September 22, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



339 



THE HOMING OF A DOG 



In this month's issue of The Review of Be- 

 views is a copy of some notes taken by Pro- 

 fessor Herriek of Cleveland, Ohio, and pub- 

 lished in The Scientific Monthly. This refers 

 to the "homing" of certain eats. I have had 

 much experience in this line myself in my 

 earlier years and can confiiin what he says. 

 My greatest story of this instinct, however, is 

 not with eats but with a collie dog still living 

 and in my possession. Canon City is distant 

 from Denver something like 160 miles by rail. 

 The D. & E. G. road passes southeast forty 

 miles, then turns north to Denver. This course 

 is necessary on account of the range of moun- 

 tains divided by the Arkansas River. This 

 range consists of many lofty peaks in which 

 Pike's Peak is included, almost directly in line 

 between Canon City and Denver. 



One of our neighbors directly across the 

 street moved by rail to Denver, taking this dog 

 less than a year (Jld with him on the train. 

 In less than a week he was 'back at the old 

 premises and barking joyously as ever. We 

 adopted him and now for six years past he has 

 iDeen one of the family. He has given so many 

 evidences of intellectual power that whole pages 

 could be written of him. Possibly the remem- 

 brance of this episode in his life is the reason 

 he will never voluntarily ride in any kind of 

 vehicle. With his three feet yet remaining (one 

 lost in coyote trap) he will travel miles to keep 

 us company in an auto and when we take him 

 in forcibly will leap out regardless of any 

 speed we may be making. 



W. D. Harey 



QUOTATIONS 



CONTROLLING RESEARCH ENDOWMENTS 



Men of wealth do not always show wisdom 

 in their endowments of science. Sometimes 

 their ideas are fantastic. The late Mr. Car- 

 negie, for example, early in the nineties, learned 

 with surpiise that there was still dubiety about 

 the descent of man. He suggested bujang Dar- 

 win's house at Down, putting up a sum of 

 money and "settling the matter one way or 

 another" in the decisive fashion of business. 

 Later on his wealth and his knowledge, or his 



capacity for taking competent advice, grew, 

 and he founded the splendid Carnegie Institu- 

 tion of Washington, a large part of the funds 

 of which have since been continuously engaged 

 on the more general problems of evolution, to 

 the great benefit of knowledge, but without yet 

 "settling Darwinism one way or another"! 



Endowments on a princely scale are able to 

 run on their own lines and to adapt themselves 

 to the changing needs of science. But smaller 

 funds are less flexible, and are often attached 

 to a purpose so precise that their real utility 

 may cease. Even if the original testators had 

 ideas that were vague and liberal, the lawyers 

 whom they employed to devise the terms of 

 the trust, and the subsequent lawyers who have 

 had to interpret them, have generally con- 

 trived to secure the maximum of rigidity. For 

 such is the way of lawyers, preferring the form 

 to the substance. 



ROYAL SOCIETY TRUSTS 



Our own Royal Society, to take an example 

 of the disabilities arising from the rigidity of 

 bequests, has over thirty separate trust funds 

 to administer. The total income is not large, 

 but it is relatively large as compared with the 

 income that can be applied to the general pur- 

 poses of the society. Every year the council 

 begs possible donors not to tie up their gifts or 

 their bequests. They state that in their experi- 

 ence "the usefulness of the Society for the 

 Advancement of Natural Knowledge has been 

 greatly hampered by the lack of funds which 

 they could freely use according to their own 

 judgment." All over the country, attached to 

 scientific societies and institutions or to uni- 

 versities, there are many similar rigid endow- 

 ments, given doubtless for a purpose that was 

 urgent at the time, but now wasting zeal in 

 their administration, and failing to make con- 

 tinuous additions to the progress of science 

 from tlieir inappropriateness to present needs. 



There are many immediate objects which 

 may appeal to the taste or to the imagination 

 of the wealthy, and which could be gained 

 ■within a reasonable time. It might be useful 

 were the leading societies from time to time to 

 draw up lists of these, with estimates of the 

 possible period within which they might be 

 completed and of the sums of monev which 



