1914] Editoriais 533 



already demonstrated to us fundamental results by means as strik- 

 ingly simple. To Loeb the problem of the universe is soluble in a 

 finger-bowl ; to Morgan in a milk-jar; and we must never forget 

 that the importance of a result is often inversely proportional to the 

 complication of the apparatus by which it was attained. With these 

 examples before us, let us avoid the pitfall of bright glass and shin- 

 ing metal. (Parker: Science, 1914, xxxix, pp. 381-384.) 



Love of knowledge, not love of renown, is the ideal incentive for 

 investigation. The ideal investigator is not the man who says to 

 himself : " I am going to become an investigator," but rather the 

 man who becomes deeply interested in a subject and is unable to find 

 in the literature the things he is anxious to know. He is thus 

 forced by a desire for more knowledge to become an investigator. 



Ideal research is free research. On the other band, f raternal re- 

 lations imply fraternal obligations. The great army of investiga- 

 tors is composed mainly of generals. Only a few are willing to 

 serve in any other capacity after announcing by means of a doctor's 

 degree, or by some scientific publication, that they have leamed to 

 walk alone. It is true that many of them were supported by the 

 kindly band of their teacher during this first Walking exhibition and 

 some of these never learn to walk alone; but, nevertheless, they too 

 often want to he generals or nothing in the army of the investigators. 



A kind of scholarly graft which is still too common is connected 

 with the assignment of suhjects for graduate theses. Some instruct- 

 ors, on meeting a problem which involves an unusual amount of 

 drudgery, seem to regard it as legitimate to lay such a problem aside 

 until they can find a Student who will take it as a thesis subject. 

 There is no surer way to kill all research ambition on the part of 

 the Student, nor is there a surer way to secure his permanent disre- 

 spect for the teacher and the subject. 



It is simply another expression of the ignohle spirit which leads 

 some men to regard the young and helpless as their legitimate prey. 

 The teacher who does not do his best to find attractive and far reach- 

 ing theses subjects for his graduate students is certainly not ideally 



