526 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, l&i6. 



So much has already been said and so much remams to be said 

 urging upon us the importance of scientific research conducted for 

 the sake of utility and for increasing the convenience and comfort of 

 mankind that there is danger of losing sight of another form of re- 

 search which has for its primary object none of these things. I refer 

 to pure scientific research. 



In the minds of many there is confusion between industrial scien- 

 tific research and this purely scientific research, particularly as the 

 industrial research involves the use of advanced scientific methods 

 and calls for the highest degree of scientific attainment. The con- 

 fusion is worse because the same scientific principles and methods of 

 investigation are frequently employed in each case and even the sub- 

 ject matter under investigation may sometimes be identical. 



The misunderstanding arises from considering only the subject 

 matter of the two classes of research. The distinction is to be found 

 not in the subject matter of the research, but in the motive. 



The electrical engineer, let us say, finding a new and unexplained 

 difficulty in the working of electric lamps, subjects the phenomenon 

 observed to a process of inquiry employing scientific methods, with a 

 view to removing from the lamps an objectionable characteristic. 

 The pure scientist at the same time investigates in precisely the same 

 manner the same phenomenon, but with the purpose of obtaining an 

 explanation of a physical occurrence, the nature of which can not 

 be explained by known facts. Although these two researches are con- 

 ducted in exactly the same manner, the one nevertheless comes under 

 the head of industrial research and the other belongs to the domain 

 of pure science. In the last analysis the distinction between pure 

 scientific research and industrial scientific research is one of motive. 

 Industrial research is always conducted with the purpose of accom- 

 plishing some utilitarian end. Pure scientific research is conducted 

 with a philosophic purpose, for the discovery of truth, and for the 

 advancement of the boundaries of human knowledge. 



The investigator in pure science may be likened to the explorer 

 who discovers new continents or islands or hitherto unknown ter- 

 ritory. He is continually seeking to extend the boundaries of 

 knowledge. 



The investigator in industrial research may be compared to the 

 pioneers who survey the newly discovered territory in the endeavor 

 to locate its mineral resources, determine the extent of its forests, 

 and the location of its arable land, and who in other ways precede 

 the settlers and prepare for their occupation of the new country. 



The work of the pure scientists is conducted without any utili- 

 tarian motive, for, as Huxley says, "that which stirs their pulses is 

 the love of knowledge and the joy of discovery of the causes of 

 things sung by the old poet — the supreme delight of extending the 



