3 o6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



PUBLIC INTEEEST IN EESEAECH. 



By Professor JOHN M. COULTER, 



UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. 



THE subject I propose to discuss seems to me both timely and im- 

 portant. I recognize that to many scientific men it is a subject 

 to which they are indifferent or which may afford them passing amuse- 

 ment. And yet, there appear in it certain possibilities that may be 

 worth consideration. I do not refer to the general public, to whom 

 information concerning research would be like ' casting pearls before 

 swine/ but to what may be called the intelligent public, the public that 

 thinks and brings things to pass. To develop in proper order what I 

 have in mind, I shall speak of public interest in research under three 

 divisions: (1) its present condition, (2) its possible condition, and 

 (3) its possible results. 



1. Its Present Condition. 



The most available index of the present interest in research is 

 furnished probably by the newspapers and magazines, which try to 

 respond to the desires of their readers. Even a cursory examination 

 of the material they furnish, which may be said to deal with research, 

 shows that it is scant in amount, sensational in form, and usually wide 

 of the mark. The fact that it is scant in amount is a cause for con- 

 gratulation if it must involve the two other features. The sensational 

 form is a concession to what is conceived to be public taste; and while 

 to a scientific man this form seems to exhibit the worst possible taste, 

 the serious objection is that to secure the form truth is usually sacri- 

 ficed. That the real significance of an investigation thus reported is 

 usually missed is not to be wondered at, since the reporter is not the 

 investigator and has no scientific perspective whatsoever. Some of 

 the results of this kind of information are as follows: 



Men engaged in research are looked upon in general as inoffensive 

 but curious and useless members of the social order. If an investigator 

 now and then touches upon something that the public regards as useful, 

 he is singled out as a glaring exception, and is held up as an example 

 for us all to follow. If an investigation lends itself to announcement 

 in an exceedingly sensational form, as if it were uncovering deep 

 mysteries, the investigator becomes a ' wizard,' and his lightest utter- 

 ance is treated as an oracle. The result is that if the intelligent 

 reading public were asked to recite the distinguished names in science, 



