THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



285 



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 

 AND ITS SECRETARY 



The regents of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution at their annual meeting on 

 January 23 elected Dr. Charles D. Wal- 

 cott to succeed the late Samuel Pier- 

 pont Langley as secretary of the insti- 

 tution. Born in New York State in 

 1850, Dr. Walcott became assistant in 

 the Geological Survey of the state in 

 1876, passing to the U. S. Geological 

 Survey in 1879. In 1894 he succeeded 

 Major Powell as director of the na- 

 tional survey, which under his admin- 

 istration has enjoyed an unprecedented 

 development, the annual appropriation 

 by congress for its work being in the 

 neighborhood of $1,500,000. The survey 

 has been criticized for bureaucratic 

 methods, for trespassing on fields occu- 

 pied by other geologists and for turn- 

 ing out a vast amount of routine work 

 rather than discoveries of the highest 

 order. To this it is replied that the 

 efficiency of a government bureau, espe- 

 cially one that is rapidly developing, 

 requires adequate business manage- 

 ment, that the spirit of cooperation 

 and research in the survey is excellent, 

 that when a new institution develops 

 on a large scale a certain amount of 

 temporary conflict of interests is in- 

 evitable, that the standing of geologists 

 in the survey is as high as of those in 

 the universities, that indeed in no 

 single science in any institution in the 

 world are there so many men engaged 

 in scientific research. 



When the Reclamation Service was 

 established by the congress, its exten- 

 sive work in irrigation was placed un- 

 der the Geological Survey, and it has 

 been carried forward with an efficiency 

 and economy comparing most favorably 

 with the conditions on the Isthmian 



Canal. When the service was well or- 

 ganized it was separated from the sur- 

 vey. On the organization of the Car- 

 negie Institution, Dr. Walcott became 

 secretary, and was responsible for a 

 large share of the administrative work. 

 He, however, withdrew from this posi- 

 tion after Dr. Woodward's election to 

 the presidency. He was also for a 

 short time acting-assistant secretary of 

 the Smithsonian Institution in charge 

 of the National Museum, and has been 

 since 1892 honorary curator of paleon- 

 tology in the museum. 



Dr. Walcott was vice-president of the 

 American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science in 1903, has been presi- 

 dent of the Washington Academy of 

 Sciences since 1899 and became a mem- 

 ber of the National Academy of Sci- 

 ences in 1896. He has received the doc- 

 torate of laws from Hamilton, Chicago, 

 Johns Hopkins and Pennsylvania. He 

 has become eminent for his researches 

 on the stratigraphy and paleontology 

 of the lower Paleozoic formation and 

 the sedimentation, stratigraphy and 

 contained faunas of the Cambrian 

 formation. 



The acceptance of the secretaryship 

 of the Smithsonian Institution involves 

 unusual responsibilities. It is gener- 

 ally regarded as the highest scientific 

 office in the country; indeed it is pos- 

 sible that a too obvious halo has been 

 painted about the head of the secre- 

 tary. The organization of the insti- 

 tution is such as to give to him 

 great, perhaps undue, powers. The 

 regents are the vice-president and the 

 chief justice of the United States, six 

 congressmen and six citizens. They 

 have, as a rule, met for an hour or two 

 once a year to listen to the report of 

 the secretary; they have neither time 

 nor competence to direct the policy of 



