GENERAL OBSERVATIONS: ON THE ETHICS OF RESEARCH 651 



experiments. By use of this knowledge you may be able to 

 fructify your own sterile ideas and forestall him, but you have 

 no moral right to do so. You cannot use these ideas without 

 lowering yourself in your own estimation and in that of your 

 fellows, for stealing, like murder, will out! You cannot conceal 

 it, try as you may! 



Be something first, then do something! Be willing to stand 

 upright and to build on your own foundations. 



Don't listen to conversations not meant for you, don't go 

 about poking and prying, don't ask leading questions, and if 

 anyone seems about to volunteer information as to his own work, 

 ask him not to tell you. Thereby you may avoid charges of sup- 

 planting another, and much bitterness, because it often happens 

 that other workers tell you the very things you already know, 

 and have known perhaps for years, and yet if you then publish 

 them as your own, the other man will be pretty certain to think 

 that you are indebted to him and that you have not dealt 

 with him justly. Judging from my own case, every experi- 

 enced worker has hundreds of unpublished facts not of much 

 value by themselves, perhaps, but kept in store waiting the dis- 

 covery of other facts necessary to weld them into a vital whole. 

 I give opinions freely where I can, and spend an aggregate of 

 much time in the service of others, but to every one who comes 

 to me for advice and wishes to tell me just what he has done, I 

 now say, if he is working in my ow r n field: " Don't tell me! 

 Keep it to yourself until you have published it; then I shall be 

 glad to read it." 



You also owe to your fellow worker certain minor amenities. 

 One of these is courtesy, another is generosity. If you discover 

 scientific material of value to him, and which you do not in- 

 tend to use, it is your duty to send it to him. Also, if you run 

 across out-of-the-way papers on his subjects, he will be grateful 

 to you for a reference and the kindness costs you but little. 

 Finally, do not bother him with unnecessary questions, or ask 

 for his unpublished data, or for his cultures until he has published 

 on them, or for information it may take him days to prepare for 

 you. Young men are often very inconsiderate in such matters, 

 particularly if they are also very ignorant. I have had a re- 



