692 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 958 



Tlio tuuetioiis of an orgauizatioii devoted 

 to research are to take full advantage of all 

 available mental resources. Intellect can 

 not be artificially created nor can original- 

 ity be taught, but whatever intellect and 

 originality exist, may be directed into fertile 

 channels, so that those who have the gift 

 of connecting facts shall not fail because 

 the facts are not available. 



The advance of science demands that ex- 

 periment or obsei*vation and theoretical 

 discussion should advance in parallel lines. 

 "Without orgauization, one of the teams on 

 whose joint exertions the advance depends 

 is likely to outrun the other. Thus New- 

 ton, when he had formulated his law of 

 gi'avitation, which connects the orbit of 

 the moon with the acceleration of falling 

 bodies, did not publish his discovery for 

 many yeara, because he could not verify 

 his theoiy as closely as he desired. It was 

 only after the French Academy had accu- 

 ratel.v measured an arc of meridian and 

 had discovered a substantial error in pre- 

 vious measurements that Newton's law of 

 gravitation could be said to be proved. In 

 this case theory had gone ahead of obser- 

 vation: but examples of the opposite kind 

 will not be wanting so long as we have oh- 

 servei"s concerned entirely \\'ith the accum- 

 ulation of data, content to leave discussion 

 to the dim future. It is one of the objects 

 of organizing science to bring the two fac- 

 toids to bear on each other. 



International cooperation in research is 

 necessary because scientific inquii'ies can 

 not be divided into compartments limited 

 by political boundaries. The very lan- 

 guage which we use to express our thoughts 

 is tied down by conventions, some of which 

 we have absorbed as students, but which 

 in the case of new branches of learning 

 have formallj- to be agreed upon. Our 

 measurements — and all aceiirate science 

 depends on measurements — have to be ex- 



pressed in units, and how are these units 

 to be fixed except by agreement? Wliile 

 this will be acknowledged by every one, it 

 is not equally recognized how much our 

 present refinements in scientific research 

 depend on organized efforts. Wliether 

 these efforts should be concentrated in a 

 single laboratory or confined within one 

 political unit or carried out by the com- 

 bined scientific community of the world, 

 mainly depends on the nature of the prob- 

 lem. 



It is not my purpose to trace in detail 

 the history of international problems and 

 international organizations; but, rather, 

 to show the great variety of problems in 

 which useful results have already been 

 achieved by international cooperation, and 

 to bring the lessons of the past yeara to 

 bear on the fixture. 



I divide international cooperation into 

 three categories: 



1. Agreement on standards and units of 

 measurement. 



2. The distribiition of work bearing on 

 the same problem, between dift'erent na- 

 tions, for the purpose of economizing time 

 and expenditure. 



3. The investigation of problems which 

 can not be solved unless observations made 

 with identical or similar instruments are 

 obtained from different parts of the world 

 and the records published in a homogene- 

 ous form. 



I think all are agreed as to the question 

 of units and I need not detain you by giv- 

 ing you an account of the various interna- 

 tional conferences which have been held 

 and agreements which have been arrived 

 at on these mattei-s. 



As regards problems of the second cate- 

 gory, they are those which deal mainly with 

 the cosmos, as a whole, because their so- 

 lution depends so much on the collection 

 of statistics which exceeds the powei-s of 



