524 REPORT — 1901. 



the treatises and periodical scientific journals are very numerous ; the ramifications 

 of investigation are so complicated that it is scarcely possible to acquire a com- 

 petent knowledge of the progress that is being made in more than a few of the sub- 

 divisions of any branch of science. Hence the so-called specialist has come 

 into being. 



Evident though it be that this is necessarily an age of specialists, it is curious 

 to note that the word ' specialist ' is often used as a term of opprobrium, or as 

 a symbol of narrowmindedness. It has been stated that most specialists run 

 after scientific truth in intellectual blinkers ; that they wilfully restrain them- 

 selves from observing the work of others who may be even in the immediate 

 neighbourhood ; that even when the line of pursuit intersects obviously other 

 lines, such intersection is passed by without remark ; that no attention is paid 

 to the existence or the construction of connecting lines ; that the necessity for 

 collaboration is overlooked; that the general advance of the body of scientific 

 truth is treated as of no concern ; that absolute independence of aim is the thing 

 most to be desired. I propose to inquire into the possibility of such an individual 

 existing as a scientific man. 



I take as a provisional definition of a specialist in science one who devotes 

 a very large proportion of his energies to original research in a particular 

 subdivision of his subject. It will be sufficient to consider the subjects that 

 come under the purview of Section A, though it will be obvious that a similar 

 train of reasoning would have equal validity in connection with the subjects 

 included in any of the other sections. I take the word ' specialist ' to denote a 

 man who makes original discoveries in some branch of science, and I deny that 

 any other man has the right, in the modern meaning of the word, to be called 

 by others, or to call himself, a specialist. I would not wish to be understood to 

 imply a belief that a truly scientific man is necessarily a specialist ; I do believe 

 that a scientific man of high type is almost invariably an original discoverer in one 

 or more special branches of science ; but I can conceive that a man may study the 

 mutual relations of different sciences and of different branches of the same science 

 and may throw such an amount of light upon the underlying principles as to be 

 in the highest degree scientific. I will now advance the proposition that, with 

 this exception, all scientific workers are specialists ; it is merely a question of 

 degree. An extreme specialist is that man who makes discoveries in only one 

 branch, perhaps a very n.arrow branch, of his subject. I shall consider that in 

 defending him I am rt/bi-f/or? defending the man who is a specialist, but not of this 

 extreme character. 



A subject of study may acquire the reputation of being narrow either 

 because it has for some reason or other not attracted workers, and is in reality 

 virgin soil only awaiting the arrival of a husbandman with the necessary skill ; 

 or because it is an extremely difficult subject which has resisted previous 

 attempts to elucidate it. In the latter case, it is not likely that a scientific 

 man will obstinately persist in trying to force an entrance through a bare blank 

 wall. Either from weariness in striving, or from the exercise of his judgment, he 

 will turn to some other subdivision which appears to give greater promise of 

 success. When the subject is narrow merely because it has been overlooked, the 

 specialist lias a grand opportunity for widening and freeing it from the reproach 

 of being narrow ; when it is narrow from its inherent difficulty he has the oppor- 

 tunity of exerting his full strength to pierce the barriers which close the way to 

 discoveries. In either case the specialist, before he can determine the particular 

 subject which is to engage his thoughts, must have a fairly wide knowledge of the 

 whole of his subject. If be does not possess this he will most likely make a 

 bad choice of particular subjects, or, having made a wise selection, will lack an 

 essential part of the mental equipment necessary for a successful investigation. 

 Again, though the subject may be a narrow one, it by no means follows that the 

 appropriate or possible methods of research are prescribed within narrow limits. I 

 will instance the Theory of Numbers which, in comparatively recent times, was a 

 Bubject of small extent and of restricted application to other branches of science. 

 The problems that presented themselves naturally, or were brought into promi- 



