TIME GIVEN TO INVESTIGATIONS. // 



thing higher. The establishment of a new 

 standard of value for specific work has not only 

 directed this work into new channels and the 

 careful study of details, but has made many old 

 descriptions valueless. 



Intimately connected with the thoroughness 

 with which scientific work is done is the length 

 of time spent on it. One of the serious objec- 

 tions to waiting for better facilities, more evi- 

 dence, etc., when the question of closing up an 

 investigation arises, is the probability of loss 

 of interest in the subject. Promptness in com- 

 pleting any line of work seems commendable 

 on account of the economy of time, the greater 

 certainty of recording results to date, and the 

 importance of keeping the coast clear for new 

 work. But work "completed" in a short time 

 suffers from incompleteness, from whatever 

 point of view it is regarded. Nothing can be 

 so demonstrative as the relative permanence of 

 work that has been done slowly and work that 

 has been done with promptness and apparent 

 vigor. The latter almost invariably takes a 

 very subordinate place in the literature of the 

 subject when once that subject is competely 

 worked out. 



In these days of competition, when every 

 field of biology is ferreted for new subjects of 



