June 14, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



591 



vestigators' salaries would be home by the col- 

 leges and universities and where now a re- 

 search foundation is giving to scientific in- 

 vestigation the services of one man, the same 

 sum would assist a score or more of investi- 

 gators. 



In my own laboratories approximately half 

 of the time of the investigators' laboratory 

 work must of necessity be devoted to the prep- 

 aration of essential starting-materials, pure 

 amino acids, proteins, organic compounds, etc., 

 in order to later use these for investigational 

 purposes. These compounds are not available 

 on the market except at exorbitant prices, 

 tyrosine, for example, being quoted at $5.00 a 

 gram (when obtainable), a price utterly out 

 of proportion with the cost of preparation. 



When one considers the limited funds avail- 

 able for research apparatus and chemicals in 

 our colleges and the excessive cost of these 

 materials, it is not surprising that no more 

 research work is done; the surprising thing 

 is that so much is done. The chemistry budget 

 for our smaller colleges is usually $350-$600 

 per year and will probably not exceed $3,000 in 

 many of our larger institutions. From this 

 sum is first piirchased the necessary equipment 

 of apparatus and chemicals for the undergrad- 

 uate laboratory courses and if any funds remain 

 research chemicals or apparatus are secured. 

 Unfortunately in many instances no funds re- 

 main for research work, the instructor can not 

 prepare the compoimds needed, for his time is 

 too largely taken up by teaching, with the 

 result that his research aspirations slowly die, 

 for they have no soil upon which to grow. 

 The question may arise : " Why does not such 

 a man prepare his basic materials even if his 

 time is limited ? " In the first place there is 

 no glamor in such work. In the second place, 

 there are often eight or ten synthetic steps 

 from raw products to finished material, and 

 the necessary chemicals and apparatus for cer- 

 tain of these steps are not available. The 

 rarer chemicals of which I am thinking repre- 

 sent in themselves end products of research 

 (already published) and many of our collie 

 laboratories are not equipped for these steps, 

 although they may be equipped to use the final 



product as the starting material for another 

 investigation. It may be that the production 

 of an intermediate product depends on a dis- 

 tillation in a vacuum of 0.01 mm. and no high- 

 vacuum pump is available, etc. 



Such an endowed laboratory as I have in 

 mind would be in charge of an organic re- 

 search chemist and would prepare and keep 

 in stock all sorts of organic compounds for re- 

 search workers. If an investigator desired a 

 certain compound he could obtain this with- 

 out cost or for a nominal cost providing that 

 he first convinced the director of the lab- 

 oratory that there was an actual need for the 

 compound and that it would be used in bona 

 fide research work, acknowledgment of such a 

 grant to be appropriatel.y made in the pub- 

 lished results. If, on the other hand, an in- 

 dustrial demand for the chemical should arise 

 (such as that which did arise due to the de- 

 pleted supplies of dimethylglyoxime after the 

 war began), the laboratory should charge a fee 

 at least large enough to cover the cost of prep- 

 aration. This would prevent the possibility of 

 exploitation and in any event it should be 

 defijiitely specified that there should be no re- 

 sale of the article in question and any supply 

 remaining after the completion of the ap- 

 proved research should revert to the endowed 

 laboratory. 



The above plan is probably not perfect, but 

 I feel that there is in it at least a suggestion 

 worthy of the serious thought of our scientific 

 men or scientific societies, and I only hope 

 that in some manner it may bear fruit. We 

 must not again be dependent upon Germany 

 for our research needs and unless some such 

 endowed laboratory is brought into existence 

 I can see no other alternative. 



Eoss Aiken Gortner 



Division of Aqeioultural Biochemistby, 

 Universitt of Minnesota 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Electrical Measurements. By Frank A. Laws. 



New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 



Inc.. 1917. xiii + 719 pp. Price $5.00. 



During recent years, writers of laboratory 



manuals have exhibited a constantly increas- 



