A BIOLOGICAL STATION. 237 



far-reaching importance to research. It is lamentable to see 

 so much energy available for research lost or ineffective for 

 lack of proper directive coordination. The avalanche of modern 

 biological literature consists largely of scrappy, fragmentary, 

 disconnected products of a multitude of investigators, all work- 

 ing as so many independent individuals, each snatching what- 

 ever and wherever he can, and then dumping his heterogeneous 

 contributions into the common hodgepodge. How are we ever 

 to extricate ourselves from such appalling confusion.'' The 

 ambition to be prolific rather than sound is a peril against 

 which we seem to have no protection at present. And yet, if 

 I mistake not, there is a growing sentiment against such traffic 

 in science, which will eventually make it plain that ambition 

 in that direction spends itself in vain. A dozen or more dumps 

 a year, with as many or more retractions, corrections, and 

 supplements, is only a modest-sized ambition. Conclusions 

 are palmed upon the unsuspecting reader, and then, without 

 compunction or apology, reversed from day to day or from 

 month to month, or, worse still, in an appendix subjoined, so 

 that it may be seen how little it costs to be prolific when one 

 day's work cancels another. 



It behooves us to find effective remedies as rapidly as possi- 

 ble. The correction would be complete if each worker could 

 bridle his lust for notoriety and take the lesson of Darwin's 

 industry and reservation into his laboratory and study. The 

 outlook for such a millennial dispensation is not very hopeful, 

 and our resources are few and very inadequate, but all the more 

 deserving of attention. The great need is lofig-coiitinucd, con- 

 centrated, and coordinated icork. In a laboratory which draws 

 beginners in investigation in considerable numbers, it is possi- 

 ble to assign problems in such a way that the participants may 

 work in coordinate groups, and the problems be carried on 

 from year to year, and from worker to worker, each performing 

 his mite in conjunction and relation with the others of his 

 group. In this way energy would be utilized to the greatest 

 advantage to science, as well as to the individual. Even under 

 the very imperfect conditions represented at Wood's Holl, I 

 have found it possible to put this idea into practice to some 



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