40 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION 



to pass upon all plans for buildings and other appointments needed 

 for research, to recommend the apportionment of funds to research, 

 to buildings, to equipment and to other purposes, to supervise the 

 publication of results, and in general to represent the executive 

 committee in the expert administration of the investigations and of 

 the provisions therefor. They should make such reports to the 

 executive committee as the committee ma}^ direct. 



It is important that the relations between the executive com- 

 mittee and the directory should be as simple as practicable, and 

 that responsibility should be definitely located, and the proper 

 powers for meeting responsibility should be granted. It is, there- 

 fore, suggested that the directory be made responsible for the sub- 

 allotment of such funds as may be appropriated to the several 

 researches. These will inevitably sometimes exceed and sometimes 

 fall short of the estimates made, and in order to secure the best 

 results, the plans adopted will often require modification in the 

 course of their execution. It is obvious that provision should be 

 made for as large a use of scientific discretion in the carrying out 

 of the project as is practicable ; especially is this true at the outset, 

 when plans should remain in large measure plastic. In the deter- 

 mination of investigations to be undertaken, and especially in the 

 construction and the manning of the laboratories a slow and con- 

 servative course should be followed. Buildings should only be 

 constructed after an exhaustive study of existing laboratories, and 

 a careful consideration of the most promising lines of research. 

 At the outset only those men should be given places in the labora- 

 tor}^ who by their services or by their qualities have showm them- 

 selves eminently capable of fruitfully carrying on the investigations 

 desired. The relations between the investigations to be taken up 

 in the laboratory and the investigations to be taken up in other 

 laboratories or in the field must be carefully considered individu- 

 ally and collectively, and be so arranged as to be mutually as helpful 

 as possible. 



It is inadvisable to map out beforehand a hard and fast apportion- 

 ment of funds to buildings, equipment and researches. Such an 

 apportionment should be reached step by step as the enterprise de- 

 velops and the plans approve themselves in actual results. It 

 would seem therefore best that general allotments based upon esti- 

 mates by the directory should be" made for the researches and that 

 the sub-apportionment of these should be left to the directory. For 

 example, if a round sum were set apart to cover buildings, equip- 



