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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1314 



of a highly complicated nature, and it is now time 

 that you pass into the great world to earn your 

 own living. ' ' And so the young man passes out of 

 the university without ever being even introduced 

 to methods of research, or ever touching the boun- 

 daries of human knowledge. Being a university 

 man, he hardly ever passes into the great world of 

 affairs, but retires into the badly paid and de- 

 spised teaching profession — and the worst of it is 

 that it is our very best students who invariably 

 turn to the sheltered ranlcs of the teachers. It is 

 only students who fail to pass the CMnese-like wall 

 of examinations who join the business world and 

 enter factory or workshop. Perhaps, however, the 

 young man, in spite of every discouragement meted 

 out to him by the university authorities by means 

 of suppressive legislation, is resolved to remain 

 on in order to do research work. He works hard 

 for two years longer (for research work is diffi- 

 cult and laborious), and at the end of that time has 

 discovered enough to produce a small paper — ^noth- 

 ing more can be expected after two years' work. 

 Then as a rule this single little paper is not con- 

 sidered sufficient by the university authorities to 

 merit the highest academic recognition, and so he 

 leaves the university with no reward for his extra 

 work. The highest academic honors involving rec- 

 ognition of research work are thus in this country 

 confined to one class of men — namely, to university 

 teachers, who remain on in the laboratories working 

 out problems in science often for years; and the 

 business world, where the highest inventive and 

 practical ability is really needed, never or very sel- 

 dom receives men trained in methods of research. 

 The heads of factories or workshops, and even the 

 directors of huge industrial undertakings, have 

 never been introduced themselves either to the 

 spirit or practise of research, and so are entirely 

 out of sympathy with it. In Germany, however, 

 a different system prevails, and it pays a student 

 to remain on in order to undertake research, as it 

 helps him afterwards in obtaining a good position 

 in the industrial world. Such men gradually rise 

 to the top, become directors of firms, and hence a 

 sympathetic view of scientific work has become a 

 characteristic of the German industrial world. It 

 is aU a matter of university legislation, and in 

 Great Britain it is hopeless for the average student 

 to attempt to obtain high academic honors involv- 

 ing research, and so he does not try. If any re- 

 search work is done in this country research stu- 

 dents must be paid to do it, the payment taking 

 the form of research scholarships! In Germany a 



celebrated professor can have as many helping 

 hands as he desires to carry on his investigations, 

 his students forming willing and unpaid assistants, 

 who afterwards pass out into the industrial world, 

 carrying methods of research and influence there 

 also. Here, however, students in any numbers can 

 not be got to undertake or assist research going on 

 in the university, for no good of it will come to 

 them. There is nothing fundamentally different be- 

 tween the natures of German and English stu- 

 dents. The difference in the enthusiasm for re- 

 search, however, is that the legislations of the Ger- 

 man and English universities are different, so that 

 in Germany research work helps a student in get- 

 ting a diploma, and so his living, whereas in this 

 country it is of no practical advantage for a stu- 

 dent to undertake research work. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



TWO DESTRUCTIVE RUSTS READY TO INVADE 

 THE UNITED STATES' 



The application of the adage, " an ounce 

 of prevention is better than a i)Ound of cure," 

 to the spread of crop pests has now became 

 an established procedure for the United States 

 through the activities of the Federal Horticul- 

 tural Board. One of the difficult factors in se- 

 curing success is learning about pests before 

 they have been introduced or have attracted 

 much attention. The hollyhock rust did not 

 seem important in the mountainous regions of 

 Chili, but it spread over all the world between 

 1869 and 1886, reaching the United States 

 last, doubtless due to our " splendid isolation " 

 from South America in transportation facili- 

 ties. The Colorado potato beetle, as another 

 instance, had to leave its native home and 

 food plants to become a recognized menace to 

 crops. It seems worth while, therefore, to call 

 attention to two rust fungi that seem to 

 possess the possibilities of great harm, but 

 which have not yet invaded the United States 

 proper. 



The peanut crop is a large and growing 

 industry of the southern states. There is a 

 rust of peanuts vsddely distributed in South 

 America, and becoming common in the West 

 India Islands. It is usually designated as 



1 Presented to the American Phytopathological 

 Society at the St. Louis meeting, January 1, 1920. 



