474 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 719 



For its practise in these spheres, allow me 

 to eraphasize that no one should be chosen 

 except talented and well-trained artists. It 

 is to he lamented that such artists are not 

 made use of to any great extent to-day. 

 A merely superficial acquaintance with 

 some otherwise very good modern text- 

 books and current scientific literature is 

 quite sufficient to prove this statement. 

 And, at a glance, it is rather difficult to 

 understand why such should be the case. 

 In fact, a number of obstinate conditions 

 contribute to the matter. First of all, 

 only in rare instances has the investigator 

 the adequate financial support at his dis- 

 posal to pay for the services of first-rate 

 artists. Secondly, under the existing con- 

 ditions first-rate artists can not be supplied 

 in fitting numbers to fill even the available 

 positions. And thirdly, the investigator 

 is too often one who underrates, or does not 

 appreciate, the value of realistic drawing. 



Of these obstacles perhaps the financial 

 one is the most common and difficult 

 to contend against. Scientific text-books 

 are used by such a comparatively small 

 public that the publisher is compelled to 

 cut down the expenses of their production 

 to the lowest allowable figure. Otherwise 

 his limited profit would be lost. And, 

 with this economy, the illustration of 

 text-books is very likely to suffer most. 

 Good artists must be fairly well paid, 

 and, to retain the merits of good draw- 

 ing, somewhat expensive methods and 

 a fine grade of paper are necessary in the 

 reproduction by the printer. To raise the 

 price of a book to any considerable degree, 

 because of the extra expense its illustration 

 has entailed, is apt to be risky, for already 

 the student and investigator groan aloud 

 under the price they are obliged to pay 

 for additions to their professional libraries. 

 And yet, knotty as it seems, much 

 can be done towards solving this prob- 

 lem, and the best way to commence the 



task is by employing only competent ar- 

 tists. A skilful artist can tell a story more 

 convincingly with fewer illustrations, and 

 in a technic which will allow a cheaper 

 method of reproduction, than an artist 

 whose talent is but moderate and whose 

 training has been mediocre. A second- 

 rate artist is apt, as well, to be a slow one. 

 Not alone does he waste time in the actual 

 drawing of the object, but it is only too 

 often the case that the investigator or edi- 

 tor is forced to spend considerable valu- 

 able time in explanation before an inferior 

 artist grasps the idea to be conveyed by an 

 illustration. Occasionally, even then one 

 is not through with this type of artist, 

 for, while he may have seemed to under- 

 stand what was wanted, he will return with 

 a drawing that is entirely erroneous, and 

 the whole trying performance must be gone 

 through with again. Thus, economy in 

 the matter of artists frequently amounts 

 to nothing but unpardonable extravagance. 

 Leaving text-books and their problems, 

 let us turn attention to the vehicles through 

 which investigators disseminate their find- 

 ings. These journals are, for the most 

 part, conducted by scientists, and there is 

 seldom the hope among them that the 

 journal will bring in more than enough to 

 pay for its publication. So, profit falls out 

 of the argument entirely, with sometimes a 

 consequent increase in the facilities for 

 elaborate illustration. It is only now and 

 then the case that an editorial staff of such a 

 journal will balk at any reasonable expense 

 necessary to reproduce the drawings ex- 

 planatory of the text in a piece of research. 

 Accordingly, aside from the limited funds 

 at the investigator's command, there is 

 hardly any reason left why the very best 

 artist should not be employed to illustrate 

 his work. Most of the institutions, which 

 exist merely for the furtherance of science, 

 though running at about the utmost limit 

 of their financial resources, consider the 



