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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1312 



country have shown little interest in popular- 

 izing their science or in encouraging its pur- 

 suit by amateurs. Such attempts as have 

 been made have often been inept and unsuc- 

 cessful and the professional geologists have 

 looked witli more or less disdain ujwn those 

 of their fellows who have tried to espotind 

 their science to the people. They have felt 

 that men with unusual ability for research 

 should devote all of their energy to the work 

 of enlarging the confines of knowledge rather 

 than to dissemination and popularization of 

 what is known to the few. There is undoubt- 

 edly much to be said for this view and when 

 applied to certain exceptional men it is 

 strictly correct. "When, however, we think of 

 Darwin and compare the magnitude of his 

 achievements with the pains that he took to 

 make his conclusions comprehensible by the 

 multitude, we are inclined to feel that only by 

 extraordinary ability and performance in cer- 

 tain directions can an investigator in natural 

 science be altogether absolved from the duty 

 of making himself intelligible to more than 

 a few specialists in his own line. There are 

 imdoubtedly many scientific men, thoroughly 

 and earnestly convinced of the importance of 

 their researches, who would in the long run 

 be doing more for humanity and perhaps for 

 themselves if they would spare some time to 

 tell us as clearly and attractively as possible 

 ■what it is that they are doing. While I be- 

 lieve this to be true of scientific men in gen- 

 eral, it is particularly true of those who are 

 o£Gicially servants of a democracy. A demo- 

 cratic government might almost be character- 

 ized as a government by compromise, and this 

 is one of the major compromises that con- 

 fronts scientific men in the service of such a 

 government. The conclusion that a very im- 

 portant function of a national geological sur- 

 vey is the education of the people in geology 

 and the increasing of popular interest in that 

 science, api)ears to be unavoidable, yet it is 

 surprising how little this function has been 

 recog-nized and exercised. The results of such 

 education are cumulative and a direct and 

 jiermanent gain to science whereas, on the 

 other hand, the consequences of prostituting 



the opportunities for scientific work to satisfy 

 this and that popular demand for so-called 

 practical results in any problem that happens 

 to be momentarily in the public eye, is a kind 

 of charlatanry that is utterly demoralizing to 

 those who practise it and that must ulti- 

 mately bring even popular discredit on science. 

 A bureau that follows such a policy can 

 neither hold within it nor attract to its serv- 

 ice men animated by the true spirit of in- 

 vestigation. 



Metlwds of Education. — It is not practic- 

 able in the present address to discuss in detail 

 the many possibilities of educational work in 

 geology. Only a few general suggestions can 

 be offered. 



In the first place the importance of edu- 

 cation by a national geological survey should 

 be frankly recognized and the idea that it is 

 beneath the dignity of a geologist to partici- 

 pate in this function should be discoimte- 

 nanced. A geological survey should include 

 on its staff one or more men of high ability 

 who are especially gifted in interesting the 

 public in the purposes, methods and results 

 of geologic work — men of imagination who 

 can see the romance of science; men of broad 

 sympathy who know the hearts and minds of 

 their countrymen from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific; men imbued with the truthful spirit 

 of science; and finally, men skilled in the art 

 of illuminating the cold impersonal results of 

 science with a warm glow of human interest. 



It should be the duty of these men to see 

 that so far as possible all of the results of 

 geologic work are interpreted to the people so 

 that every citizen can benefit to the limit of 

 his individual capacity. Magazines, the daily 

 papers, moving pictures, and all possible 

 means of publication should be utilized. 

 There should be close contact with educators 

 and special pains taken to prepare material 

 for use in schools and colleges. Carefully 

 planned courses at university smnmer schools 

 and elsewhere might be given by members of 

 the educational or publicity staff, or by cer- 

 tain selected geologists from the field staff. 



Geologists in preparing papers and reports 

 should consider with particular care the ques- 



