December 8, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



819 



height approximately fifty miles above the 

 earth's surface. 



It is expected that my paper will soon be 

 published in the Proceedings of the National 

 Academy of Sciences. In it the arguments are 

 presented in full. Elihu Thomson 



A BUSINESS MAN'S APPRAISEMENT OF 

 BIOLOGY 



The erection and dedication during recent 

 months of important additions to the physical 

 being of the Scripps Institution for Biological 

 Research of the University of California has 

 brought the name of the chief donor of money, 

 Miss E. B. Scripps, quite conspicuously to 

 public notice. Indeed so exclusively has the 

 growth of the institution seemed in the eyes 

 of the community to be the work of Miss 

 Scripps that a brief statement of what has 

 actually been and is going on here appears 

 almost imperative not only to her but to all 

 who have the welfare of the enterprise at 

 heart. 



In what follows I speak primarily in the 

 interest of a department of the University of 

 the State of California, the purpose of which 

 is to investigate nature for the general good, 

 and only secondarily in the interest of the 

 particular persons who will figure in my 

 remarks. 



One of the most important secondary serv- 

 ices a scientific research institution can 

 render the public is in demonstrating that 

 specialized and disciplined talent for studying 

 nature, business experience and skill, and 

 material wealth must be and can be brought 

 together for the great task of making nature 

 yield its best to the development of man's 

 latent physical and spiritual capacities. A 

 point needing emphasis just now is that no 

 one who has grasped the full meaning of the 

 task, and has had actual experience in it, can 

 possibly raise the question as to which of these 

 three factors is all-important — which is the 

 " real thing " in the undertaking. All are 

 absolutely indispensable, and debate on which 

 is most important is scholastic folly. The 

 reason for these remarks is the circumstance 

 that the temper of the day makes the wealth 



factor appear to most eyes as the main one, 

 the determining one, the one to which all the 

 others are secondary. The prevalent theory 

 that, after all, he who " holds . the purse 

 strings " is the real " power behind the 

 throne" even in educational and scientific 

 institutions, and so is the one to whom homage 

 is chiefly due, is an embryonic trait, as biol- 

 ogists say, in the development of civilization 

 — a trait to be left behind with advance toward 

 adulthood. No one understands this better 

 than do some of those who give large sums of 

 money to public institutions. It does not 

 disparage by one whit the importance of hav- 

 ing large wealth and being willing to devote 

 portions of it to the general good to point out 

 that, as everybody knows who is acquainted 

 with Miss Scripps, nothing could be more alien 

 to her nature than to glory in the mere giving 

 of a large sum of money toward the creation 

 of an impressive physical structure dedicated 

 to public use. Evidence that an " investment," 

 be it large or small, contributes substantially 

 to the general welfare, would give her supreme 

 satisfaction, as this would be evidence not of 

 mere ability to give, but to give wisely. In 

 how far satisfaction of this sort is coming to 

 Miss Scripps for what she has invested in 

 this enterprise I do not know. I suspect there 

 is still uncertainty in her mind; for the insti- 

 tution is too young to enable her to judge what 

 service it may render. 



But the personage primarily in view in this 

 communication is not Miss E. B. Scripps, but 

 Mr. E. W. Scripps. The truth is I am taking 

 it for granted that Miss Scripps recognizes 

 now the desirability of a kind of publicity con- 

 cerning the origin and aims of the Scripps 

 Institution not hitherto furnished, and that 

 she would be willing to have me use her con- 

 ception of an " investor " in behalf of the 

 public as a sfarting point for what I am going 

 to say about her brother. My words are ad- 

 dressed first and foremost to men of science, 

 especially those who reflect on the larger 

 human significance of material knowledge and 

 the discovery of it. 



The narration of a bit of personal-profes- 

 sional experience will be permissible, since it 



