72 Biology in America 



animals (wood mice of the genus Peromyscus) and the 

 influence of climate on their evolution. The Seripps Institu- 

 tion is probably unique among similar institutions in America 

 in the enlistment of both private and public agencies in its 

 support. Recently the legislature of California has con- 

 tributed substantially to it and this in spite of the fact that 

 its work is avowedly of a purely scientific character, and that 

 no attempt has been made to arouse interest under the 

 specious plea of some practical end to be gained at some 

 future time. 



"Two years ago when the first allotment was made by the 

 state to the university for the institution, and this year when 

 an increase was asked, representatives of the state visited 

 the institution, went over with the scientific staff and business 

 manager in considerable particularity the work being prose- 

 cuted, and were unequivocally assured that the problems 

 under investigation are all first and foremost scientific, and 

 that only some of them might be expected to have a money 

 value to the state. 



"Great emphasis was, however, laid by the men of the insti- 

 tution on the two facts that all increase of knowledge of 

 nature is capable of being made useful to the people of the 

 commonwealth in one way and another, either for their 

 enlightenment or pleasure or material gain ; and that the 

 institution holds itself under as much obligation to make its 

 discoveries utilizable in some form as it does to prosecute the 

 investigations themselves. . . . From what California has 

 done toward maintaining the Lick Observatory through a 

 considerable term of years, and is now doing for the Seripps 

 Institution, the conclusion seems justified that the state is 

 definitely committed to the principle of state aid to scientific 

 research, even though such research has no direct and primary 

 industrial aims. In discussing these matters with officials, I 

 stoutly contend that in the long run about the most telling 

 criterion of success of popular government will be the extent 

 to which it contributes to the highest development, spiritual 

 and physical, of the naturally best endowed persons who live 

 under and who participate in such government. The facts 

 and reasonings that can be presented in support of this 

 proposition, particularly those touching the question oi 

 leadersliip in scientific discovery, seem to appeal with special 

 force to men grappling earnestly with the practical problems 

 of government for a modern community. 



"Experience strongly. inclines me to the view that the seri- 

 ous dereliction of our national and several state governments 

 in the support of scientific investigation is chargeable quite as 



