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ABSTRACT THE subject of the value of original scientific investigation may be considered from many points of view. Of these, that of the national importance of original research is the one
which naturally first engages attention; and it does not take long to convince us that almost every great material advance in modern civilisation is due, not to the occurrence of haphazard
or fortuitous circumstances, but to the long-continued and dis-interested efforts of some man of science. Nor do I need to quote many examples to show us the immediate dependence of the
national well-being and progress upon scientific discoveries thus patiently and quietly made. If it had not been for Black's researches on the latent heat of steam, James Watt's
great discovery, which has revolutionised the world, would not have been made. Practical applications cannot he made until the scientific facts or principles upon which those applications
rest have been discovered. In our own science I might instance hundreds of cases in which discoveries made in the pure spirit of scientific inquiry have (generally in the hands of others
than the original investigators) led to results of the first importance to civilisation. Chloroform was first prepared by Liebig in 1834; but it was Simpson who long afterwards applied it to
the relief of suffering humanity. Faraday in 1825 discovered benzole, and from it Zinin prepared a substance called aniline, which for many years remained a chemical curiosity only
interesting to the scientific man. In due course, however, a practical sphere of usefulness was to be opened out for this little known substance. Perkin discovered that this rare body was
capable of yielding splendid colours. Commercial skill then at once seized upon aniline, and, instead of its being made by the ounce, it is now manufactured by thousands of tons, and the
bright and beautiful colours which it yields are known all the world over, and are alike pleasing to the eye of the connoisseur of fashion and of the dusky denizen of the forest primæval.
Thus, too, the purely scientific researches of our distinguished fellow-citizen Dr. Schunck, respecting the dyeing principle contained in the well-known madder root, laid the foundations for
the subsequent discovery, by Graebe and Lieberman, of the artificial production of this naturally occurring principle, termed alizarine, the manufacture of which is now assuming such
gigantic proportions. Again, the discovery of chlorine by Scheele, in 1774, lies at the foundation of the whole of our Lancashire trade, for without bleaching powder the cotton and paper
manufactures could not exist on their present extended scale. I might almost indefinitely extend this list of discoveries, which, when first made, were apparently far removed from any useful
application, but which all at once become the starting-point of a new branch of industry, and a source of benefit or gratification to mankind. Access through your institution Buy or
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permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE _Original Research as a Means of Education_ * . _Nature_ 8, 538–539 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/008538a0 Download citation * Issue Date:
23 October 1873 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/008538a0 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable
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