420 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



upon which the great mass of the research interests of the 

 Council is based. They also represent the vast preponderance 

 of the personnel operating through the Council, for it is upon 

 the membership of the scientific and technical societies that 

 the Council is ultimately grounded, as has been explained in an 

 earlier paragraph. 



The informed reader will observe that these Divisions relate 

 in part to the pure sciences ; physics, chemistry, mathematics 

 are cases in point. In part, however, they reflect the interests 

 of applied science, as in the case of engineering, of chemical 

 technology, and to some extent each of the other Divisions. 

 The distinction between pure and applied science is one which 

 has been frequently debated, and upon which substantial di- 

 versity of opinion is still entertained. But from the point of 

 view of the conception upon which the work of the Council is 

 actually administered, this distinction may be regarded as al- 

 most wholly psychological in character. The worker in pure 

 science is seeking primarily to enlarge the field of knowledge, 

 and to gratify his own intellectual curiosities, whereas the 

 worker in applied science has as his motive the solution of 

 some concrete practical problem. Both men are scientists, and 

 both may be engaged in bona fide research of the utmost im- 

 portance. 



Despite the fact that the distinction just mentioned is from 

 the theoretical point of view of relatively secondary conse- 

 quence, its practical aspects give it great significance, and this 

 fact has been explicitly recognized in the organization of the 

 Council, as will be pointed out in a moment. 



In view of the exposition in the opening paragraphs of the 

 actual extant conditions surrounding scientific research in this 

 country, it will be readily appreciated that the scientific work 

 of the Divisions already described must be intelligently related 

 to a considerable group of interests and agencies. To accom- 

 plish these results, the Council has established a group of six 

 so-called General Divisions designed to meet this need. 



I. Government Division. In the first place, it is highly es- 



