XLVI PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
This question brings us to the only definite proposition which has 
been made in this direction, namely, the proposed Department of 
Science, to which all the bureaus whose work is mainly scientific, 
such as the Coast Survey, the Geological Survey, the Signal Service, 
the Naval Observatory, ete., shall be transferred. 
The arguments in favor of this are familiar to you, and, as re- 
gards one or two of the bureaus, it is probable that the proposed 
change would effect an improvement; but as to the desirability of 
centralization and consolidation of scientific interests and scientific 
work into one department under a single head, I confess that I have 
serious doubts. 
One of the strongest arguments in favor of such consolidation 
that I have seen is the address of the late president of the 
Chemical Society of Washington, Professor Clarke, “On the Re- 
lations of the Government to Chemistry,” delivered about a year 
ago. Professor Clarke advises the creation of a large, completely- 
equipped laboratory, planned by chemists and managed by chemists, 
in which all the chemical researches required by any department of 
the Government shall be made, and the abandonment of individual 
laboratories in the several bureaus on the ground that these last are 
small, imperfectly equipped, and not properly specialized ; that each 
chemist in them has too broad a range of duty and receives too 
small a salary to command the best professional ability. He would 
have a national laboratory, in which one specialist shall deal only 
with metals, another with food products, a third with drugs, ete., 
while over the whole, directing and correlating their work, shall 
preside the ideal chemist, the all-round man, recognized as the 
leader of the chemists of the United States. And so should the 
country get better and cheaper results. It is an enticing plan and 
one which might be extended to many other fields of work. Grant- 
ing the premises that we shall have the best possible equipment, 
with the best possible man at the head of it, and a sufficient corps 
of trained specialists, each of whom will contentedly do his own 
work as directed and be satisfied, so that there shall be no jealousies, 
or strikes, or boycotting, and we have made a long stride toward 
Utopia. But before we centralize in this way we must settle the 
question of classification. Just as in arranging a large library there 
are many books which belong in several different sections, so it is in 
applied science. Is it certain that the examination of food products 
or of drugs should be made under the direction of the national 
