16 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



RESEARCHES OF INSTITUTION. 



Nearly thirteen years have now elapsed since the foundation 

 of the Institution in 1902. A majority of the larger departments 



Some Lessons ^^ rescarch established under the direct auspices 

 from Experience, of the Institution have been effectively at work 

 for about a decade ; while investigations of numerous individuals, 

 primarily connected mostly with academic and other organiza- 

 tions, have been promoted for an approximately equal period of 

 time. Thus, although this must be regarded as a very short 

 interval in the career of an establishment whose history should 

 be measured by centuries, it has been long enough to afford sur- 

 prisingly large opportunities for the development of ideas and 

 ideals concerning the conduct of research. In addition to the 

 necessarily limited number of investigations actually undertaken 

 by the Institution, it has entertained proposals for research in 

 nearly every imaginable field of abstract thought and of applied 

 knowledge. If under these circumstances the Institution has not 

 learned something of the wisdom which is said to arise from ex- 

 perience, lack of abundance thereof can not be properly assigned 

 as a reason for so obvious a lapse. An adequate account of this 

 very extensive and very complex experience, which, while over- 

 loaded wdth the manifest and the impracticable, is yet rich in 

 applicable instruction, may not be attempted here; an appro- 

 priate objective treatment would require a separate volume and 

 another author. But it may be useful to contemporaries to set 

 down here a few salient propositions, which, like those stated 

 formally in my report for 1912, have been amply verified. 



Thus, as regards research and the conditions favorable thereto, 

 it is in evidence — 



1. That it is inimical to progress to look upon research as akin 

 to occultism and especially inimical to mistake able investigators 

 for abnormal men. Successful research requires neither any 

 peculiar conformity nor anj' peculiar deformity of mind. It 

 requires, rather, peculiar normality and unusual patience and 

 industry. 



2. That fruitful research entails, in general, prolonged and 

 arduous if not exhausting labor, for which all of the investi- 



