19171 EDITORIAL. 105 



been made. The dean may have an executive clerk who looks out 

 for correspondence, the handling of requisitions and bills, follows 

 up the budget, keeps track of manuscripts for publication, and simi- 

 lar routine matters, but in onl}'^ two or three instances has a technical 

 associate been provided to maintain a contact with the workers, give 

 the station coherence, follow its needs, and aid in shaping its course 

 as a distinct branch of the institution. 



One evidence of deficient administration and inadequate attention 

 is the tendency for the work of a station to become in a certain sense 

 stereotyped. Lines or projects which have been established are 

 allowed to continue from year to year for a long time without critical 

 examination as to their actual progress or the promise they offer 

 of successful outcome. In some cases there may be a failure of the 

 leaders to give the data and the experiments the critical, thoughtful 

 study from year to 3'ear that is needed — a failure to measure the 

 actual progress from one season or one stage to another, or to ascer- 

 tain whether the method of procedure which is followed is proving 

 adequate to the original purpose and the need. This may result in 

 mainly routine procedure, lacking the vital force of research. For, 

 as has been said, " neither logic without observation, nor observation 

 without logic, can move one step in the formation of science." 



There are some indications that we are mainlj'^ marking time in 

 certain lines of investigation, and especially in some of the projects, 

 because the end of the resources has apparently been reached for 

 the time being. Some things can not be successfully attacked or 

 worked out because the necessary stage of scientific knowledge has 

 not yet been reached. A new inspiration or, in some cases, another 

 set of postulates is needed to rid the work of being superficial and 

 ineffective. There is a failure to acloiowledge such limitations or 

 to be guided by the wealmesses of the undertaking. Projects whose 

 plan and method are apparently not competent, and which are not 

 being strengthened by new features or by a division of the problem, 

 are continued from year to year in a hope that the accumulation of 

 data without change may eventually shed some light. This is one 

 of the first evidences of lack of critical supervision, or of lack of 

 time on the part of the leader to examine his results and his method 

 critically. 



Such activity is unproductive because it is unprogressive in plan 

 and unconstructive in results. The first essential of research is a 

 theory, an hypothesis on which a plan of attack is devised and a 

 method worked out. If the theory does not prove sound or the 

 method adequate, new ones need to be devised. There is a waste of 

 time and funds unless there is an effort to determine, to the best of 

 -the investigator's judgment, whether the theory and the method are 



