September 14, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



249 



jeet. This is a typical example of polar- 

 ization by contract. Finally, the incentive 

 of stern necessity or what we consider 

 necessity is perhaps the most powerful of 

 all in both research and application. All 

 who have families to support and needs to 

 be supplied know full well the stimulus 

 which comes from them. 



In general, in normal times it is perhaps 

 no exaggeration to say that neither the 

 average individual nor the average nation 

 approaches within fifty per cent, of its 

 possibilities. Nothing short of a war 

 threatening the national existence can 

 shake a nation out of its lethargy. Simi- 

 larly, the average individual can not be in- 

 duced to put forth his best efforts without 

 the strongest of incentives. It is unfortu- 

 nate that this is the case. However, with 

 sufficient attention given to the problem 

 by trained experts in mental science, it is 

 quite possible that at some future date as 

 high as sixty or eighty per cent, of the 

 possibilites may be realized without any ap- 

 peal to arms for the nation or any unusual 

 incentive for the individual. 



II. The Increase of Organized Knowl- 

 edge. — The research by which organized 

 knowledge is increased will doubtless 

 always be carried on chiefly by three dis- 

 tinct types of research organizations: re- 

 search by the government in national 

 laboratories, research by the universities 

 in connection with the work of instruction 

 and research by industrial laboratories in 

 connection with the interests of manu- 

 facturing concerns. Aside from these 

 three main classes of laboratories there will 

 always be large, privately endowed re- 

 search organizations, dealing with neglected 

 fields of remote commercial interest, private 

 industrial laboratories supported by con- 

 sulting fees and cooperative testing labora- 

 tories also self sustaining. 



National, industrial and university re- 



search follow three essentially different 

 lines. There is considerable overlap in 

 field, it is true, but each is centered on a 

 different kind of research. The proper 

 function of national research is the solu- 

 tion of such problems as concern the na- 

 tion as a whole, affect the general interests 

 of all classes of individuals; it is the cus- 

 todian of standards, it develops methods of 

 precise measurements and investigation, 

 it is trouble engineer for the solution of 

 very difficult problems or the problems of 

 producing units so small as not to be able 

 to have their own research laboratories. 

 It is the proper guardian of the public 

 health. It solves problems connected with 

 contagious and vocational diseases. It 

 develops methods of making good roads, 

 increasing the fertility of the soil and 

 stocking Tvaters with fish. National re- 

 search is of all grades from that dealing 

 with fundamental principles up to that re- 

 lating merely to lessening the costs of pro- 

 duction. . 



University research must always, in the 

 very nature of things, be concerned chiefly 

 with the advancement of the various sci- 

 ences as such, and with the development of 

 the fundamental principles of each science. 

 The best university instruction is along ' 

 these lines and investigators and students 

 in close touch with them will naturally 

 have most new ideas in close connection 

 with fundamental principles. University 

 research is necessarily one of small jobs and 

 the best minds and is without very much 

 continuity. The advanced student is in- 

 terested in a research just long enough to 

 make it acceptable as a doctor's thesis. The 

 instructor is too burdened with teaching to 

 give more than a margin of time to re- 

 search. But a very small part of the uni- 

 versity research is extended year after year 

 covering a wide field. This is quite as it 

 should be, the university looking after those 



