654 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



maintenance of the prisoners, and thus render the management much 

 less subject to public criticism. 



This article is already as long as seems desirable, and I must close 

 without describing the California reform schools, which are compara- 

 tively new, but have attracted much attention. At some future time 

 I may have an opportunity to take up that subject. 



THE SCIENTIFIC EXPEKT AND THE BERING SEA 



CONTROVERSY. 



By GEORGE A. CLARK. 



IN the November number of the Popular Science Monthly for 

 1897, Dr. Thomas C. Mendenhall reviews at some length the 

 workings of the Bering Sea Commission of 1892. Dr. Mendenhall 

 was himself a member of this commission, and his account of its in- 

 side history is interesting and instructive as throwing light upon the 

 after-work of the Paris Tribunal of Arbitration for which it was to 

 prepare the natural-history data. 



Dr. Mendenhall naturally finds little to commend in the work 

 of his colleagues, the British experts, but he does not stop there, and 

 proceeds to generalize in an uncomplimentary way regarding scien- 

 tific experts as a class. For example, he lays down the following just 

 and admirable rule for scientific investigation : " It should be com- 

 menced with no preconceived notions of how it is to come out, and 

 judgment should wait upon facts," and then continues to say: " Jus- 

 tice to the man of science obliges the admission that, take him in his 

 laboratory or library, with no end in view except that of getting 

 at the truth, and he generally lives fairly up to this high standard; 

 but transform him by the magic of a handsome retainer, or any other 

 incentive, into a scientific expert, and he is a horse of another color." 



It is not the purpose of this article to argue the cause of the man 

 of science, or to say whether or not this arraignment is just. It is 

 the intention merely to bring into contrast with the notable example 

 of failure which Dr. Mendenhall cites, an equally notable example 

 of success on the part of the scientific expert. If I mistake not, this 

 simple comparison will be all the vindication the man of science 

 needs. 



To understand the full force of Dr. Mendenhall's article, it must 

 be remembered that it appeared on the very eve of the meeting of a 

 second Bering Sea Commission called to consider the selfsame issues 

 which occupied the attention of the commission of 1892. The article 

 therefore stands as a prediction of failure for the new commission. 



