CHAPTER XXVII 

 SCIENTIFIC RELATIONS: 1901 -1910 



DECREASING RELATIONS WITH SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 



Following the turn of the century Gilbert 's relation to scientific societies gradually decreased ; 

 he held few offices in them in later years because he had been president of most of them in 

 earlier years. Nearly all of his communications during the later period were on relatively 

 small subjects, briefly but keenly treated; and after a serious illness in 1909 he absented himself 

 from all scientific gatherings. Previous to this withdrawal, the Philosophical Society of 

 Washington heard him speak in 1902 on "Flotation and fiords," a problem suggested by his 

 visit to Alaska with the Harriman expedition and here already treated in the account of that 

 journey; in the same year he spoke also on the "Mechanism of volcanoes," and in the year 

 following on the "Feasibility of measuring tides and currents at sea." The first of the last 

 two topics was published in abstract, 1 and seems to have led to a second article 2 in which the 

 fairness of Gilbert 's nature is well revealed. He there said that he had inadvertently introduced 

 as his own in the first article an idea proposed by another writer concerning the origin of a volcanic 

 feature — the spine of Mont Pel6e — but had afterward discovered that he must have unwittingly 

 borrowed it. He frankly states: "As I find interest in the mental processes of my blunder, 

 I venture to relate what I suppose to be its history"; and he then explains that he must have 

 read the idea in question somewhere and held the ghost of it unconsciously in mind; for he 

 recalls that when writing his own article he had a faint suspicion that his idea might have 

 come from some outside source, and that this suspicion had led him to N search through all the 

 pertinent articles that he could find in hopes of discovering the origin of the idea; but he had 

 overlooked the right article. 



Thus a mentali impression too faint for complete identification, now that attention is directed to it, never- 

 theless rose into consciousness with the semblance of an original idea, and gave rise to a distinctly plagiaristic 

 publication. 



After the new century opened, Gilbert's relation to the Washington Academy of Sciences 

 was practically limited to the part that he took at a meeting held in February, 1903, in com- 

 memoration of his long-time chief, Major Powell, his share being an account of Powell's work 

 as a geologist. 3 But the words that he then spoke as well as the sketches of Powell 's life that 

 he published elsewhere 4 are, after his habit — one might say according to his principles — almost 

 wholly impersonal ; the rich fund of reminiscence by which the scientific content of the sketches 

 might have been agreeably leavened was not drawn upon; and thus science lost the record of 

 many an incident which would have thrown upon Powell 's nature quite as bright a light as was 

 shed by the account of his work as an explorer, an administrator, and an ethnologist. It is 

 truly lamentable that inner views of the steps taken by the director of the national survey 

 in developing that great organization and narratives of many illuminating incidents that must 

 have been interwoven with its development were not recorded by his intimate associate who, 

 first as his chosen counsellor and later as his chief geologist, had close personal knowledge of 

 every item of progress. One passage, however, in which Gilbert revealed Powell's scientific 

 generosity may be here quoted, because it is equally applicable to Gilbert himself: 



Phenomenally fertile in ideas, he was absolutely free in their communication, with the result that many of 

 his suggestions — a number which never can be known — were unconsciously appropriated by his associates, 

 and incorporated in their published results. 



' The mechanism of the Mont Pelcfe spine. Science, xix, 1904, 927-928. 

 1 A case of plagiarism. Science, xx, 1904, 115. 

 ' Powell as a geologist. Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., v, 1903, 113-118. 



' John Wesley Powell. Science, xvi, 1902, 561-567; reprinted with revision in Ann. Rept. Smithson. Inst., 1902, 633-640. John Wesley Powell, 

 The investigator. Open Court, xvii, 1903, 228-239, 281-290. The promoter of research. Ibid., 342-347. 



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