RELATIONS OF RESEARCH TO INVENTION. 545 



another, each attacking that corner of the unknown which most 

 attracts his fancy. All are ambitious to accomplish great results, 

 each one hopes to make some discovery of signal importance ; and 

 so the drier and less attractive details of investigation are often- 

 times neglected. The field is cut up into many fields, between which 

 the ground is uncultivated, and there no harvest is gathered. To 

 systematize research, to bring about co-operation, to put the art 

 of discovery itself more truly upon a scientific basis, is a problem 

 for the future. In the final solution of this problem the practical 

 inventor may help. The wealth created by invention should serve 

 as the organizer. The law of mechanics that action and reaction 

 are equal and opposite, applies to human affairs as well as to 

 physical forces. Hence, since scientific discovery makes invention 

 possible, it is clear that the inventor owes something to science in 

 return. That some of the harvest should go back to its source as 

 seed is not an unreasonable expectation. Indeed, it is justified by 

 history ; and if we trace back to their origin the endowments of 

 our universities, we shall find that the successful inventors have 

 done their fair share. What more is needed, and on what new 

 lines ? 



In the science of astronomy this question is partly answered 

 already. Every endowed observatory is an institution for re- 

 search, and outside of that the observers have little else to do. 

 They are employed primarily to gather and discuss data, the raw 

 material of science, and all other duties are secondary. In the 

 solution of large problems several observatories may co-operate, 

 each taking a definite and prescribed portion of the field ; and so 

 the science grows symmetrically, with fewer gaps than exist in 

 other departments of knowledge. Perfection of work, complete- 

 ness in the absolute sense of the term, is of course unattainable, 

 but to that ideal within the limits of its province astronomy ap- 

 proaches most nearly. By its example the other sciences may 

 profit. 



Now, for chemistry and physics institutions should be organ- 

 ized resembling in policy the astronomical observatories. I mean, 

 of course, endowed laboratories for research, in which the greater 

 problems could be effectively handled, and important data deter- 

 mined with the highest accuracy. The more precise and at the 

 same time the most difficultly measurable physical constants are 

 of direct value to industrial science, and their determination 

 should not be left to the caprice or convenience of individuals. 

 They represent routine work of the most tedious kind ; their 

 measurement involves the highest degree of skill and the most 

 elaborate resources, and they are the foundation-stones of exact 

 theory. They are needed by pure and applied science alike ; and 

 yet, under existing conditions, their determination is but scantily 



vol. xxxix. 38 



