October 19, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



377 



the purposes of the donor. In order to 

 neutralize this it is therefore provided that 

 the university shall not be required to 

 make any provision for this purpose in ad- 

 vance of the actual event of the death or 

 disability of the donor, and the claims of 

 his survivors only become operative at the 

 moment of his death. 



In subdivision c are included certain in- 

 dividual preference-clauses which, collec- 

 tively considered, must form an essential 

 and very valuable part of any widely ac- 

 ceptable plan of this nature. In the first 

 place the donor expresses his preference 

 that the proceeds be expended in the fur- 

 therance of research on the phj'^iology, 

 pathology and chemistry of growth. This 

 is expressed merely as a preference, how- 

 ever, and is not mandatory. It is merely 

 equivalent to a consistent vote in a certain 

 direction which may, if necessary or advis- 

 able, be outweighed by a majority of the 

 votes of the board. It is felt by the writer 

 that the expression of such preference in 

 each and every case of the kind will help to 

 automatically adjust the material resources 

 of the different fields of scientific investiga- 

 tion to their current needs. The donor is 

 usually likely to desire that the proceeds be 

 appropriated to the support of a field of in- 

 vestigation which he considers to be, at that 

 time, lacking in sufficient material support. 

 Such preferences should not be rendered 

 mandatorj^, however, for the reason that the 

 condition which the donor seeks to rectify 

 may turn out to be only temporary, or the 

 intrinsic importance of the field may ulti- 

 mately prove to be insufficient to warrant 

 the expenditure of the entire proceeds upon 

 it. 



The donor also expresses his preference 

 regarding the locality in which a propor- 

 tion of the proceeds should be expended. 

 This arises from his conviction that the wel- 

 fare of scientific investigation, as a whole, 

 demands the widest possible distribution of 



the facilities for conducting practical in- 

 vestigation.^ At the present time in New 

 York, London, Paris or Berlin the young 

 man who has capability for original investi- 

 gation has every opportunity of acquiring 

 facilities for his work and of gaining in- 

 spiration from the example of investiga- 

 tions proceeding to a successful issue in his 

 own vicinity and under his own observa- 

 tion. He sees in actual operation the meth- 

 ods of work adopted by masters of his sub- 

 ject, and examples and opportunity alike 

 com'bine to make the path easy to his chosen 

 career. But what shall we say of the oppor- 

 tunities of the young man or woman in Si- 

 beria, China, Australasia, South America 

 or Africa? In certain localities in these 

 countries every necessary institution exists 

 for providing the essential preliminary 

 training of the investigator, but, training 

 in the fundamentals of his subject secured, 

 where is he now to turn for the living ex- 

 ample of the successful experimental in- 

 vestigator or for the opportunities of a 

 large and abiuidantly equipped laboratory, 

 partly or wholly devoted to research ? The 

 bare possibility of creating fresh fields of 

 knowledge will probably never even occur to 

 him, since he has never seen or been stimu- 

 lated to imagine investigation conducted on 

 a broad and practical scale. As a means of 

 tapping new sources of talent for investiga- 

 tion a centripetal disposal of investigators 

 and the opportunities for investigation has 

 become a paramount necessity. The fact 

 that the donor received his fundamental 

 training in Australia determined the pref- 

 erence which he has expressed. It is not 

 rendered mandatory, however, for the rea- 

 son that it is not clear that the opportunity 

 to so dispose of the proceeds in this partic- 

 ular instance will ever arise, or if it did 

 arise, whether unforeseen political or other 

 events might not, at some time in the fu- 

 3 "The Strategics of Scientific Investigation," 

 The Scientific Monthly, December, 1916, p. 547.* 



