292 PEESONAL PREPARATION FOR RESEARCH. 



take ; l or to discover that after having nearly completed 

 such a research, some onj3 has published a similar one on 

 the same subject. In this latter instance, however, it is 

 very rarely the case that the methods of working of the 

 two investigators are exactly the same, or the results they 

 have obtained are exactly identical. It is almost impos- 

 sible, in a new subject of research to which a number of 

 workers have been suddenly attracted, that each worker 

 whilst ignorant of his neighbour's exact employment, 

 should be able to keep to a perfectly separate part of the 

 subject ; an example of this occurred with Jannsen and 

 Lockyer, when separately discovering the mode of ob- 

 serving the solar flames by means of spectrum analysis. 

 Another circumstance likely to diminish the incentive 

 to research, is to prematurely disclose the chief idea or 

 result : ' What thou intendest to do, speak not of before 

 thou doest it.' 2 



There are several instances on record in which able 

 discoverers have for special reasons kept secret their dis- 

 coveries for a time. ' By dint of industry and perseverance, 

 Gralileo had succeeded in perfecting his telescopes, so that 

 for some time he obstinately refused to impart to anyone 

 the manner in which he made them, and it was not until 

 his eyesight began to fail him, that he consented to create 

 a manufacturer in the person of Ippolito Mariani, com- 

 monly called II Torado.' 3 Wollaston, also, for a long time 

 kept secret his process of welding platinum. 



1 See p. 107. 2 Pittachus. 



8 Address of Professor De Eccher. Conferences Special Loan Col- 

 lection. London, 1876. 



