October 5, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



331 



young men of that inspiration and fertiliza- 

 tion of their minds in the period of their 

 greatest aceeptiveness which early intimate 

 association with great investigators alone 

 can give. To my mind it is clear that if 

 universities would fulfil their highest mis- 

 sion they must remain the seats of the best 

 type of research. But such research is the 

 product of an extraordinarily sensitive 

 state of mind. Only the greatest powers 

 of concentration of thought make it pos- 

 sible. The investigator is groping for truth 

 in unexplored regions, wary of every pit- 

 fall, most fearful indeed of possible illu- 

 sions of his own highly excited imagina- 

 tion. Let any one imagine himself groping 

 in a dark and unfamiliar room and he will 

 easily realize that the undisturbed concen- 

 tration of his every faculty is the only way 

 for him to attain his goal ! Let the rush 

 of an automobile or the screech of a loco- 

 motive detract hLs attention but for an in- 

 stant and he may well have to rue a stubbed 

 toe or a grazed shin! Now, figuratively 

 speaking, there are too many noisy auto- 

 mobiles and screeching locomotives in the 

 lives of our distracted investigators. Amer- 

 ican universities, in general, have the un- 

 fortunate custom of loading down their 

 best investigators as heads of departments 

 with administrative duties of all varieties, 

 ranging from clerical functions to com- 

 mittee work, important for the institution, 

 but always a grave obstacle in the path 

 of successful research. Younger men, even 

 when they show marked research ability, 

 are too often worn out with excessive duties 

 of instruction and laboratory detail, when 

 their minds need their keenest edge to cut 

 their path to the elusive truth! Men in 

 whom the research instinct is inborn and 

 overpoweringly intense, will break through 

 these difficulties — usually at the cost of the 

 neglect of other duties — but our system is 

 one that means an extraordinary waste of 



talent for the highest type of work on 

 duties that minds of lesser fineness could 

 do just as well or better. On top of these 

 older defects, which we have been only 

 slowly recognizing and removing, have come 

 in the last few years the further distract- 

 ing duties of necessary public service. Let 

 me repeat what I stated earlier in the eve- 

 ning: every one of our great chemists, as 

 well as of our less well known ones, is eager 

 to devote every particle of his knowledge and 

 strength to the sacred duty of the moment. 

 Theoretical work has been set aside except 

 as it contributes directly to the cause of na- 

 tional defense. But let us begin to realize 

 now that when peace comes we must let our 

 investigators return to the service of pure 

 science, we must leave them severely alone, 

 free from committee work of any kind, so 

 that they may recover that opportunity for 

 concentration which is needed for produc- 

 tive research of permanent value! Some 

 of our research men, I dare say, are being 

 spoiled forever for this service, exactly as 

 many a returning soldier will have lost in 

 a craving for adventure his fitness for ordi- 

 nary civic responsibilities. 



There is a strong movement too in our 

 society to bring universities and industries 

 into closer relations, a laudable movement 

 with which I am in heartiest sympathy, but 

 which can bring unmixed benefits only if 

 it is most wisely guided. It would be fatal 

 if it were allowed for the sake of temporary 

 advantage to injure in any way that search 

 for truth for the sake of the truth itself on 

 which, after all, the great structure of our 

 science as of all sciences rests. Let the 

 large proportion of members in our society 

 who are primarily interested in applied 

 chemistry, recall as a typical illustration of 

 a very general truth that chemists had 

 tried for fifty years to manufacture sul- 

 phuric acid by the contact process and had 

 utterly failed, and that success finally 



