148 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1181 



Greek, which had exacted a full half of all 

 my college work. But, I have frankly to 

 admit that my debt to them is great, great 

 because the science of those days was not a 

 substitute for them, nor am I fully con- 

 vinced that it yet is. 



The Sigma Xi was founded, we may 

 frankly admit, merely as a rival for the 

 Phi Beta Kappa — perhaps there was a 

 flavor of sour grapes in its origin! Has 

 it justified its past? Is there justification 

 for it to-day, and need for it in the future ? 

 "Without reservation the answer to all these 

 is yes. But, for the Sigma Xi of 1886 

 the need was brief. Science has won recog- 

 nition as an essential part, though not the 

 whole part of any liberal education. There 

 was a time, not so very long ago, when 

 studies of immediate bread-and-butter in- 

 terest were debarred from the curriculum 

 for the bachelor of arts degree as contam- 

 inators of a liberal education. I can re- 

 member a long and warm discussion in one 

 of our large universities as to whether the 

 study of human anatomy might safely be 

 substituted for that of cat anatomy; not 

 because the study of man was less worthy 

 than the study of cats, but because the one 

 was pursued for a practical purpose while 

 the other was merely disciplinary. My col- 

 leagues of the language side feared that it 

 would be, as indeed it was, a wedge to make 

 education practical as well as cultural. 

 Similar discussions are not often heard now 

 in our faculty meetings. To preserve the 

 degree of bachelor of arts in all its pristine 

 aristocratic purity, the degrees of bachelor 

 of science and of philosophj% and of I know 

 not what else, were widely introduced for 

 the proletariat in science. For a long time 

 they were the penumbra of classical learn- 

 ing, and even yet in some places they have 

 not won their fuU place in the sun. I hope 

 that the time will soon be here when there 

 shall be no distinctions anywhere between 



the student of Greek and the student of 

 botany or chemistry, or of psychology. 

 One is as useful in its way as the others, 

 and has an equal place in liberal educa- 

 tion, but not to the exclusion of others. 

 This is now so evident that the statement 

 would be a mere platitude, were it not that 

 the Sigma Xi was founded expressly to 

 help break down the distinction. 



The Sigma Xi has long since ceased to 

 look exclusively upon the other side of the 

 Phi Beta Kappa shield. The ideals of our 

 society are not those of its founders thirty 

 years ago, when the simple recognition and 

 encouragement of scientific studies were 

 the most that it could do. Its higher ideal 

 is now, as it has been for years, I can say 

 with your unanimous approbation, the en- 

 couragement of productive scientific schol- 

 arship. The encouragement of scientific 

 scholarship is but a part of its function. 

 The student who, when he dons for the first 

 time his academic gown, is able to talk 

 learnedly of what his text-books and teach- 

 ers have taught him about chromosomes, 

 the mutations of (Enothera, dominant and 

 recessive characters, the location of Cam- 

 brian rocks, the secret history of trilobites 

 and dinosaurs, or the mysteries of ions and 

 organic compounds, is a worthy candidate 

 for membership with us, but he has not 

 justified his right to full fellowship with 

 the Spoudon Xunones until he has given 

 evidence of his ability and desire to use 

 that knowledge for the benefit of science. 

 Our ultimate ideal, then, in a few words, 

 is the encouragement of research. And the 

 student may properly ask, what do you 

 mean by research? 



The word is something of a fetish with 

 us. Is counting the number of feathers in 

 a bird's wing, or the hairs in a mosquito's 

 antenna research. Yes, if it leads the stu- 

 dent better to understand the structure of 

 all birds and all flies. Otherwise it might 



