(i) Note by Sir Frank Heath, KCB, on the Proposed Research Institute for China

• Author: Heath, Frank
• Pages: 194

(i) NOTE BY SIR FRANK HEATH, K C B, ON THE PROPOSED RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR CHINA

A careful reading of the evidence of Dr Ts'i and of Dr V K Ting, on which the recommendations of the Willmgdon Delegation on Scientific Research are largely based, indicates that both these distnguished Chinese men of science had m mmnd the applications of science to practical problems as the main purposes of the proposed Research Institute rather than the pro secution of research in pure science Dr Ts'ai says 'It will be set up m order to create a spirit of reverence for science and idustrial arts,' and proposes it should include a museum as an important if not predominant feature His ideas are curiously parallel to those of the late Prince Albert, who thought of the South Kensington estate, purchased from the profits of the Great Exhibition, as the home of the apphed sciences and the industrial arts-as it has indeed become Dr Ting, who is a geologist, defines geology, zoology and botany in hs draft estimate (p 125) m terms that indicate his grasp of the importance of the practical side of the work He is most specific in hs own science, and only less so m the two sciences which lie nearest to his own But m dealing with physics, chemistry and the social sciences he naturally avoids definition Yet these are as capable of a practical bias as the rest Research m pure science-research, that is, which is undertaken for its own sake because the worker is attempting to extend our knowledge of nature wlthout any regard to the usefulness of his discoveries-can only safely be made the aim of an misttute, or indeed of any organisaton-if there is a large and well established provision for the highest education Umver sities not only give opportunites for men of the highest origimahty to obtain the sound foundations of scientific traimng which is a necessary prelimnary of original work-the creative kmnd m modern sclence-but more important still they are the only means of establishng standards of equipment and attainment adequate as some indication of capacity for original work of the highest type Humboldt's ' Akademie der Wissenschaften' was the crown of a wide-flung University system m Prussia, and without it could not have secured the status it has A Research Institute for pure science would be lkely to find itself ' i the ar ' m China to-day It is notceable that Dr Ts'a lays stress on the ' training of men ' as Chna's most urgent need, and m view of the dffieulty of...