PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE 185 



As the worker in an institution laboratory does not have the same op- 

 portunity to place his work before Fachgenossen as is the case with his 

 university colleagues, the institution may well accord some facility in 

 the distribution of offprints. 



From the standpoint of the young Ph.D., these research positions 

 are economically quite superior to anything to be expected of the earlier 

 years of a teaching career. As maintenance is provided, a very large 

 part of the salary can, if desired, be saved ; the conditions of living vary 

 with the character of the institution, but may bring the actual value of 

 a $1,200 position well towards $2,000. Vacations are short, compared 

 with academic ones, but this may be quite compensated for by the ab- 

 sence of routine obligations and various other agreeable features of insti- 

 tution surroundings. The tremendous advantage, to him who is able to 

 use it, lies in the freedom for original research; the possible disadvan- 

 tages are the lack of library facilities, and the intellectual danger of iso- 

 lation from colleagues. Absolved from routine activity, deprived of the 

 immediate competitive and critical presence of others in the same field 

 of work, the lack of energy and devotion means mental dry rot. How- 

 ever, being not only free, but expected to devote one's entire time to 

 original research, one can obviously be more productive than his equally 

 capable fellow-worker whose time is swamped by the routine activities 

 of teaching; and, so far as personal advancement is based on the char- 

 acter of work done, the advantage seems to lie distinctly with the re- 

 search position as against the teaching one. Still neither standing nor 

 salary in these positions equals the professorial grade in the important 

 universities, which is, practically speaking, the material end to which 

 those following the career of psychologist now look forward ; and once 

 having abandoned the teaching side of the profession one is not likely 

 to reenter it at a higher level, save upon evidence of altogether distin- 

 guished merit, probably more than would be necessary should the 

 candidate follow the routine of academic promotion. For the greatest 

 abilities these positions should then offer the greatest rewards; to 

 mediocrity they spell destruction. 



The cause of research in psychological medicine will prosper the 

 better, the longer its special class of investigators can be held to their 

 work. At present, the best men may not remain in it permanently, but 

 be taken away at a time when their growing experience makes them in- 

 creasingly valuable in it. It can not, of course, be questioned that this 

 same experience, with the facilities of the position, places one in a 

 peculiarly advantageous situation as regards teaching the subject, which 

 it might be advisable also to do, in so far as it were possible without 

 hampering research. University association with clinical research 

 further offsets the possible difficulties of inadequate libraries and iso- 

 lation from colleagues. An additional advantage of university associa- 



VOL. LXXX1I. — 13. 



