210 Perspecfives in Microbiology 



Should one decide upon such promising young investi- 

 gators, one should think at once of the admonition given 

 by Charles Richet in his Natural History of a Savant: 

 "Young man, if you would discover a new truth, do not 

 seek to know what use will be made of it. Do not ask in 

 what way medicine or commerce or industry may profit 

 by the discovery; for if you do, you will discover nothing 

 at all. You wish to find a solution to a problem that you 

 consider important: tackle the problem without worrying 

 about the consequences. Attack the question on its simplest 

 side. Do not be stopped by the criticisms of journalists, 

 hygienists, engineers, chemists, doctors. Let them talk. Go 

 straight to the problem by the shortest road. Leave to 

 practitioners the cumbersome care of consequences and 

 industrial applications. Veritas lucet ipsa per se. Truth is 

 sufficient unto itself." 



One must not forget that the time when a Faraday could 

 make a great discovery merely by using a piece of string 

 and copper wire and working in a cellar has long passed. 

 The modern chemical and biological laboratories require 

 expensive equipment. The research problem frequently 

 involves the collaboration of several investigators and cer- 

 tainly that of the senior investigator and his assistants, the 

 teacher with his long and varied experience and the stu- 

 dent who has come to be taught and guided and to benefit 

 from such experience. 



The question frequently arises as to how to distribute 

 the credit for a new discovery, a new fact, a new observa- 

 tion. Some investigators will credit their assistants merely 

 by footnotes on scientific papers; others will exert every 

 effort to encourage their students, inspire them and stimu- 

 late them further to select research careers, and in doing 

 so, may not only add their names to the scientific papers, 

 but even place them first. In most cases, the results of the 

 second practice are entirely satisfactory. Often, however, 

 the consequences are most unexpected. How should one 



