142 The Department of Plant Physiology [340 



view is always that of the pursuit of the science for its own 

 sake, so that as many as may be needed may find places as 

 teachers of the subject. For all these lines of endeavor the 

 same general kind of training appears to be requisite, as has 

 been pointed out. Such training must aim to make the stu- 

 dent familiar with the great principles of the science, with 

 some of the methods employed, and with enough of the lit- 

 erature so that he may make efficient use of the libraries in 

 his future work. Above all, he must be led to a facile and 

 versatile attitude of mind, which regards his science as a con- 

 tinuously changing thing, with new needs arising at every 

 turn of its progress; also, he must be not over-timid in fol- 

 lowing his problem wherever it may lead, even into the fields 

 of other sciences. 



THE WORK so FAR ACCOMPLISHED OR IN PROGRESS 



The accomplishment of a scientific research laboratory 

 should be calculated as the sum of two different terms. The 

 first of these is, obviously, the progress actually made in in- 

 vestigation, in the solving of problems, and in contributions 

 toward what we name the general fund of human knowledge. 

 The component parts of this term are usually easy of descrip- 

 tive statement, but difficult of comparative evaluation. The 

 second term includes what is commonly thought of in uni- 

 versities as the training of students, but it should also in- 

 clude the intellectual progress of the laboratory staff itself 

 (which ought to accumulate to form an asset of some value) 

 and likewise the aid and encouragement furnished by the 

 laboratory to persons not directly connected with it at all. 

 This term, as is readily seen, is the educational one, and its 

 components are very difficult both of precise description and of 

 comparative evaluation. Looked at in one way, it may be said 

 that the first term measures the actual product of the labora- 

 tory as an institution for the making of knowledge, while the 

 second measures the preparations made for the accomplish- 

 ment of future work of many kinds, whether in research or 



