SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1123 



be, is the ideal place for the development of 

 fundamental research as contrasted with 

 the more showy kind. If the tendency to 

 forced stimulation of mediocre men, who 

 have persistence and the leisure that may 

 come from fellowships and scholarships, 

 can be minimized, the universities can and 

 eventually will become the seat of the great- 

 est ferment, working out toward new dis- 

 coveries. 



Our whole concept of education has 

 changed. It is now one of fact and not 

 opinion. The "theological period" of as- 

 sertion has largely gone by. There is no 

 common source of information, no palla- 

 dium such as the Bible is to religion, in 

 modern science. What Agassiz says has no 

 final value except to those who know his 

 record, his trained mental processes, his 

 method of arriving at pronouncements. We 

 ask for foundations; we want to be able to 

 see affirmation built up stone by stone; or 

 we want to be able to work backwards and 

 tear down the separate blocks, testing each 

 and finding out thereby the real quality of 

 the structure of assertions and theories 

 formed by them. Allegiance to truth, as 

 far as we can understand or discover the 

 truth, is the main concern of the scientific 

 worker of to-day. He knows that he must 

 get into harmony with facts if his work is to 

 be effective, to endure. Along with this 

 appreciation of truth there has been a 

 striking development of the conscience of 

 the expert, who can only be partisan to the 

 truth. The rescue of the so-called ' ' expert ' ' 

 from his present unsavory position seems 

 likly to follow the great advance in knowl- 

 edge which has come from careful "fact 

 study." We owe much of this very desir- 

 able change to the important body of in- 

 formation which has been brought together 

 by those engaged in what we sometimes 

 rather glibly call "research." 



Research means a point of view, a type of 



mind, a healthy curiosity. It results in a 

 welling up of inspiration. Our senses be- 

 come blunt, our edges dulled to the usual, 

 the old, the stereotyped. They keep acute 

 to the new, the unexpected, the obscure, the 

 intangible, the will-o'-the-wisp. For the 

 interpretation of a subject to advanced stu- 

 dents, only the mind alert in research, 

 curious for the new, can be of the best serv- 

 ice. Without that open point of view the 

 solidification that usually begins in the 

 early thirties of life soon becomes petrifac- 

 tion. A noble mind has found its limits and 

 will gradually wear off all its new contacts 

 and beat its life out, leaving only the revo- 

 lution of the treadmill to furnish evidence 

 of activity. Freshened by contact with the 

 new, the yet unexplained, the human intel- 

 lect expands throughout life, becoming, 

 through its constantly increasing store of 

 fact and experience, more and more service- 

 able. Particularly is this true where the 

 judgment has been developed through guid- 

 ing others along the old paths and starting 

 them off with compass and necessary equip- 

 ment along the new paths which lead out 

 to the maze and appealing mystery of the 

 unknown. 



The college or university teacher who 

 fails to take a part in research in some form 

 or another prunes himself of those branches 

 that give promise of the best future fruit. 

 There are many ways in which the research 

 point of view may be maintained. It does 

 not necessarily mean published work. It 

 may be most serviceable to the teacher and 

 yet show only in fresh thoughts, new stimu- 

 lation to the student to think for himself, 

 to investigate. It may be concerned largely 

 with improvement in the presentation of 

 subjects before classes. The man who de- 

 votes much of his time to research and ex- 

 perimental work and yet drags out the well- 

 thumbed notes of bygone lectures to ham- 

 mer at his classes is far from having the 



