LABORATORY ENDOWMENT. 731 



of research arise from a misconception of what is really intended. 

 It is ordinarily assumed that such endowments would merely pro- 

 vide large salaries and abundant leisure for certain scientific men, 

 who, with no clearly-defined duties, and no distinct relation to each 

 other, should try experiments at their own sweet will, and make dis- 

 coveries whenever luck and chance were favorable. Such a vague 

 plan for aiding science would of course be objectionable. Not only 

 might the so-called "young men of promise" become deprived of 

 energy by the ease of such positions, but even experienced workers 

 would be liable to regard their salaries as the means of comfort with- 

 out hard labor, or as a reward for past achievements. The money 

 thus expended might advance science a little, but probably not so much 

 as if it were paid over to some first-rate college or scientific school. 

 Science is not to be truly encouraged by the creation of mere sine- 

 cures for scientific men. To construct an argument, however, against 

 such a plan as the one mentioned, would only be to demolish a very 

 clumsy man of very coarse straw. A true laboratory for research is 

 something quite different from the feather-bed institution commonly 

 objected to. 



That there should be facilities for research, and that the investi- 

 gator deserves a livelihood, nobody will deny. Indeed, these two 

 points form an almost conclusive argument in favor of the endow- 

 ment of laboratories. There is yet another consideration of very 

 great force with which the public mind is less familiar. Both in 

 chemistry and in physics there are many unsolved problems too great 

 for individual students to grapple. Their solution can be effected 

 ouly by the cooperation of many trained specialists, working harmo- 

 niously together upon the basis of some definite plan. The funda- 

 mental principles of physical science, principles upon which rest many 

 applications important in the arts, and in which every manufacturer 

 has a direct although too frequently unconscious interest, are to be 

 eventually based upon the answers to these problems. In many a 

 branch of industry thousands of dollars have been spent upon sci- 

 entific experiments, which, for want of fundamental principles, have 

 been aimless and unsystematic. Mere tentative trials, costly and 

 laborious, with almost even chances for and against success, have 

 taken the place of rigorous, careful, strictly scientific work, based 

 upon definite and certain foundations. In short, the arts have suf- 

 fered from the fact. that neither chemistry nor physics can yet claim 

 to be really an exact science. The question of the endowment of 

 research, then, may well be put in this shape. Laboratories should 

 be established in which adequate corps of thorough specialists shall 

 cooperate in those investigations which individuals cannot undertake. 



In a laboratory organized upon this idea, every worker should be 

 assigned to definite, positive duties, the accurate and careful perform- 

 ance of which would eventually be sure to advance exact knowledge. 



