New-York tribune. [volume], February 12, 1905, Image 25

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Phys i c 9
7X December last the
IK fourth distribution of
the Nobel prizes took
place. In the last four
years sums aggregating roughly about three-quarters
of a million dollars have been distributed to those who
in the opinion of certain Scandinavian authorities have
deserved best of their fellow-men in five distinct cate
gories of human activity. Every year the interest
accruing from the fortune which Nobel built up by
manufacturing dynamite is divided into live equal
j«iirtions.
One is allocated for Literature, a second for Peace,
a third f or Physics, a fourth for Medicine, and a fifth
for Chemistry. Under each department an aggregate
sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars has
been given away as an award of merit. As a rule the
prizes are given to only one person in each department.
This rule, although strictly adhered to in the case of
the prizes in Literature, Medicine and Chemistry, has
been departed from repeatedly in the departments of
Physics and Peace. The net result of the distribution
is that, not reckoning Monsieur and Madame Curie
as two persons, because in wedlock they are one,
twenty prizes have been divided among twenty- five
persons.
The first thing that strikes the eye in looking over
the list of those who have obtained the distinction
of a Nobel prize is that without exception they belong
to the Old World. No American so far has obtained
recognition for the services regarded by Nobel as
worthy of the highest honor. In the list of the twenty
five mortals who have deserved best of their generation
no American finds a place, neither does an Asiatic,
African or Australian, no Italian, Belgian or Portu
guese has found a place in this International Honors
List.
The ' -•■-•' hit prize winners come from the fol
• . ■■ • '•■ .c. Britain four, France
: Switzerland tiu ad two, Russia, Sweden,
Kor Spaa ne each. If the twenty
ime; but France has
If, and Holland one;
r, to si ■ in dollars, the Germans have
md doD us, Britain one
md, France one hundred and
.nd, Switzerland sixty thousand, while
received forty thousand
. h.
■ ■ - • bably will occur to the
r is how ii to ] that American
• ■ ■ ■•1. Can it be due to the
I - the adjudication? Of one thing there is
: ■ the judges who award the prizes
Lympic games there is not one
as a Scandinavian, and
I the world, he pro-
Jistribution should be vested
He wrote: "The prizes shall
For physical science and
• . by the S Academy of Sciences; for
by the Caroline Institute
- ■ axe, by the Stockholm Acad
utd for peace i ' •--• by a committee of five mem
1 by the Norwegian Parliament. It is my
•hat, in awarding the prizes, no account
be taken oi nationality, in order that the prize
may fall to the lot of the most deserving, whether he be
. nan or not."
r of fact, only two out of the twenty
I up to date have gone to Scandinavians:
By WIILILIAM T . STEAD
Medicine
one, the literary prize in 1902, to Bjdrnson, the famous
Norwegian novelist: the other, the Chemical prize
in 1003, to Arrhenius, the Swedish chemist of
Su ickholm.
The choice of these Scandinavian judges is limited
to a certain extent by the nominations. It is true
that most of the judges also may nominate candidates;
but the judges are few, the nominators are many.
"For the four prizes adjudicated upon at Stockholm
nominations are made by the Swedish Academy; by
the members, resident or foreign, of the Royal Academy
of Sciences of Sweden ; by the members of the (Swedish)
Nobel committees; by the professors of the various
universities in Sweden and Norway; or by professors
in foreign universities who may be named therefor
by the Swedish Academy; or finally by distinguished
men to whom the Academy may think good to send
an invitation to suggest a nomination." All these nom
inations, with the writings of the persons nominated,
must be delivered to the Swedish Academy by Feb
ruary 1.
For the Peace prize, which is awarded by a com
mittee sitting at Christiania, there is a still wider body
of nominators. "Proposals for the prize for 1905 must
be sent to the Comite Nobel Xorvegien, Victoria
terrasse 3, Christiania, Norway, so as to reach the com
mittee not later than April 1 next. Among the persons
entitled to nominate competitors for prizes are the
following: (1) Members of the Norwegian Nobel com-
Elffll KAlBs
Alfred Nobel
Li teralixre
Chemistry
mittee, (2) members of
the legislative assemblies
and Governments of the
various States of the
world, (3) memt>ers of the Commission de Bureau
Internationa] Permanent de la Paix, (4) members
and associates of the Institut de Droit International,
and (5) university professors of law, of political science,
of history and philosophy.'
When the nominations arrive, they are handed
to various sets of judges. "The selection from the
nominations so made varies in the different cases. In
Physics and Chemistry the selecting body is a pair of
N< ibel committees of tive persons named by the Swedish
Academy of Sciences. In Medicine the arrangement
is similar, the medico-chirttrgical or Royal Caroline
Institute of Stockholm being the leading body among
nominators; the selection resting again with a Nobel
committee in medicine. In Literature the procedure
is analogous, the Swedish Academy (founded in 1756
for the promotion of Swedish literature, language and
poetry) taking the lead, but with the cooperation of
the Academic Franchise and other literary academies
of Europe."
The Norwegian Storthing nominates the committee
which adjudicates upon the Peace prize.
The first thing, therefore, for Americans to ascertain
is whether, as was the case in the first year's compe
tition as far as Britain was concerned, any Americans
were nominated for any of the prizes. The Americans,
like the British, have no academy like that which
exists in Sweden, France and Spain. "In these coun
tries in which an ancient academy of letters exists a
committee sits to discuss the Notel prizes and the
best way in which votes could 1*? given for candidates.
In Germany, in Holland, in Italy, where there is no
national academy of letters, the response of scholars
in those countries to the appeal of the Nobel committee
was instant and copious."
When inquiry was made as co the failure of the
British to nominate anyone for the prizes of igoi,
it was discovered that as the Swedes did not know any
qualified Englishmen they satisfied themselves as l»est
they could by sending broadcast to the secretaries of a
heterogeneous lot of institutions in the United King
dom and the Colonies copies of a printed circular.
Several of these institutions were obsolete, one was
dead, none had any vital connection with English
literary life.
As nothing was heard from these circulars, it was
presumed that they were consigned to the waste-paper
basket that yawns ready to receive the innumerable
circulars of foreign lotteries, which are sent every day
through the post to the British householders. It
would be interesting to ascertain whether a similar
fate has overtaken a similar circular addressed to
American institutions which in Stockholm have t>een
supposed to supply the lack of an American Academy
of Science or of Letters.
The English Royal Society as an Academy of Science
is entitled to advise as to nominations, but all candidates
must be nominated by persons, not by institutions.
Nominations cannot be made en masse by academies,
committees or other representative l>odies. On this
subject, the French Academy, which desired to send a
cumulative vote, entered into a lengthy correspondence
with the Swedish Academy, but failed to persuade the
latter. Committees of academic bodies may discuss
the question together, and may decide to concentrate
their influence on a single candidate; but the result
of these deliberations must reach the Swedish Academy
in the form of recommendations from individual per-