The whole of the new knowledge obtained by research should be treated as national property, and all of it worthy of publication should be made known without the least reserve, it would also be desirable to publish the results at reasonable intervals of time. The publication might take place, as at present, in the journals of the learned Societies, or in the leading scientific magazines, and the value of the work would be largely guaranteed by such a mode of publication. The professors should also engage not to sell, patent, or prematurely disclose any of the knowledge obtained. By electing to such offices only discoverers of repute, the nation might reasonably depend for the results upon the known ability and industry of the men. That the results obtained would, many of them, be highly valuable, does not admit of doubt, because long experience has uniformly proved it; but no discoverer can tell beforehand what results he will obtain, otherwise research would hardly be needed. An objection has been made that no one can tell how long it will be after a discovery is made before the nation will derive the chief benefit. The length of time which elapses between the publication of discoveries and their practical fruits is very variable. Usually benefit commences at once and gradually widens; directly discoveries are published they begin to be used by compilers of scientific books, and by teachers and lecturers in science, and are thus diffused {198} amongst the public in general, and begin to produce beneficial effects. Inventors, manufacturers, medical men, and others, also begin to apply them to their respective purposes. In some cases striking applications are immediately made of them, and public attention is thus directed to the useful result; but in many cases the beneficial effects are small, numerous, and indirect, and it is difficult to trace and describe them. The objection also is deficient in force, because expenditure in any other occupation, and receipt of the profit upon it, are rarely simultaneous. Many of the wisest reforms in this country have been a long time in producing their results. We must therefore be content, as in all ordinary cases of investment, with the conviction that the expenditure will be profitable, and we must wait patiently for the certain harvest. In research, as in many other human enterprises, a man who will not move until he is absolutely certain that what he intends to do will at at once succeed, must sit still and perish.