198 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Methods op Eesearch by Institutions 



Some time could profitably be spent on a consideration of the 

 general agencies engaged in furthering research work and the methods 

 employed for doing so. Being, however, connected with a " research 

 institution," I should consider myself incompetent to enter upon a 

 free and unbiased discussion of the methods of such organizations for 

 the furthering of research work. Suffice it to say that it appears 

 sometimes to be overlooked that the most valuable asset of a research 

 organization is the research spirit of its workers, without it no amount 

 of funds could accomplish the desired end. My remarks will be chiefly 

 confined to a brief discussion of the methods to be used in certain in- 

 vestigations of a world-wide character. Craving your indulgence once 

 more, I shall take as an example the general magnetic survey of the 

 earth as representative of the kind of world-embracing research en- 

 terprises I have in mind. 



Alexander von Humboldt, whose mental grasp was extraordinary 

 in more than one science, set forth the following plan in his " Cosmos " 

 for a general magnetic survey of the globe.* 



Four times in every century an expedition of three ships should be sent out 

 to examine as nearly as posible at the same time the state of the magnetism, 

 of the earth, so far as it can be investigated in those parts which are covered 

 by the ocean. . . . Land expeditions should be combined with these voyages. . . . 



May the year .1850 be marked as the first normal epoch in which the ma- 

 terials for a magnetic chart shall be collected, and may permanent scientific insti- 

 tutions (academies) impose upon themselves the practise of reminding, every 

 twenty-five or thirty years, governments, favorable to the advance of navigation, 

 of the importance of an undertaking whose great cosmical importance depends 

 on its long continued repetition. 



Here was a noble project, universally conceded to be not only of 

 the greatest scientific interest, but also of the greatest practical im- 

 portance. Yet why is it that this grand plan has never been carried 

 out by the foremost nations in friendly concert? Have our academies, 

 as Humboldt suggested, never " imposed upon themselves the practise 

 of reminding every twenty-five or thirty years governments, favorable 

 to the advance of navigation, of the importance of an undertaking " 

 of this character? 



Instead of working along a common and definite plan, the mag- 

 netic operations hitherto have consisted of more or less isolated and in- 

 complete surveys, independently undertaken by various nations and dis- 

 tributed over a great number of years. Not even for a single epoch has 

 it been possible to construct the magnetic charts on the basis of homo- 

 geneous material, distributed over the greater part of the earth, with 

 some attempt, at least, at uniformity. And as to the possibility of 



* The quotation is from E. C. Otto's translation of the " Cosmos," vol. 11.^ 

 pp. 719-720. 



