August 4, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



123 



Reseaech the Best Preparation for 

 High-Grade Practical Work 



Greography is not peculiar in that respect. 

 I have it on good authority that even in chemis- 

 try, a science of enormous practical importance, 

 the best training for a chemical engineer is 

 not alone the study of those chemical processes 

 which are already known to have practical 

 value, but the investigation of new processes 

 without regard to their application; and this 

 for the good reason that the essential thing for 

 the really proficient chemical engineer is not 

 simply to know this or that treatment of a 

 problem which has already been solved, but to 

 know how best to attack and solve new prob- 

 lems. Knowledge of that sort comes best by 

 attacking and trying to solve new problems, 

 under the guidance of experts who are them- 

 selves chiefly engaged in solving new problems. 

 So with the development of a really proficient 

 geographer. It will not be enough to teach 

 him a certain share of what is already known 

 about geography; he must learn how to find 

 out more than is already known; and the very 

 best way for him to do that is to spend a few 

 years in an institution primarily devoted to 

 geographical research. 

 A Stafi- of Nine Professors of Geography 



Of what should such an institution consist? 

 I have thus far described it as a castle, a strong- 

 hold; but I hardly need say that the most im- 

 portant elements of such a stronghold are not 

 walls but men; geographers. They must of 

 course have rooms to work in; and I hope that 

 the Graduate School of Geography in Clark 

 University will eventually occupy a large build- 

 ing, planned for and devoted to research; but 

 the essential thing is the men. A strong staff 

 of full professorial rank will be needed. There 

 should be at least one professor for each gi-and 

 division or continent, hence five in all ; it would 

 be much better to have two for each of the less 

 known continents. South America, Africa and 

 Asia, or eight professors in all; and another 

 should be added for Australia, Polynesia and 

 the oceans, thus making nine in all. Those 

 nine geographers, or five if nine cannot be 

 secured, would constitute the central and per- 

 manent staff of the institution. There should 

 be a good number of others temporarily or 



peripherally attached, as I will explain later; 

 and all of these should be in addition to and 

 independent of the geographical staff for un- 

 dergraduate instruction in the college. 



If you suggest that one or two geographers 

 for a continent is a lavish provision, I must 

 insist that it is a small provision. For each 

 geographer must be responsible for the regional 

 description of a large area, and that means 

 that he must know the form of its surface, its 

 climate, its more important vegetable and ani- 

 mal occupants, its human inhabitants, its po- 

 litical subdivisions, its products and industries, 

 and its transportation and trade. And all 

 these subjects must be known, not as made up 

 of isolated items unrelated to each other, but 

 as correlated items all in their natural and 

 interdependent juxtaposition, thus constituting 

 the landscapes and manifesting the activities 

 of the region. To know so much as that about 

 a continent is no small responsibility. But in 

 addition to this continental responsibility in 

 regional geography, each member of the staff 

 should be a specialist in the subject of one of 

 the eight larger systematic divisions of geog- 

 raphy — land and water forms, climate, plant 

 geography, animal geography, human geog- 

 raphy, economic geography, historical geog- 

 raphy, and history of geography; the differ- 

 ence between the regional and the systematic 

 aspects of geography being this : In each di- 

 vision or special subject of systematic geog- 

 raphy, such as land and water forms, climate, 

 and the rest, all the classes of facts treated 

 under that subject should be studied in what- 

 ever part of the world their examples are 

 found; while in each large division of regional 

 geography, such as North America or Africa, 

 all kinds of facts to whatever special subject 

 of systematic geography they belong must be 

 studied in their natural associations. Surely 

 when the work to be done in a geographical 

 stronghold is thus envisaged a permanent staff 

 of nine men will not seem too large. 



Regional Geography the Culmination of 

 Geographical Science 

 Let me make it clear why I lay so much 

 emphasis on regional geography in contrast to 

 systematic geography. However important the 

 different divisions of systematic geography are, 



