Scientific Research and Public Health 23 



times. Some teaching is an advantage to an investigator, — probably a 

 great advantage, it keeps him from becoming too specialized and narrow 

 in his subject, but much of the administrative work is a pure waste of 

 energy and time with no compensatory advantages. And the worst 

 feature of it is that it constitutes the badge of authority. Because he 

 is the head the professor is the last court of appeal in all arrangements 

 connected with the running of the department, and it is astonishing how 

 numerous these details are and what a quantity of time it takes to set 

 them straight. If the professor is good at such things he is in a fair 

 way to be lost as an investigator — there is no end to the committee 

 meetings and consultations and conferences to which he will be invited — 

 all of which is very agreeable and useful but terribly destructive of time 

 and concentration of thought. Another characteristic of scientific 

 investigation that operates against its popularity as a career is the very 

 natural difificulty of getting the public to understand its results. Public 

 opinion can make a favourable or an unfavourable atmosphere for the 

 development of any kind of human activity. I do not know how it is 

 here but in the United States I should say that in general the atmosphere 

 is unfavourable to a career in science. The scientific worker as a rule 

 is held in small esteem by men of affairs, partly no doubt because he 

 earns a small income and therefore makes a small show as regards the 

 externalities of life. We are not so far advanced as to make many 

 exceptions to our general rule of judging a man's success and ability by 

 the financial return he enjoys. But the main difificulty doubtless lies 

 in the technical character of his work which makes it more or less in- 

 comprehensible to any one but a specialist. Scientific discoveries are not 

 usually amenable to an immediate practical application with an assured 

 money value, and yet that is quite generally the standard by which their 

 importance is estimated by the public. I recall that one of our large 

 universities determined upon one occasion to seek for an increased 

 endowment. The raising of the money was turned over to one of the 

 trustees. The plan that he evolved was to construct a list of the dis- 

 coveries made in the various laboratories. He intended to take the list 

 to a certain individual and by its aid to convince him that it would be 

 a good investment to add to the endowment of an institution showing 

 such useful productivity. The plan did not work out well — in fact it 

 did not work out at all. The trustee made the rounds of the labor- 

 atories and the professors explained what they had accomplished in the 

 way of scientific discoveries. It was a very creditable record. Much 

 had been done in the advancement of knowledge, but it did not meet 

 the main purpose of the inquiry, for there was little that could be shown 

 to have had an important application to the necessities or comforts of 



