-January 14, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



41 



■copiously, and no one else can convert 

 it so directly into the results of research. 



Another advantage supplied by instruc- 

 tion must be mentioned here, for in it I see 

 opportunities for development of far-reach- 

 ing importance to research. It is lament- 

 able to see so much energy available for 

 research lost or ineffective for lack of 

 proper directive coordination. The ava- 

 lanche of modern biological literature con- 

 sists too largely of scrappy, fragmentary, dis- 

 connected products of a multitude of 

 investigators, all working as so many inde- 

 pendent individuals, each snatching what- 

 ever and wherever he can, and then dump- 

 ing his heterogeneous contributions into the 

 ■common hodge-podge. How are we ever 

 to extricate ourselves from such appalling 

 ■confusion? The ambition to be prolific 

 rather than sound is a peril against which 

 we seem to have no protection at present. 

 And yet, if I mistake not, there is a grow- 

 ing sentiment against such traffic in science, 

 which will eventually make it plain that 

 ambition in that direction spends itself in 

 vain. A dozen or more dumps a year, with 

 as many or more retractions, corrections 

 and supplements, is only a modest-sized 

 ambition. Conclusions are palmed upon the 

 unsuspecting reader, and then, without com- 

 punction or apology, reversed from day to 

 ■day or from month to month, or, worse still, 

 in an appendix subjoined, so that it may be 

 seen how little it costs to be prolific when 

 one day's work cancels another. 



It behooves us to find effective remedies 

 as rapidly as possible. The correction 

 would be complete if each worker could 

 bridle his lust for notoriety and take the 

 lesson of Darwin's industry and reservation 

 into his laboratory and study. The out- 

 look for such a millennial dispensation is 

 not very hopeful, and our resources are few 

 and very inadequate, but all the more de- 

 serving of attention. The great need is 

 long -continued, concentrated and coordinated 



work. In a laboratory which draws begin- 

 ners in investigation in considerable num- 

 bers it is possible to assign problems in 

 such a way that the participants may work 

 in coordinate groups, and the problems be 

 carried on from year to year, and from 

 worker to worker, each performing his mite 

 in conjunction and relation with the others 

 of his group. In this way energy would 

 be utilized to the greatest advantage to 

 science as well as to the individual. Even 

 under the very imperfect conditions repre- 

 sented at Woods Holl, I have found it pos- 

 sible to put this idea into practice to some 

 extent, and I have great faith in its effi- 

 cacy. Herein we see another possibility of 

 development realizable only through in- 

 struction. 



But it is as important for independent in- 

 vestigators as for beginners to cultivate 

 organic unity in their work. How shall 

 the investigator hope to keep in touch with 

 the multiplying specialities of his science ? 

 Here, again, I maintain that instruction is 

 an indispensable means. Fill a laboratory 

 with investigators and, if no instruction is 

 provided, many of the more important ave- 

 nues of acquisition will be closed and the 

 opportunities for coordination of work will 

 be of little or no avail. Investigators might 

 work for months in adjoining rooms and 

 never learn anything about each other's 

 work, as every one knows who has worked 

 in such a laboratory. How different in a 

 laboratory, where instruction is so arranged 

 as, without over-taxing any one, to bring 

 the workers into active and mutually help- 

 ful relations, and enable them to draw from 

 one another the best that each can give ! 

 Instruction in the various forms before in- 

 dicated supplies just the conditions most 

 favorable to interchange of thought and 

 suggestion. It is just this feature of our 

 work at Woods Holl to which we are most 

 indebted for whatever success we have 

 had. 



