50 



upon a certain number of trees throughout the season ; tlie work is 

 faithfully done and reported upon. The one directing the experiment 

 examines the results, rejects certain records that show strong evidence 

 of being abnormal or unusual, decides that certain observations will 

 have to be repeated another year, and finally tabulates the figures 

 and draws conclusions which he is willing to publish. The experi- 

 ment is his, and he alone is responsible for the results. If he wishes 

 to tell the world what part an assistant had to do in the woi-k, he can 

 do so, but the assistant has no just complaint if his name does not 

 appear in the published results, unless the value of the results is due 

 in considerable part to the originality or unusual qualifications of the 

 assistant. 



On the other hand, if the assistant in the progress of the work 

 shows unusual skill and makes original observations of an important 

 kind that were not anticipated in the i)lanning of the exjDeriment, and 

 are not the natural and logical result of carrying out the work as 

 l^lanned, it is but just that he should have credit for it. What that 

 credit should be will be determined by the importance or degree of 

 originality of the observations or experiments that have been made. 

 For example, an assistant is sent to keep records of worms taking 

 refuge under bands of certain apple trees during the summer. One 

 tree, apparently comparable with the others, gives a very much 

 smaller record of worms. The assistant, upon going to the orchard 

 just at the break of day one morning, finds ants capturing the worms 

 upon this tree and carrying them away, and then notices that the 

 nest from which these ants came is located near this tree. The obser- 

 vation is an independent one, not anticipated in the planning of tlie 

 experiment, and if used the assistant should be given credit, and a 

 mere mention of the fact, giving the assistant's name, is all that is 

 needed. Or an assistant is sent into the field to search for the native 

 food plants of an insect that is native to the locality, and which has 

 turned its attention to cultivated crops. The assistant is told %vhat 

 family of plants the insect is most likely to be found upon. He goes 

 and returns in a few hours with the desired information. It is likely 

 that his success is due largely to his knowledge of botany and a 

 knowledge as to what situations such plants would be found in. 

 While such a case ma}^ not be one that would demand special credit 

 being given, it is the opinion of the writer that it would be advisable 

 to give the assistant credit for his observation in way of a mere state- 

 ment of the fact. If in either of the above cases the assistant were 

 asked to make extensive observations his work might be of sufficient 

 impoi'tance to quote him directly or to offer him joint authorshiji in 

 a paper uj^on one of the insects treated. 



If a skilled assistant is asked to pursue a line of work for which he 

 has shown sj^ecial ability, the work being directed only partially or 

 not at all by the head of a department, such work may be the basis 



