January 21, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



63 



wild. Certainly the many members of our 

 numerous natural history, ornithological, 

 entomological, malacological, botanical and 

 mycological clubs, who hold monthly meet- 

 ings and contribute modestly but effectively 

 to the sum of our knowledge, regard them- 

 selves as anything but "solitary" workers. 

 .That designation would seem to be more 

 applicable to some of the professionals in 

 our universities and research institutions. 

 j Of course, the organizer who has been 

 ,^tung by the -efficiency bug, is troubled by 

 all this diffuse and elusive activity and 

 counters with the assertion that organiza- 

 tion would save duplication of effort and 

 direct it to problems of fundamental im- 

 portance. This takes for granted a knowl- 

 edge of the fundamental problems on the 

 part of the organizer and a most enviable 

 intuition of the means adapted to their so- 

 lution, or, at any rate, seems to imply that 

 working on fundamental problems means 

 eo ipso making important discoveries and 

 inventions. The contention that we must 

 avoid duplication of effort must have had 

 its origin in a machine shop or a canning 

 pliant, for it certainly never originated in 

 the brain of any investigator worthy of the 

 name. That the establishment of the 

 simplest item of our knowledge not only 

 requires duplication, but reduplication and 

 re-reduplieation of effort, is too obvious to 

 require discussion, as is also the fact that 

 we always regard the agreement in the re- 

 sults of two or more investigators working 

 independently as presximptive evidence of 

 truth. I would similarly pass over the 

 fur'ther implication in the arguments of the 

 organizers, that the only_ value of an in- 

 vestigator's work lies in tbe scientific data 

 and conclusions which it contains, and that 

 we are not concerned with its unconscious 

 revelations of habits of thought, personal- 

 ity, etc. The perusal of the works of the 



great amateur entomologists, Reaumur and 

 Fabre, might be recommended for those 

 whose minds are in such a ligneous, arenace- 

 pus or argillaceous condition 

 I The suggestion that scientific research 

 may be advantageously organized naturally 

 leads one to consider those other great hu- 

 man activities, religion and art, which are 

 also bound up with powerful instincts, emo- 

 tions and interests. Certainly religion, 

 especially in the form of dogma and ritual, 

 has been so superbly organized semper 

 ubique et omnibus, since it first arose in the 

 totemism, taboo and magic of our savage 

 ancestors, that it would seem to constitute 

 a wonderful field for the study of both the 

 blessings and curses of organization. It is, 

 in fact, a field in which organization could 

 be readily introduced and maintained 

 owing to the proneness of so many human 

 beings to suggestibility, credulity, the gre- 

 garious instinct, the instincts of self-abase- 

 ment and fear, and the sentiments of awe 

 and reverence — all of which, be it noted, 

 are singularly feeble or defective in the 

 investigator. The same conclusion would 

 seem to follow from the very different view 

 of some of the Freudians who state that all 

 religions are permeated by a subterranean 

 feeling of guilt and that "this absolutely 

 unfailing presence of the feeling of guilt 

 shows us that the whole structure of reli- 

 gion is erected on a foundation of repres- 

 sion of instinct."" That the perfection of 

 organization so characteristic of religion 

 may have been beneficent in other times 

 may be admitted, but the more nearly per- 

 fect an organization, the less it is able to 

 adapt itself to changing conditions, and the 

 World War has disclosed to aU thinking 

 men the same kind of hopeless, resourceless 

 11 Cf. O. Bank and H. Sachs, "The Significance 

 of Psycho-analysis for the Mental Sciences. ' ' 

 Transl. by 0. E. Payne. Nervous and Mental Dis- 

 ease Monographs, No. 23. N. Y., 1916, p. 71. 



