1896] OPEN LETTERS 189 
some patience the investigator may possess himself of the information con- 
cerning work previously accomplished upon his subject, in ample time for the 
publication of his results. In many instances he may own the literature at a 
very slight cost. 3 
Most serious of all, however, are the subjective difficulties of the director 
of the laboratory, who to the above category, adds that of lack of time, etc., 
and constantly calls attention to the fact that our European colleagues do so 
little actual teaching and executive work that they are able to accomplish a 
large amount of investigation ; a statement by no means confirmed by the 
personal experience of the writer in the more important laboratories of Ger- 
many and England. A dozen pages of this journal might be filled with titles 
of work accomplished with as limited facilities and under as great a stress of 
other duties as those which confront the American worker, and the writer 
confidently asserts that any American botanist may accomplish a certain 
amount of research if he is fully determined upon it, and that, too, without 
recourse to the “holidays and Sundays” in which a German zoologist com- 
pleted a recently published work. It appears, therefore, that the greatest 
hindrances to research work lie, not in our material facilities or organization, 
but rather in the mental attitude of our would-be (?) investigators. In order 
to dispel any doubts remaining it might be well for the GAZETTE to publish a 
Second laboratory number, which would also show our progress in that partic- 
ular during the last decade. 
4 conclusion it is proper to state that by original work is not meant the 
Collection of a number of random observations, but the acquisition of new 
facts, which added to those already known will suffice for the formulation of 
new laws, or the extension, or critical delimitation of existing generalizations 
D. T. MacDouGat, University of Minnesota. 
