474 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



scientific men. The present organiza- 

 tion of the laboratory is a corporation, 

 composed of those interested in the re- 

 search work of the laboratory, which 

 elects trustees, chiefly biologists repre- 

 senting different universities. This 

 democratic form of government must 

 surely be the ideal of scientific men. 

 They may endure the usual board of 

 trustees composed of men of affairs 

 who delegate authority to a president; 

 they may even realize the business effi- 

 ciency of such an organization; but 

 they look forward to the time when 

 they will choose their own leaders and 

 define their own policy. The labora- 

 tory at Woods Hole has illustrated 

 both the strength and weakness of a 

 democratic organization. There has 

 been friction in the management, and 

 the finances have never been in a satis- 

 factory condition. On the other hand, 

 there has been enthusiasm, self-sacrifice 

 and a high ideal of research. If the 

 Woods Hole laboratory is directed 

 from Washington it will go forward 

 with the efficiency of the scientific de- 

 partments of the government, and will 

 be practically one of these, being for all 

 essential purposes coordinate with the 

 Fish Commission or the Geological Sur- 

 vey, but with scarcely one fiftieth of 

 the income. There will not, however, 

 be found a director who will devote 

 himself to the service of the laboratory 

 without dreaming of receiving a dol- 

 lar's salary, or men of science ready 

 to give freely the time and money of 

 which they have so little to spare. 

 Those connected with the laboratory 

 will no longer seek to give what they 

 can, but rather to get what they can, 

 and the whole spirit of the place will 

 change. 



Just for a handful of silver he left us, 

 Just for a riband to stick in his coat — 



Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us, 

 Lost all the others she lets us devote ; 



They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver, 

 So much was theirs who so little allowed : 



How all our copper had gone for his service ! 



SCIENCE IN AMERICAN JOUR- 

 NALS. 



The fact that the Forum and the In- 

 ternational Monthly, both of which in- 

 clude science in their scope, have aban- 

 doned monthly publication and will 

 hereafter appear but four times a year 

 is somewhat disquieting; it seems to 

 indicate that journals maintaining a 

 high standard are not well supported 

 in this country. We have left only the 

 North American Review and The Popu- 

 lar Science Monthly, in addition to 

 the monthlies that depend chiefly on 

 politics, fiction or literary gossip. The 

 North American Review has at times 

 tended to rely more on the names 

 signed to its articles than on their 

 contents, and must on the whole 

 be regarded as a political rather than 

 as a literary journal. The Popular 

 Science Monthly has a limited and 

 definite field, for which it is urgently 

 needed and in which it is adequately 

 supported; but the larger part of its 

 contents can not be regarded as litera- 

 ture. We keep within the limits of ob- 

 vious truth in stating that this journal 

 in its special field has set a standard 

 for other nations which they have not 

 yet met. The same is true of our illus- 

 trated monthlies which reflect all de- 

 grees of taste and refinement. They 

 have carried mechanical illustration 

 and the short story to a singular point 

 of perfection. But it can not be 

 claimed that photo-engraving and the 

 short story are the highest forms of 

 art. The editor of one of our most 

 prosperous monthlies has recently 

 stated that a magazine should never 

 contain any thing that could as well 

 have been published the month before. 

 The requirements of true literature are 

 the reverse; nothing is literature that 

 could not as well be published a year 

 hence. The magazine seems likely to 

 devour its own offspring, for while 

 there come forward many new writers 

 of short stories, but few survive. A 

 month's life does not encourage a wri- 

 ter to do his best work, and we have in 



