June 6, 1895] 



NATURE 



12- 



to give him at least average chance. Would any genius 

 have been capable of diving, on his own account, 

 to the great depths of the Pacific ? or would a genius find 

 it possible to replace, by his own work, the ant-like 

 activity of the Naples Station? Hardly. But let him 

 come now and handle the innumerable data of the 

 Cliiillcng''rs investigations, or use the op])ortunities offered 

 by a modern laborator)' to give us a solution of the 

 problem of heredity, or decide whether natural selection 

 suffices to account for the evolution of the organic world, 

 or whether other principles must be sought. The genius 

 of Pasteur and Lister and Koch have opened the enor- 

 mous field of research regarding the nature and effect of 

 bacteria, and I think the world has not been the worse 

 for France and (Germany spending public money for the 

 equipment of large laboratories to enable those geniuses 

 to continue, in the most effective way, their labours. 



Certainly not every whim or fancy of a learned individual 

 ran be accepted as a sufficient reason for spending public 

 funds ; some sort of a controlling apparatus will alwa\s 

 be necessar>-. But in the Royal Societies, National 

 Academies, and other learned bodies of high standard, each 

 nation has already what is wanted, and it is understood 

 well enough that such bodies are often even more difficult 

 to be won over by some new rising genius than a Minister 

 of Public Instruction or the outside public. It is, there- 

 fore, not to be anticipated that from the Scylla of nihilism 

 in officially supporting research, one must necessarily glide 

 down into the Chaiybdis of supporting whatever scheme 

 comes out of the fervid brain of a young discoverer. But 

 this much can be said, or repeated o\er and o\er again 

 -for it is certainly no new truth- that the mental and 

 intellectual productions of a nation ought not to be the last, 

 nor the least, in their claims on the public money ; and it 

 may be maintained with all confidence, that hardly any 

 other expense will so amply repay the budget of a nation, 

 both niatcrialh' and ideally, as the funds handed over for 

 the promotion of research, or, in the truer expression, for 

 the organisaliou of research. 



For it is in this, that the real future lies : in organisation. 

 Being organised, the small Japanese empire was more 

 than a match to the tenfold bigger Chinese mass : being 

 organised, a few British regiments can keep |)opulations in 

 abeyance, which, if the)- were equalh well organised, might 

 crush them in a moment. And to be organised, even in 

 the intellectual sphere, means to economise natural powers 

 and not throw away chances, which if they cannot perhaps 

 be brought about deliberateh', ne\ ertheless can be profited 

 by when they occur — and they occur always and every- 

 where. 



Organisation of research, will, 1 do not doubt, become 

 the special feature of the coming centur\. It would be 

 well worth to provoke discussion about schemes, ways and 

 channels, into which organised research ought to grow. 

 Karh nation may adopt its own, according to its character, 

 habits, and prejudices. But one feature ought to be 

 obser\ed with them all, for it will soon become upper- 

 most ; that is, intcrnatiomil organisutioii of those interests 

 and productions by which all the nations may be benefited 

 together, witl^out being forced to arrange separately, each 

 for itself, what more effectually and with less material and 

 intellectual effort can be provided for all of them at once. 

 .\nd there can be no doubt that foremost, in this regard, 

 NO. 1336, VOL. 52] 



stands the question : Hmv to reorganise, or organise at all,. 

 scientific publication .' 



It cannot be doubted that the way in which we deliver 

 over to publicity at present the results of the work of 

 hundreds and thousands of investigators, is all but 

 destitute of any regulating principle. Publishing in the 

 nineteenth centur)' resembles very much the kind of 

 warfare practised in bygone times, when regiments were 

 the property of single individuals, who were responsible 

 for their equipments, nourishment, efficiency, and who 

 entered into contracts with their men and soldiers and 

 with states and princes. Defection on the one side, 

 plundering on the other, were concomitant features of 

 such arrangements, which one only need compare with 

 the present constitution of the Prussian army to feel at 

 once what powerful element organisation has proved to 

 be. Why shall the most subtle of human activities, the 

 mental and intellectual functions, not be liable to profit 

 in the same degree by organisation ? Why shall preju- 

 dice and egoism be permitted to govern with almost 

 absolute sovereignty in the lofty regions of thought and 

 speculation, of experiment and observation — in one word, 

 of research ? Organisation is not pedantry, discipline 

 not slavery, genius no direct contradiction to order and 

 measure. Originality and individualism will neither be 

 sacrificed nor. diminished, if certain rules are observed in 

 bringing the results of investigation to public knowledge, 

 and a better, more economical, and more effective system 

 of reporting and recording is adopted, with the intention to 

 facilitate the communication of valuable scientific results 

 over the greatest possible circles of competent readers. 

 It is true that the all-powerful vis inertice will go far in 

 opposing any serious attempt of reorganisation in this 

 department ; but, as I remarked at the commencement of 

 this article, unless we put hands and shoulders to the 

 work, we shall unavoidably arrive soon at a state of chaotic 

 confusion, where the worse elements may be conspicuous, 

 and valuable productions at times be choked among 

 mediocrity. 



It would lead me too far away from the direct subject 

 of this article to develop here any scheme of better 

 arrangement for scientific publication ; and if I am not 

 mistaken, the feeling that such arrangements ought to be 

 found and to be universally introduced, is spreading 

 rapidly among competent and conscientious men of science. 

 Let these soon unite and form national and international 

 centres for the organisation of scientific publication— a 

 more wholesome influence on the progress of science and 

 research can hardly be imagined nowadays. 



The tw o new and last volumes of the " Challenger 

 Report " are the work of Mr. Murray, the true soul of the 

 expedition, to whom science owes a great debt of grati- 

 tude for his never-ceasing care and toil, and for his talent 

 .md amiability, with which he undertook the great burden 

 of superintending the publications of the expedition, 

 besides himself adding most remarkably to the vast 

 amount of new knowledge regarding the deep sea. 



In the "Editorial Notes" to these two volumes, Mr. 

 Murra\- has some paragrajihs on the whole expedition so 

 characteristic that I think it right to repeat them here to 

 ever\- reader w ho does not happen to lay his hands on 

 the volumes themselves. Mr. Murray, after having given 



