THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



9i 



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION. 



Scientific interest this month is 

 focused on the approaching meeting of 

 the trustees of the Carnegie Institution. 

 At the first meeting of the trustees, 

 officers and an executive committee 

 were appointed, and adjournment was 

 taken to November without any decis- 

 ion on matters of policy. During the 

 summer reports have been prepared 

 by advisory committees of scientific 

 men, and the secretary and other mem- 

 bers of the executive committee have 

 been engaged in careful consideration 

 of the methods by which the Carnegie 

 Institution can most effectively con- 

 tribute to the advancement of science. 

 The president of the institution has 

 been abroad in consultation with for- 

 eign men of science and studying their 

 institutions. The advisory committees 

 have been selected with care, and it is 

 doubtless proper that their reports 

 should be regarded as confidential until 

 they have been presented to the trus- 

 tees. Scientific men would, however, be 

 better pleased if the nomination of the 

 members of the advisory committees 

 had been entrusted to the scientific 

 societies of the country and if they 

 were sure that the trustees would take 

 nc action involving the institution in a 

 definite policy until the questions at 

 issue have been more thoroughly dis- 

 cussed. It would not be possible to 

 select more representative trustees than 

 those of the Carnegie Institution, but 

 they are men of affairs, engaged in the 

 conduct of important enterprises, and 

 can not be expected to devote their 

 attention to the policy of the institu- 

 tion. The plan which obtains in this 

 country of entrusting the ownership 

 and control of educational and scien- 



tific institutions to a board of business 

 men, who appoint a president with 

 great power, provides an efficient ad- 

 ministration. It is not, however, ideal 

 from the point of view of the scientific 

 man so long as he is an employee 

 or slave he may do his work satisfac- 

 torily and economically, but he natu- 

 rally looks forward to becoming a free 

 man. We all know the difficulties and 

 dangers of a democracy, but we have 

 decided that this is for us the best form 

 of government. Perhaps the greatest 

 service that the Carnegie Institution 

 could perform for science would be to 

 entrust scientific men with its manage- 

 ment. They would doubtless make 

 mistakes and perhaps fall into quar- 

 rels, but in the end their education 

 would be attained, and thereafter they 

 would be more competent to manage 

 their own affairs than any board of 

 business men placed in authority over 

 them. 



As was stated in the September issue 

 of the Monthly, the corporation of the 

 Marine Biological Laboratory has 

 voted to transfer its property to the 

 Carnegie Institution; and this is the 

 only intimation that has been made 

 public in regard to the probable policy 

 of the institution. But while the insti- 

 tution has secured an option on the 

 laboratory, it is by no means certain 

 that it will undertake the ownership. 

 It has been announced by the chairman 

 of the executive committee of the trus- 

 tees of the laboratory that this will 

 only be done after careful considera- 

 tion and full discussion, and there is 

 reason to believe that the Carnegie 

 Institution may assist the laboratory 

 without insisting on its becoming a 

 branch or department. This question 



