Visitors, whose appointments are purely honorary : on the other hand, those who follow the study of science as a profession are almost restricted to the paid officers of these institu- tions; and their salaries are determined by those honorary office-holders who, from the difference in their social position, are generally very much disposed to regard professional men of science as belonging to another and a lower grade. This want of sympathy I believe to be the principal cause of the difference in position of the professional man of science in this country and abroad, and of the difference in the amount of salaries of scientific and other Government employes here.
In almost all other Government offices, the salaries are determined by the heads of the office, who have themselves generally entered as juniors, and have regularly passed through the different grades : they have conse- quently acquired the necessary experience to enable them to judge, in the same manner as private merchants and others, what is the fair rate of re- muneration for the several stages of a life 'passed in their department of the public service. A simple statement will illustrate the difference be- tween the practice of these offices and that of the scientific institutions re- ferred to. In public offices generally, the clerk enters first at an early age, and at a small salary, which receives an annual increase until he passes into another class, to which a higher scale of salary is attached, and in which he also receives periodical additions ; and this continues through several stages of advancement, during which his pecuniary position is constantly improving,—as is proved by the extracts of official salaries added as an ap- pendix. In the scientific establishments, on the other hand, he very soon comes to a stand, and at a rate of remuneration at which it is quite impos- sible that a family can be supported in this country in anything like a re- spectable position. Take the British Museum for an example. The assistants of the several departments receive on their first appointment 150/. per annum, after two years and a half 180/., and after five years' service 2151.; and at this rate they may remain for life, unless they happen to become senior assistants of the department, when (if they have also been fifteen years in the service) they become entitled to 2451. per annum. The salaries of the subordinate officers of the Royal Observatory are equally, disproportioned to the social position which men ought to occupy who stand in such a relation to the science of the nation, all of whom have qualified themselves by much study for their respective offices, and many of whom have passed with great credit through the Universities, and enjoy a high reputation in the world of science.
Now it is my decided opinion that it is not the Government which is to blame for the low degree of consideration manifested or the scientific employes of the nation ; but that their position is entirely due to a want of sympathy on the part of the honorary leaders in science towards their profes- sional brethren. I am convinced, from my experience in public affairs, that neither the Government nor much less the House of Commons would object to the fair and proper remuneration of scienti5c men, if the trustees, boards of visitors, or other honorary officers superintending the various pub- lic scientific institutions, and whom the Government naturally regards as their proper guardians, would suffer themselves to take a more liberal view of the subject, and fairly represent the cast to her Majesty's Treasury.
We frequently hear the complaint made, that among the students of sci- ence there are few who take up its pursuit with earnestness and devotion, , the great majority contenting themselves with a smattering ; and also that the scientific professorships are not remunerating. Both these circum-
stances are the natural results, as it appears to me of the evil to which I am anxious to direct attention. How can it be expected that young men should pay for instruction, and devote their whole attention to qualify themselves in a study the remuneration for which (in the few official situations con- nected with it) is vastly inferior to what may be acquired by the devotion of much less time and talent to almost any other kind of occupation? The remedy evidently: lies, not in increasing the number of professors, but in fairly recompensing the holders of scientific offices, and thereby rendering those positions desirable as a means of securing a respectable living.
John Phillips, Esq., F.R.S., &e. &e.
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