228 Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [vol. ix 



Surely when Emperors, Professors, Manufacturers, foremen and 

 even halting apprentices, say there is need for improvement, we must 

 grapple with the question and master it. It is useless, however, to think 

 that there are no difficulties, and serious difficulties, in the way of Research. 



Almost all the principles dealt with in our search are included in 

 Chemistry and Physics — ^with, in some special departments, the prin- 

 ciples of Biology. These sciences deal with the most intricate problems 

 and the most recondite principles of the world in which we live. Nature 

 presents the most complicated of her puzzles to us in the commonest 

 things of life. The seemingly simple problem of the sustenance of the 

 growing plant in the soil involves the deepest processes of Chemistry, 

 Physics and Bacteriology. 



The questions of Animal Husbandry include deep problems of life 

 and of physiological chemistry. The common health of the people 

 brings us face to face with the unseen agencies that threaten our very 

 existence, while the foundry, the mine and the blast furnace present pro- 

 cesses which so often go wrong and baffle the most competent of experts. 

 Every science is simply the attempt to know some phase of nature pre- 

 senting its most perplexing complications in the ordinary course of life, 

 progress, and Industry. Now, if this be a true view of our environment, 

 it is plain that we are in a world full of mysteries, some of which we may 

 to some extent penetrate, others that will remain unsolved. This being 

 so, it will appear that not alone splendid laboratories, not high-sounding 

 titles, not alone institutions posing as practical centres, can guarantee 

 successful research, for a very observant American Scientist has said 

 "a great deal of unimportant work masquerades under the name of Re- 

 search." In a letter written to me by Dr. McLaurin, the distinguished 

 President of the Massachusetts School of Technology, there occurs the 

 following sentence: " I need hardly say to you that almost the only equip- 

 ment that really counts for much in scientific research is the equipment 

 in Men." 



We may say of the true man of Research — in a more earnest sense 

 than old Lucian used the expression: "outos ekeinos" — that is the man! 



While of course every system may be faulty, and while even the 

 best system may not always supply the inventive, penetrating, perse- 

 vering and intense qualities needed by the man of research, yet, as a 

 general requirement such a man, following the best models, should have: 



1. A thorough Primary and Secondary Education. 



2. Training in a modern University, where the Science Option has 

 been fully followed, or in a Technical College of University rank, in either 

 case among students under competent science professors and where the 

 aspirant has completed satisfactorily a practical science course. 



