3 o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



botanical course as a co-worker with the professor. It has often hap- 

 pened that enthusiastic persons have said to me, " How delightful it 

 must be to have a class of students aiding you in your researches ! " 

 Alas ! why could they not see that they were hindrances, not aids? 



Furthermore, for some most unaccountable reason, the public have 

 the impression that research pays for itself, and therefore does not 

 require endowment. Probably a good many of my hearers have heard 

 the remark, " I suppose you must make considerable out of your scien- 

 tific papers." Unfortunately, with the exception of text-books of a 

 lower grade, one is only too glad not to be money out of pocket. I 

 fear that you can all bear witness that, with rare exceptions, your pub- 

 lished papers have never paid for themselves. It is only after the 

 results of research have reached a homoeopathic dilution in some text- 

 book or popular article that they begin to pay. Of such dilutions we 

 already have an abundance, and the more important point is to get 

 something new which will bear dilution. Unfortunately, the public 

 do not clearly see the difference between the original work and the 

 dilution. The former does not pay, and needs encouragement ; the 

 latter is a commercial article having a recognized money-value. 



A part of the confusion with regard to the paying-value of research 

 in natural history is probably due to the fact that the public see that 

 certain discoveries in physics and chemistry are pecuniarily profitable. 

 But in natural history there are no truths which can be patented. 

 Biological discoveries become the property of the world if the discov- 

 erer is fortunate enough to have his work published. 



A great gain will have been made if the public can be persuaded 

 that professors in colleges ought to be allowed time for, and be ex- 

 pected to do, original work ; and we should assure them that such 

 work is of real value to the world. If the professors are to have time, 

 it can only be by giving them a number of assistants who will relieve 

 them of all the details of laboratory instruction, and possibly the ele- 

 mentary lectures. More advanced work could probably be secured by 

 having one professor with a number of assistants than by two pro- 

 fessors without any assistants, provided they both have to give labora- 

 tory instruction, as is probable. In a paper which I read to the society 

 at its last meeting, I stated incidentally that one assistant was not 

 enough for a class of thirty or forty men. I did not dwell on the 

 subject at the time, as it was only indirectly related to the question 

 then discussed ; but since then a number of persons have expressed 

 their regrets that I had not put the case more strongly, for they re- 

 garded an increase in the number of assistants as essential to good 

 instruction and Avork. It is desirable that there should be an assistant 

 for every twelve students in a laboratory, and it is necessary that there 

 should be one for every twenty men if the work is to be well done. 

 If there are forty students and one assistant, then the professor himself 

 must act as an assistant to twenty of the men, and that means cutting 



