516 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1137 



ficatioii of budding genius and I have no 

 ready-made plan to lay before the univer- 

 sities for the advancement of pure scien- 

 tific research. But as a representative of 

 engineering and industrial research, having 

 testified to the great value of pure scientific 

 research, I venture to suggest that the uni- 

 versity authorities themselves might well 

 consider the immense debt which engineer- 

 ing and the industries and transportation 

 and communications and commerce owe to 

 pure science, and to express the hope that 

 the importance of pure scientific research 

 •will be more fully appreciated both within 

 the university and without, for then will 

 •come — and then only — that sympathetic 

 ■appreciation and generous financial sup- 

 port so much needed for the advancement 

 of pure scientific research in America. 



While there are many things — and most 

 important things — which the universities 

 can do to aid pure science without the em- 

 ployment of large sums of money, there 

 are nevertheless a great many things re- 

 quired in the conduct of pure scientific re- 

 search which can be done only with the aid 

 of money. The first of these I think is this : 



When a master scientist does appear and 

 has made himself known by his discoveries, 

 then he should be provided with all of the 

 resources and facilities and assistants that 

 he can effectively employ, so that the range 

 of his genius will in no way be restricted 

 for the want of anything which money can 

 provide. 



Every reasonable and even generous pro- 

 vision should be made for all workers in 

 pure science, even though their reputations 

 have not yet become great by their dis- 

 coveries, for it should be remembered that 

 the road to great discoveries is long and 

 discouraging and that for one great achieve- 

 ment in science we must expect numberless 

 failures. 



I would not restrict these workers in pure 



science to our great universities, for I be- 

 lieve that they should be located also at our 

 technical schools, even at those with the 

 most practical aims. In such schools the 

 influence of a discoverer in science would 

 serve as a balance to the practical curric- 

 ulum and familiarize the student with the 

 high ideals of the pure scientist and with 

 his rigorous methods of investigation. 

 Furthermore, the time has come when our 

 technical schools must supply in largely 

 increasing numbers men thoroughly 

 grounded in the scientific method of inves- 

 tigation for the work of industrial research. 



Even the engineering student, who has 

 no thoughts of industrial research, will 

 profit by his association with the work of 

 the pure scientist, for if he expects ever to 

 tread the higher walks of the engineering 

 profession he must be qualified to investi- 

 gate new problems in engineering and de- 

 wise methods for their solution and for 

 such work a knowledge of the logical proc- 

 esses of the pure scientist and his rigorous 

 methods of analyzing and weighing evi- 

 dence in his scrupulous search for the 

 truth will be of the greatest value. 



Furthermore, the engineering student 

 should be taught to appreciate the ultimate 

 great practical importance of the results 

 of pure scientific investigation and to real- 

 ize that pure science furnishes to engineer- 

 ing the raw material, so to speak, which he 

 must work into useful forms. He should be 

 taught that after graduation it will be 

 most helpful to him and even necessary, if 

 he is to be a leader, to watch with care the 

 work of the pure scientist and to scrutinize 

 the reports of new scientific discoveries to 

 see what they may contain that can be ap- 

 plied to useful purposes and more particu- 

 larly to problems of his own which require 

 solution. There are many unsolved prob- 

 lems in applied science, to-day, which are 

 insoluble in the present state of our knowl- 



