ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON GEOPHYSICS 69 



work during term time, I had 110 opportunity to occupy myself with 

 the matter in such detail as its importance deserved. 



I fully agree with you in holding that the phj^sics of the higher 

 temperatures in particular is a field of the greatest importance for 

 the theory of all physical and chemical processes on the one hand, 

 and, on the other hand, particularly apt to throw new light on 

 many questions of geophysics. Furthermore, we are here dealing 

 with a subject which can hardly be dealt with by means of the 

 ordinary resources of laboratories, because it demands special 

 appliances. Of course it must be remembered that these excep- 

 tional requirements are demanded not only of the instrumental 

 equipment, but also of the experimenter himself; in other words, 

 a notable result can only be hoped for if the right men are found 

 for the execution of this difficult work. Fortunately, your country 

 possesses such investigators ; in particular, you have in Professor 

 Barus one of the foremost authorities in the field of high tem- 

 peratures. 



Having endeavored to answer your special inquiry, allow me, 

 Dear Sir, to add a few remarks of a more general nature which forced 

 themselves on my mind while reflecting on the magnificent institu- 

 tion which you are about to create. It seems to me that the 

 intentions of the generous founder might, perhaps, be most fittingly 

 carried out by the creation of an academy, organized on the whole 

 in a manner similar to the academies of the Old World, but yet, in 

 view of the abundant means at its disposal, differing from our 

 academies in one essential point. The members of our academies, 

 such as those of Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Gottingen, etc., are acade- 

 micians only incidentally. The academic position is solely an 

 honorary office, and in many cases hardly more than a mere decora- 

 tion. Your institution, it seems to me, would be in a position to 

 establish an academy constituted of investigators of the first rank, 

 who would be academicians and nothing else ; that is to say, they 

 would be so placed as to live exclusively for the interest of scientific 

 investigation. My idea is that a small circle of the most eminent 

 investigators might gather in Washington, composed of those whose 

 method requires a scientific laboratory, with a small outfit appro- 

 priate to their special mode of investigation. It may be remarked 

 that the cost of these laboratories would not be great compared to 

 the corresponding laboratories of universities, because in the latter 

 the larger part of the funds is devoted to instruction, not to investi- 

 gation, and for the same reason the proposed laboratories might for 



