October 19, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



375 



different director of scientific investigation. 

 The truth of the former of these proposi- 

 tions will be admitted on every hand; that 

 of the latter is not so generally recognized. 

 It is, however, very clearly evidenced in 

 many contemporary scientific enterprises 

 which, under the too exclusive guidance of 

 professional administrators, are compara- 

 tively inefScient in production of results of 

 the highest intrinsic value, while the most 

 successful scientific enterprises of our day 

 are those which are being administered, so 

 far as actual investigation is concerned, by 

 men who are themselves pi-actical investi- 

 gators of distinction. 



In the terms of the agreement it is pro- 

 vided that sole responsibility for every 

 phase of the business administration of 

 the patents and of the proceeds accruing 

 therefrom rests with the regents of the 

 University of California, while the proxi- 

 mate responsibility for the performance of 

 investigations which may be financed by 

 these proceeds rests with the board of sci- 

 entific directors, under whose immediate 

 direction, subject to the supervisory con- 

 trol of the regents of the university, all re- 

 searches must be carried out. It is 

 furthermore provided, in order to ensure 

 that the personnel of the board shall con- 

 sist exclusively of men in living touch 

 with contemporary scientific problems, that 

 the directors shall be persons themselves 

 engaged directly and primarily in i-esearch 

 work, and upon ceasing to be so engaged 

 they shall be under obligation to resign as 

 such directors, and if they do not resign 

 their positions shall be declared vacant by 

 the regents of the university. It is fur- 

 thermore provided that the position of 

 any director shall become vacant upon his 

 attaining the age of sixty years, unless the 

 regents of the University shall, for strong 

 reason existing in the particular case, ex- 

 tend his term of office. 



The conquest of nature, which is the ma- 



terial preoccupation of the scientific in- 

 vestigator, is not unlike a military cam- 

 paign, in that those who retire from im- 

 mediate contact with operations speedily 

 lose the instincts which underlie and de- 

 termine practical success. The scientific 

 investigator who ceases to pursue active 

 investigation and turns to administrative 

 or other pursuits, sooner or later loses the 

 intuitions which formerly led him to detect 

 the weak spots in the defense which nature 

 opposes to our inquiry, and that grasp of 

 the field of investigation as a whole which 

 actual contact keeps alive. 



A true estimate of any professional man 

 can only be formed by his professional 

 colleagues, and it is therefore provided that 

 any vacancies in the board of directors 

 must be filled on nomination of the remain- 

 ing members. Such nominees, however, 

 must be approved by the regents of the 

 university, and responsibility for the per- 

 sonnel of the board is thus shared in the 

 fullest possible measure between the mem- 

 bers of the board itself and the regents of 

 the university. This provision, and the 

 preceding provisions, are designed to ob- 

 viate the notorious defects attaching to 

 self-perpetuating boards, while introducing 

 a just sufficient element of self-perpetua- 

 tion to ensure the perpetuation of the es- 

 sential character of the present board. 



There is a very prevalent misunderstand- 

 ing even among scientific men, of the true 

 function of the protection extended by pat- 

 ents. While they are designed among other 

 things to ensure a monetaiy return to the 

 discoverer by granting him a temporary 

 monopoly of his discovery, yet this is only 

 one and not by any means the most success- 

 ful feature of their purpose. As sum- 

 marized by Dr. P. G. Cottrell, the basic rea- 

 sons for granting patents are the follow- 

 ing ■:- 



- ' ' Government Owned Patents, ' ' Proceedings of 

 the American Mining Congress, Nineteenth Annual 

 Session, Chicago, Illinois, November 13-16, 1916. 



