534 Remarks on Research [April-July 



qualified for a position in the graduate school. The use of grad- 

 uate students to promote the interest of the teacher is simply a type 

 of scholarly graft which we may call the promoter graft. More- 

 over, it is one of the most despicable types in existence, in view of 

 the fact that it affects those who have not yet formed strong 

 scholarly habits. (Miller: Science^ 1914, xxxix, pp. 810-812.) 



Important advances in knowledge are far more likely to issue 

 f rom the expert than from the inexpert in research. 



It should he esteemed one of the highest attainable objects of any 

 Institution to assist in the production of investigators whom other 

 institutions are glad to off er desirahle or superior opportunities. 



As a matter of fact and of justice it must be admitted that the 

 aggregate of high-class work of research accomplished by the 

 bureaus of the United States government in recent decades compares 

 very favorably with the corresponding aggregate accomplished by 

 educational and other establishments of our country during the 

 same period. We who labor in the latter establishments, therefore, 

 have no adequate reason to suppose that our reputations may be 

 much improved by invidious reflections on the methods in science 

 f ollowed by men who happen to live " in Washington." Here again 

 it is useful to rememher that we and they belong to the same species. 



There appears to be prevalent a populär fallacy to the efifect that 

 writers untrammeled by competent scholarship, but who possess 

 verbal facility, are better qualified to expound a technical subject 

 than those who have developed it or contributed thereto. 



We need first to recognize that in its inclusive aspects research 

 is in scope coextensive with the universe of which we form an 

 insignificant part, but in which we are obliged to play the significant 

 role of Interpreters if we would make the best of our opportunities. 

 The experience of our race has demonstrated that by study and 

 hence by understanding of this universe the roads to progress may 

 be found. The methods of research are the methods of science. 



