The Natural History of Chautauqua 



a stereotyped professional phraseology, of his investiga- 

 tions on the chromosomes in the epidermal cells of Amblystoma 

 punctatum; the preparation of neutral ammonium citrate; the 

 bacterial flora of the intestinal tract of white mice. This 

 technical literature, bearing directly and narrowingly upon 

 his own investigations, became the bulk of his reading matter, 

 he had no time to range far from it. His discussions 

 took place in a society of other highly specialized investi- 

 gators. He lived, worked, talked and wrote in a minute frag- 

 ment of the great Nature-World. 



The enormous value to human thought and progress of 

 this investigational epoch cannot be over-estimated. It has 

 revolutionized all modern life and industry. It was neces- 

 sary and appropriate that for the time being the old-school nat- 

 uralist should tranquilly make way for the high-geared 

 specialist. Minutely differentiated research work now has a 

 permanent place in the laboratories of the world's great insti- 

 tutions of learning, and in the multitude of governmentally- 

 supported research bureaus. The precisely-recorded harvest 

 of research increases annually, much of this fruitage is of the 

 highest market value, directly and indirectly, to human wel- 

 fare. Research is the life-blood of all instruction of uni- 

 versity rank. Its intricate ramifications, like the sensitive cells 

 of the deeply hidden root, grope their way further and further 

 into the darkness of ignorance and send back a steady current 

 of newly acquired raw fact-materials. These are gradually 

 elaborated and made available for general use throughout hu- 

 man society. 



Very significant, however, is the gradual return of the spirit 

 of the old-time naturalist. The pendulum is swinging for- 

 ward through a new arc. It becomes evident, in the readjust- 

 ments of the times, that there is plenty of work in the natural 

 sciences, both research and instruction, for the two types 

 of workers, the analytic type and the synthetic type, the " in- 

 vestigator " and the " naturalist." Indeed, it is found to be 

 more than merely a matter of plenty of work, it is evident 



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