INTRODUCTION 5;: 



danger in demanding immediate returns from research — i.e., 

 research of the so-called planned variety — is that it destroys cer- 

 tain powerful incentives and leads to a creeping paralysis in gen- 

 uine experimentation. Most pioneering investigations are bedev- 

 iled by one obstacle after another. This certainly holds true for 

 the majority of attempts to obtain new types of algae in pure 

 culture. Yet the very existence of these diflSculties indicates the 

 possibility that such organisms, once brought into cultivation, 

 can be used for studying metabolites or the adaptations for life 

 under unusual conditions; these opportunities would escape no- 

 tice or the phenomena in question would be inaccessible to 

 experiment if work were restricted to well-established laboratory 

 organisms. It is the invaluable service of a pioneer investigator 

 such as E. G. Pringsheim that he has, despite formidable tech- 

 nical difficulties, succeeded in culturing many strains of algae 

 belonging to unfamiliar groups and has generously made his 

 cultures available to all interested workers, instead of following 

 the popular course, successful over a short term, of studying 

 familiar variables in familiar organisms. 



It may be wondered what it is that engenders perseverance 

 despite these uncertain returns. The career of Beijerinck, as de- 

 scribed in the memorial by van Iterson, den Dooren de Jong, 

 and Kluyver (1940), is instructive. Beijerinck, a many-sided gen- 

 ius who was the first to obtain pure cultures of algae, had, as the 

 most marked trait of his scientific personality, a passion for ex- 

 periment. But also, in the words of his biographers, he was ". . . 

 apparently attracted by those microbes which display beautiful 

 colours in their cultures. . .," and "the blue-green sheen of the 

 cultures of luminous bacteria may be at least pardy responsible 

 for the persistency with which Beijerinck studied these organ- 

 isms." His biographers conjecture, furthermbre, that Beijerinck's 

 sense of smell may have led him to study organisms producing 

 attractive or in other ways characteristic odors, as for instance the 

 ester-forming yeasts. The physical beauty of many algae, and the 

 intellectual appeal of the problems which they illuminate, effec- 

 tively join in counteracting much discouragement in experiment; 

 it may be well to be reminded that scientific investigators are 



