August 17, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



149 



as well be done by a properly constructed 

 machine. We have been told that the mere 

 accumulation of simple scientific facts 

 never makes a leader in science, that, for 

 instance, the collection of birds and bugs 

 and brachiopods and their discrimination 

 into species and subspecies is an inferior 

 kind of research in natural history. But, 

 every scientific man of repute in the past or 

 present has begun in just that way, by the 

 discovery and discrimination of scientific 

 facts, however simple they may appear to 

 others. Lamarck was a mere collector and 

 namer of mollusks ; Charles Darwin wasted 

 years of his brilliant life in classifying cir- 

 riped crustaceans — I wonder how much 

 those eirripeds had to do with natural se- 

 lection, and I wonder how many of us 

 would know a eirriped if we should meet 

 one? Agassiz gave years of his life to the 

 collection and study of poissons fossiles, 

 and it requires no more acumen to classify 

 fossil fishes than living bugs, for I have 

 tried both. The collection and discrimina- 

 tion of mosquitoes was once a puerile pur- 

 suit. But, had there been no collectors and 

 classifiers of mosquitoes, yellow fever would 

 still be ravaging our seaports, and perhaps 

 the Panama Canal would not now be a real- 

 ity, and the safety of our nation endangered. 

 Can any one see any possible relation be- 

 tween a mere entomological collector and 

 the destruction of great cities by war? 

 Had not Loewenhoek, in mere curiosity, 

 found those organisms we call bacteria, and 

 others wasted their time in studying and 

 classifying them, there would have been no 

 Pasteur, and antitoxins unknown. Is there 

 no relation between such trivial pursuits, as 

 some of our friends would call them, and 

 typhoid fever? 



I say, and say with deep conviction, that 

 the ability displayed in the observation 

 and discrimination of what often appear to 

 us to be trivial things may be as great as 

 that required for the formulation of far- 



reaching laws in science. Even the tyro 

 can draw conclusions, that is, recognize 

 laws, when facts are numerous enough, and 

 the best of us can do nothing without facts. 

 And the discovery of natural laws is sure to 

 come when facts are numerous enough. It 

 is the trained student who anticipates them. 

 How many great discoveries or great inven- 

 tions have uncontested claimants? Who 

 was the discoverer of electricity, photog- 

 raphy, telegraphy, telephony, aviation, or 

 even evolution? 



Let us not, then, deride the student be- 

 cause he is doing what we in our conceit 

 think is unimportant. There are fashions 

 in science as in everything else, and we are 

 rather inclined to ridicule him who is not 

 quite up to fashion. Shall we tell the candi- 

 date for honors in Sigma Xi that he must 

 be in fashion? That research is research 

 only when it leads to worldly recognition? 

 No, train him aright, and nothing will be 

 too trivial to merit his study. It is not 

 what he does but how he does it that makes 

 the leader in science as in everything else, 

 for there is nothing small in science. 



One of our noted chemists, not long ago, 

 I have been told, after the publication of an 

 important paper, when asked by the presi- 

 dent of his college of what use his discover- 

 ies were to the world, replied that he hoped 

 they had none. We would not wholly agree 

 with him, because the ultimate end of all 

 our research is the benefit of mankind, and 

 there surely must be some practical use of 

 every fact in science. He did emphasize, 

 however, the first essential of every true 

 scientist, the desire to learn new truths for 

 the sake of truth. 



Research ability I would define as the 

 ability to observe, to discriminate, and to 

 judge, coupled with an intelligence that is 

 always asking the reason why. Given this 

 ability to observe and to undei'stand, and 

 its possessor has the foundation for suc- 

 cess, whether in science, in arts or in the 



