GENERAL OBSERVATIONS: ON THE ETHICS OF RESEARCH 649 



to consider for a few moments the ethics of our conduct as re- 

 lated to other scientific men, past, present and future. 



Credit to Earlier Workers. — From a single person, discovery 

 seldom comes full-fledged, like Minerva from the brain of Jove ! 

 Usually there are dim beginnings to which various men have 

 contributed, and all of these, so far as they are real experimental 

 contributions, should be cited by the man who is last to publish, 

 that the historic development may be plain. Indeed, it is im- 

 perative that he should do so if he would avoid one or other of 

 two inferences: (1) ignorance; (2) dishonesty. I will admit that 

 to the uninitiated it makes an author seem more important, if 

 no previous literature is cited in his book or bulletin or paper, 

 since then he may be supposed to have done it all by himself, and 

 this probably has been the incentive to some flagrant cases of 

 omission, but a moment's reflection will show anyone that such 

 a procedure is a very short-sighted one, particularly if the man 

 desires the respect of his fellow- workers and of intelligent laymen, 

 who also soon learn the true state of the case. 



Begin your work, therefore, with a firm determination to be 

 honest, and before you have gone very deep into any subject 

 search out the hterature of it and prepare a proper bibliography. 

 Do this in a workmanlike manner, citing in full — author, title, 

 place of publication, year, volume and page, and make it chrono- 

 logical not alphabetical. A chronological bibliography shows 

 the development of a subject at a glance and this is what the 

 student desires to know, or should desire to know, since this is 

 the historical method. Your readers will thank you earnestly 

 for full citation, and, on the other hand, will curse you, if you 

 carelessly refer them to places where the article is not to be found, 

 or where it can be found only after prolonged search, generally 

 in time that can be ill-spafed for it. Many a day have I wasted 

 trying to run down slovenly bibliographical references, and hence 

 I write with some feeling. Every author owes certain things 

 to his readers and this is one of them. It is so easy for you to 

 fix a citation right when you have the volume and page before 

 your eyes and so difficult for another to verify it when he has 

 only some bunghng assininity as his guide. 



You must know the literature of your subject, whatever else 



