SYMPOSIUM ON SCIENCE AND RECONSTRUCTION 29 



zoologT, a student is obligated to spend at least seven 

 years in training beyond the completion of the high-school 

 course and to reach an age of 25 or 26 years before becom- 

 ing in any degree self-supporting. All must realize that 

 the present salaries paid to members of our teaching staffs 

 are so inadequate as to deter men from entering upon the 

 career unless they are in possession of private means and 

 are moved by an overwhelming desire to devote themselves 

 to this tield of work. Once that the supply of trained 

 workers is reduced, it will require considerable time to re- 

 store it to proper dimensions because of the time element 

 in vol ted. 



During the war period zoology has not experienced the 

 same stimulating effects that have influenced the develop- 

 ment of chemistry and physics, for its relation to practical 

 aspects of warfare are not so direct and so striking. It 

 would be wrong, however, to pass over the indirect influ- 

 ence which has been exerted upon it by the general stimula- 

 tion of war conditions, and the need for efficient workers 

 and dependable work. It is not too much to say that every 

 worker in scientific fields has been impressed with the 

 necessity of pushing his investigations as rapidly as pos- 

 sible and securing the maximum results with the time and 

 energy at his disposal. The drive of the war, which has 

 influenced greatly every phase of human activity, has been 

 to a considerable extent free from the serious effects of 

 pressure under other conditions by reason of the exacting 

 demand for precision and accuracy, and the rigid test to 

 which all the results have been put before they were 

 utilized in a practical way. This increased intensity of 

 effort and emphasis upon the quality of results achieved 

 has, I think, been evident in every field and constitutes a 

 helpful influence for the development of zoological research 

 in the future as well as in the immediate present. The 

 standards necessarily set in war work will serve a good 

 purpose for the development of science in the next period 

 of its activity. 



The universal emphasis upon the conservation of natural 

 resources, including human life, and upon the application 

 of discoveries to the elimination of every possible waste and 

 the development of every obtainable advantage in the 

 struggle, has exercised a specific and important influence 

 upon zoology, even though biological work had a less 

 immediate bearing upon the situation than did the work in 



