SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 731 



ambitious to have observatories, and rieb 

 men were found to establish and endow 

 them. The observatory implied, somehow, 

 to the minds of the authorities, an astron- 

 omer — not merely some one of good moral 

 character who could teach the subject— 

 and so it came about that there was one 

 member of the college faculty who was 

 expected to do scientific work and was left 

 comparatively free to observe and investi- 

 gate. Modest as most of these early pro- 

 visions for astronomy were, they bore fruit, 

 and American astronomy gained standing 

 and recognition while her sister sciences 

 were struggling for existence. Later, it 

 is true, there arose an ambition for labora- 

 tories and there were laboratories; but un- 

 fortunately, save in very rare instances, the 

 laboratory has not implied an investigator. 

 The conditions which made astronomy what 

 it was have not been repeated. Pro- 

 ductiveness has not been demanded nor 

 expected ; neither have the inmates of our 

 laboratories been accorded that exemption 

 from excessive pedagogical duties which 

 would enable them to give their best 

 strength to research. "Were it otherwise I 

 ■should not noAV be reminding you sadly of 

 these deplorable home-conditions of our 

 sciences, but singing their achievements. 



A recent event in the educational world 

 well illustrates the weakness of our 

 academic attitude toward science. The 

 head of one of our strongest, most modern, 

 most progressive and best equipped in- 

 stitutions has announced, as one of the 

 details of a noble bequest to the university, 

 the endowment of ten research professor- 

 ships.^ 



President Van Hise declares: 



The provisions for their support, including 

 liberal salaries, assistants, materials, a limited 

 amount of instructional work, and relations with 

 students, are an epitome of the situation in the 



■"Memorial Exercises in Honor of William F. 

 Vilas," Science, XXVIII., October 30, 190S, p. 601. 



best German universities, which are admitted to 

 stana first among the institutions of the world in 

 the advancement of knowledge. 



This is indeed an event to warm the 

 heart of every one who is interested in the 

 promotion of science. All who are devoted 

 to learning for its own sake or who realize 

 the importance of science to the welfare of 

 the nation will applaud that portion of the 

 will in which tliis great gift is made, which 

 reads : 



• The university may best be raised to the highest 

 excellence as a seat of learning and education by 

 abundant support in pushing the confines of 

 knowledge. 



And yet in very truth there is nothing 

 to prevent the University of Wisconsin, 

 or any other of a hundred of our institu- 

 tions, without awaiting the rare advent of 

 some far-sighted benefactor, from having, 

 not ten, but all her professorships made 

 research professorships— nothing, alas, but 

 the deep-seated and seemingly uneradicable 

 conviction of our boards of control, that the 

 endowments committed to their charge are 

 for some other purpose. 



A true university from the standpoint 

 of scientific productiveness is a body of 

 scholars; that is to say, of men devoting 

 themselves solely to the advancement of 

 learning. Every one in it from top to bot- 

 tom should be an investigator. The entire 

 income of a university should be expended 

 in the promotion of science, i. e., of knowl- 

 edge. Teaching is a necessary factor in 

 the advancement of learning and so a func- 

 tion of the university. University teach- 

 ing should be done by investigators not 

 only because more investigators are to be 

 developed, but because the promotion of 

 science, on the scale which the future de- 

 mands, means that science shall not remain 

 narrowly academic, but shall more and 

 more pervade the life of the people. 



Prom the standpoint of American insti- 

 tutions such a definition of the university 



