June 13, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



907 



moted) and J. A. Gann, respectively; F. W. 

 Lane and Philip B. Terry, organic chemistry, 

 replacing W. J. Murray and J. W. Livingston, 

 promoted; Arthur E. Bellis and Charles L. 

 Burdick, theoretical chemistry, replacing B. 

 F. Brann and Duncan MacRae, promoted; 

 Lester F. Hoyt, water analysis, replacing W. 

 J. Daniels; Francis H. Achard, Henry C. Har- 

 rison and Eussell E. Leonard, electrical engi- 

 neering, replacing D. M. Terwillinger, J. P. 

 King and H. G. Jenks; Edgar W. Taft, 

 military science, replacing A. J. Pastence; 

 John P. Constable, naval architecture, re- 

 placing E. B. PuJsifer; Warren K. Green 

 and William G. Horsch, physics, replacing 

 Mr. Wells and Mr. Wilkins; Millard W. Mer- 

 rill, electro-chemistry, replacing Mr. Gonzales ; 

 E. G. Daggett, research assistant in sanitary 

 chemistry; George Eichter and W. B. Van 

 Arsdel, research assistants in applied chemis- 

 try; H. F. Thomson, assistant to the director 

 of the research laboratory of electrical engi- 

 neering and part-time instructor in electrical 

 engineering; Eobert E. Eogers, instructor in 

 English; Thomas S. Holden, part-time in- 

 structor in mathematics; Clarence Hale 

 Sutherland, instructor in civil engineering, re- 

 placing Mr. Bradbury, resigned; Ferdinand 

 H. Pendleton, Jr., assistant in technical analy- 

 sis, replacing Mr. Bishop. 



DISCUSSION AND COBEESPONDENCE 



THE CONSTITUENCY OF THE EXPERIMENT STATION 



In a communication to Science for May 9, 

 page 708, Dr. Eaymond Pearl, after stating 

 that theoretically it is a primary function of 

 the state e.xperiment stations to conduct re- 

 searches of a fundamental character which 

 shall be calculated to discover basic natural 

 laws, says: 



Actually, with a few rare and partial exceptions, 

 experiment stations do nothing of the sort. On the 

 contrary, what they do engage in is experimental 

 work of a kind carefully calculated to make as 

 strong an appeal as possible on the basis of its 

 supposed "practicality" to the scientifically un- 

 educated and uncritical farmers who make up its 

 constituency. The experiment-station investigator 

 in many cases (though happily not in all, as I 



am able personally to affirm after five years' ex- 

 perience in Maine) is compelled by force of cir- 

 cumstance over which he has no control to suppli- 

 cate the great goddess truth with one ear closely 

 applied to the ground in order that he may catch 

 the first and faintest murmur of "what the public 

 wants." If he has the temerity to venture upon 

 a piece of research for which by the most extreme 

 sophistry no evidence of immediate practicality 

 can be adduced, he must do the work sub rosa and 

 publish the results in such place that by no pos- 

 sible chance can the constituency ever learn of it. 



It would be impossible to pack into the same 

 space a greater amount of error and unwar- 

 ranted sarcasm than is contained in these 

 words. We are glad that Maine is so shining 

 an exception to the general deplorable condi- 

 tions herein set forth, and the state is to be 

 congratulated upon its possession of so bril- 

 liant an exponent of what agricultural re- 

 search ought to be. When, however, he writes 

 in this sweeping fashion regarding the condi- 

 tions surrounding some forty other stations 

 in states covering a continent, many if not 

 most of them some thousand or more miles 

 away, it is not strange that in evolving the 

 material largely from his inner consciousness, 

 he has succeeded admirably in describing 

 what the stations are not. 



I write to discuss only a single sentence of 

 this quotation and to resent its import in 

 justice to a constituency not likely to answer 

 for itself in these columns. 



Dr. Pearl speaks of " the scientifically un- 

 educated and uncritical farmers " as making 

 up the constituency of the experiment sta- 

 tions and as constituting a real and natural 

 bar to high-grade work. This is a sweeping 

 and serious indictment against a series of fed- 

 eral institutions working in and supported by 

 all the states of the union. 



No special superiority is claimed for Illi- 

 nois, but this occasion is taken to point out 

 that of thirty-five farmers of the state serv- 

 ing on the advisory boards of our experiment 

 station I happen to know of ten who are col- 

 lege graduates representing the following in- 

 stitutions: Dartmouth, Amherst, Tale, Illi- 

 nois, Iowa and Cornell. How many of the 



