EDITOR'S TABLE. 



845 



counting-room. In order that the results of 

 the survey may be accurate and trustworthy 

 the only results which are worth having 

 costly instruments must be bought and used, 

 and must afterward be thrown aside, because 

 other instruments are better, or because their 

 work is done. Still larger outlays are requi- 

 site, in order that elaborate and important 

 fundamental inquiries may be prosecuted by 

 men who are trained to exact scientific meth- 

 ods. A staff of learned and experienced in- 

 vestigators is absolutely essential to the con- 

 duct of such a national undertaking as the 

 Coast Survey. 



Nevertheless, all this scientific research is 

 appreciated by a very small number of per- 

 sons. Indeed, the more valuable it is, the 

 less obvious may be its merits. Every sea- 

 man knows the value of a good chart : not 

 every seaman, not every scholar, not every 

 statesman, knows the conditions by which a 

 good chart is produced. It is only the expert 

 who appreciates the subtile sources of error 

 which must be eliminated: he only knows 

 the infinitude of mathematical, physical, as- 

 tronomical, and geodetic problems, which are 

 involved in an endeavor to portray faithfully 

 such a coast-line as that of the United States, 

 and to keep the portrayal in accurate corre- 

 spondence with the changing sands. 



There is undoubted weight in the 

 consideration here urged that much of 

 the work of the Coast Survey is of a 

 kind that can be but imperfectly judged 

 by the public, and must be left to the 

 men of science, who can best appreci- 

 ate its desirableness and its difficulties. 

 This is also the ground taken by the 

 American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science in reviewing the sub- 

 ject. At their recent meeting in Ann 

 Arbor, Professor S. P. Langley pro- 

 posed the following series of resolutions, 

 which, after discussion, were passed 

 unanimously : 



Whereas, The attention of this Association 

 has been called to articles in the public press 

 purporting to give, and presumably by author- 

 ity, an official report of a commission ap- 

 pointed by the Treasury Department to in- 

 vestigate the condition of the United States 

 Coast-Survey Office, in which report the 

 value of certain scientific work is designated 

 as meager ; and 



Whereas, This Association desires to ex- 

 press a hope that the decision as to the utility 



of such scientific work may be referred to 

 scientific men : 



Resolved, That the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science is in earnest 

 sympathy with the Government in its every 

 intent to secure the greatest possible effi- 

 ciency of the public service. 



Resolved, That the value of the scientific 

 work performed in the various departments of 

 the Government can be best judged by scien- 

 tific men. 



Resolved, That this Association desires to 

 express its earnest approval of the extent 

 and high character of the work performed 

 by the United States Coast Survey, espe- 

 cially as illustrated by the gravity deter- 

 minations now in progress, and to express 

 the hope that such valuable work may not 

 be interrupted. 



Resolved, That this Association expresses 

 also the hope that the Government will not 

 allow any technical rule to be established that 

 shall necessarily confine its scientific work to 

 its own employes. 



Resolved, That in the opinion of the Amer- 

 ican Association for the Advancement of 

 Science the head of the Coast Survey should 

 have the highest possible standing among 

 scientific men, and should command their 

 entire confidence. 



Resolved, That copies of these resolutions 

 shall be prepared by the General Secretary 

 and certified to by the President of the As- 

 sociation and by the Permanent Secretary, 

 and shall be forwarded to the President of 

 the United States, the Secretary of the Treas- 

 ury, and given to the press. 



The subject was called up and acted 

 upon because of the recent arraignment 

 of the Coast Survey, as stated in the 

 first preamble. In the second the hope 

 is expressed that the decision in regard 

 to the utility of such work that is, 

 Coast Survey work may be left to sci- 

 entific men. But it will be observed 

 that the second resolution covers wider 

 ground, affirming that all " the scientific 

 work performed in the various depart- 

 ments of the Government can be best 

 judged by scientific men." 



Now, certainly, nothing can be more 

 true than that scientists are the best 

 judges of scientific work; and, as be- 

 tween these and the officials that are 

 over them, the case may be stated still 

 more emphatically. The successful pol- 



