28 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1280 



missible from domestic animals to man with 

 the purpose of establishing methods for their 

 control and eradication. The welfare of the 

 live-stock industry, the public health, and 

 other large national interests are dependent in 

 no small measure upon the suppression of dis- 

 eases caused by animal parasites as well as 

 those of bacterial origin. The results of sci- 

 entific research in the field of parasitology 

 have in repeated instances supplied the knowl- 

 edge necessary to bring about the eradication 

 or control of disease. Many problems in this 

 field remain to be solved. From a practical 

 standpoint therefore parasitology is a highly 

 important branch of zoology. It has, how- 

 ever, not been popular among American zool- 

 ogists and there are few universities in this 

 country where graduate students have favor- 

 able opportunities for acquiring the working 

 knowledge essential for the practical parasitol- 

 ogist. Parasitology of course is a very special 

 branch of zoology and it is not to be ex- 

 pected nor is it desirable that a large number 

 of specialists should be trained for research in 

 parasitolog-y, but I believe that the present 

 and future needs of the country are sufficient 

 to justify more attention to this subject by 

 zoologists than has heretofore been given. 

 The Zoological Division has always had diifi- 

 culty in securing the services of properly qual- 

 ified men to carry on its work. The neglect 

 of parasitology by zoologists is no doubt 

 largely responsible for this condition. Low 

 salaries and other objectionable features of 

 government service, real and imagined, may 

 have contributed to the difficulty of maintain- 

 ing our scientific staff. University professors 

 however, and especially subordinates to the 

 heads of departments of imiversities have not 

 fared better with respect to salary than 

 men in corresponding positions in scientific 

 branches of the government service, and the 

 red tape and other troubles that worry gov- 

 ernment scientists are no more disagreeable 

 than some of the things endured by the scien- 

 tific man in the university. 



In the face of the evident fact that para- 

 sitology is a subject with which American 

 zoologists have comparatively little to do at 



present, what are the possibilities of coopera- 

 tion between the universities and the Bureau 

 of Animal Industry with respect first to the 

 training of parasitologists for government 

 service and second to research in university 

 laboratories on problems of parasitology likely 

 to yield results of direct or indirect value to 

 the work of the Bureau of Animal Industry 

 in the suppression of parasitic diseases? 



Although extensive cooperation can scarcely 

 be undertaken under existing conditions it 

 should nevertheless be possible to bring the 

 universities and the Bureau of Animal In- 

 dustry into closer contact vnth resultant bene- 

 fit to both. It is hardly worth while at pres- 

 ent to speculate upon the extent to which 

 cooperation between the two may be developed 

 in the future as it will necessarily be depend- 

 ent upon the course of development of the 

 general policy of cooperation in scientific work 

 between the universities and the government. 

 I shall therefore only venture a couple of sug- 

 gestions as to what might be done imme- 

 diately toward securing more effective cooper- 

 ation than has existed in the past. These 

 suggestions should be taken as suggestions 

 only and not as the fitted policy of the Bm'eau 

 and Department with which I am associated, 

 although it may be stated that there is noth- 

 ing particularly novel about them and I see 

 no reason why they should be objectionable 

 from a departmental standpoint. One plan 

 that has occurred to me is essentially simple, 

 namely, to give a limited number of graduate 

 students specializing in parasitology the op- 

 portunity of studying in the laboratory of the 

 Zoological Division for a limited period of 

 time in each case. Much could not be prom- 

 ised in the way of personal instruction and 

 such students therefore should have demon- 

 strated their ability to work more or less 

 independently. Ordinarily perhaps not more 

 than one student at a time could be thus ac- 

 commodated. It is likely that arrangements 

 could be made for the payment of a salary in 

 return for what service the individual was 

 able to render the division during the time he 

 spent in the laboratory, so that his laboratory 

 experience need cost him nothing. A plan of 



