SCIENCE, ART, AND EDUCATION — GIBSON 187 



Finally, the example of Kekule leads me to suggest a less funda- 

 mental but much easier step that can be taken to develop the imagi- 

 native powers of our scientists, namely the revival of the Wander jahr. 

 "Free yourselves from the spirit of tlie school," says Kekule; "you 

 will then be capable of doing something of your own." In these days 

 when fellowships are numerous, the obstacles to a young Ph. D. taking 

 a year off to wander around the centers of learning are not insuperable. 

 What is needed to facilitate such travel is a clearer realization by his 

 professors, or by those in a position to award fellowships, that the 

 ideas planted in the student's mind during a year of leisurely and 

 aimless wandering may bear abundant fruit later on, fruit whose 

 value in terms of original contributions to understanding may far 

 transcend that of a few routine papers laboriously ground out during 

 the tenure of a fellowship. It would simplify matters if one could 

 differentiate beforehand between those who could profit by a Wander- 

 jahr and those who would only waste it. We are not yet in this happy 

 position, but I feel that university professors have a real responsi- 

 bility in advising such a course to men who, in their judgment, are 

 promising. Even with a high percentage of failures, we would still 

 profit by granting fellowships for this purpose. 



EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH 



Now let us consider the habitat of basic scientific research with 

 special reference to the objectives, scope, and quality of basic scientific 

 research in educational and in technological organizations. In spite 

 of a prevailing impression to the contrary, pure scientific research is 

 not indigenous to the universities, although it has been one of their 

 prominent activities during the past five or six decades. In the early 

 days scientific inquiry was fostered by societies and carried on largely 

 by wealthy amateurs or by enthusiasts who could enlist the support 

 of a patron. We have only to recall such names as Bacon, Gilbert, 

 Boyle, Cavendish, Rumford, Franklin, Lavoisier, Priestley, Davy, 

 Faraday, Joule, Hooke, Napier, and Jeans, none of whom worked in 

 a university, to realize the truth of this statement. From the earliest 

 times, the primary objective of universities and colleges has been the 

 preparation of the youth for intellectual leadership in meeting the 

 problems of their day and generation. In striving toward this objec- 

 tive, the universities have properly followed a conservative policy, 

 introducing changes only when the educational value of new subjects 

 had been proved, or when problems of the day called urgently for 

 extension of the classical curriculum. Pioneering into new and un- 

 trodden regions of thought and experience has not been a dominant 

 characteristic of the universities, although from time to time excep- 

 tional individuals associated with them have blazed new trails. In- 



