48 MORRIS LOEB 



would not be conceivable that a lecturer could assemble 

 around him so national an audience as would listen to a Fara- 

 day or a Rayleigh. 



All these plans remind one of the hot-house method of stim- 

 ulating plant-growth; why not attempt the open-air method 

 of cultivating the soil? The Carnegie Institution might facili- 

 tate research for all, instead of offering incentives to a chosen 

 few. For this reason, the satisfactory equipment of marine 

 biological stations, open to all qualified observers, and of 

 similar institutions that would render the natural phenomena 

 more readily accessible to general study, would seem eminently 

 proper; while one might doubt the propriety of establishing 

 observatories simply for the intense study of single problems. 

 The efficacy of special research laboratories in the physical 

 sciences, such as England owes to the generosity of Mr. Mond, 

 has yet to be proven in contrast with that of university labora- 

 tories; to the writer, their establishment in this country would 

 appear premature, since many of our well-equipped educa- 

 tional laboratories are not so crowded that they would be 

 obliged to refuse accommodation to an independent investi- 

 gator who sought their hospitality. 



The same general argument would oppose the financial 

 support of periodicals and publishing organizations, while it 

 would strongly favor the equipment of a scientific printing 

 office, for the prompt and cheap reproduction of the results of 

 research, for the account of individuals as well as of associa- 

 tions. However, if the trustees desired to obviate the most 

 serious difficulties which beset the American scientist in his 

 laboratory work, they would establish workshops for the con- 

 struction of special apparatus and the preparation of the 

 more recondite materials, such as rare chemicals, microscopic 

 mounts, etc. What stipend, for instance, could put the Ameri- 

 can chemist on a level with his German colleague, when the 



