JANUARY 19, 1912] 
countries, and to this end a reading knowl- 
edge of French and German, and if pos- 
sible of other foreign languages, is essen- 
tial. The argument that it is sufficient to 
merely read the abstracts of papers is 
specious. The investigator should never 
be content with anything short of the 
original, since ideas as to the relative im- 
portance of the different parts of an in- 
vestigation are often widely variable, de- 
pendent upon the outlook or particular ex- 
perience of the abstractor. It, therefore, 
not infrequently happens that a point 
which may be passed over as insignificant 
is vital to the work of some investigator, 
who, if confined solely to consulting the ab- 
stract, might never be able to profit by it. 
Tt is obvious that the teacher must have 
sufficient time at command for daily recre- 
ation if he expects to maintain himself in 
condition to present his subject matter 
year after year to his classes in a clear and 
forceful manner. The same thing is neces- 
sary for the investigator in order that he 
may be keen and alert in the pursuit of his 
problems. He is then in condition to recog- 
nize points of attack which the man 
pressed and wearied with many duties 
might pass by unnoticed. To him who 
would be a strong, full man, capable of 
imparting inspiration to his students or of 
attacking problems of research with the 
true enthusiasm which is essential to suc- 
cess, time must not only be allowed for re- 
newal of physical strength and for abun- 
dant reading, but also for undisturbed and 
consecutive thought. This means that no 
institution can long expect to be a leader 
in the field of education or in research, if 
its policy is to demand so much by way of 
other duties or so many hours of teaching 
that its employees can become leaders 
neither in thought nor in research in their 
chosen specialties. A university president, 
in a recent address, announced that those 
SCIENCE 
85 
teaching at his institution were hereafter 
to be measured for their fitness by their 
output in research. Such a policy, while 
prompted by a commendable spirit, might 
be more nearly applicable in a new insti- 
tution in which the teaching demands are 
reasonable, but it is likely to work the 
grossest injustice if applied immediately in 
a college where worthy professors have 
grown old in a treadmill of exacting serv- 
ice, which has left no time for gathering 
inspiration nor for work of research. Such 
men, if given the opportunity at the right 
time, might have won a national or world- 
wide reputation as investigators, for they 
may have been original, diligent and fired 
with an enthusiasm which the institution 
itself gradually smothered and snuffed out. 
Such men should not be cast aside like an 
exhausted sponge, for the institution and 
the state owe them a debt which they can 
not repay. Again, a college professor can 
not always do his best work if made to feel 
that his tenure of office depends upon his 
yearly output in research. Such avowed 
watchfulness by a president or by a com- 
mittee on efficiency is likely to lead to 
superficiality, to hasty publication, or to 
create unrest disastrous to research of a 
high order and to bring many disastrous 
consequences in its train. 
Object lessons of spoiled investigators 
are especially common, in many of the 
smaller colleges, and even in many of 
the larger ones; yet the time may never 
come when it will be safe to measure 
the fitness of all men for college teach- 
ing solely, or even chiefly, by their re- 
search output. Nevertheless, one can not 
but recognize the desirability of encourag- 
ing teachers to practise exhaustive reading 
on special subjects, or to undertake special 
advaneed research, whenever the demands 
of their positions and the attendant cir- 
cumstances render it possible. 
