574 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1198 



encountered. Its evolution has proceeded 

 without surpassing charter limitations and 

 without permanent hindrance from an ag- 

 gregate of expectations certainly quite un- 

 paralleled in the history of research estab- 

 lishments. But while thus far it has been 

 practicable to steer clear of the rocks and 

 the shoals toward which enthusiastic 

 friends even of the institution would have 

 it head, and to demonstrate the inappro- 

 priateness, the futility, or the impossibil- 

 ity of a large number of recurring sugges- 

 tions for application of the institution 's in- 

 come, there remains a multitude of sub- 

 jects and objects of omnipresent impor- 

 tunity for which the institution has fur- 

 nished and apparently can furnish only 

 general disappointment. Some references 

 have been made occasionally in previous 

 reports to these matters, but in general 

 they have been ignored for the reason that 

 they tend to waste energy in the produc- 

 tion of nothing better than heat of con- 

 troversy. A full enumeration and discus- 

 sion of them would require nothing short 

 of a volume, which would be of value prob- 

 ably only to our successors. There are two 

 classes of them, however, presenting widely 

 different aspects, which appear worthy of 

 special mention in this connection and at 

 the present unusual epoch in the intellec- 

 tual development of mankind. These two 

 classes find expression respectively in the 

 perennial pleas of humanists for a larger 

 share of the institution 's income and in the 

 more persistently perennial pleas of aber- 

 rant types of mind for special privileges 

 not asked for, and not expected by, the 

 normal devotees to learning. 



CLAIMS OF HUMANISTS 



"Whenever and wherever the rules of 

 arithmetic are ignored, then and there will 

 develop vagaries, misunderstandings, and 

 errors of fact that only the slow processes 



of time can correct. Hence it was not 

 simply natural but necessary that in the 

 evolution of the institution something like 

 conflict surpassing the bounds of generous 

 rivalry should arise between claimants 

 whose aggregate of demands for applica- 

 tion of income has constantly exceeded the 

 endowment from which income is derived. 

 Indeed, if the evidences of experience are 

 to be trusted, there is scarcely a province 

 in the world of abstract and in the world 

 of applied knowledge which has regarded 

 its needs as incommensurable with that en- 

 tire income. It was an inevitable conse- 

 quence, therefore, of inexorable conditions 

 that a majority of the commendably en- 

 thusiastic workers in these numerous prov- 

 inces should fail to get from the institution 

 all the aid they desired. It was a similarly 

 inevitable consequence of those conditions 

 that some of these enthusiastic workers 

 should attribute their disappointment to 

 wrong causes. And it might likewise have 

 been predicted with certainty that the 

 largest share of the resulting disapproba- 

 tion visited upon the institution should 

 come from the province of the humanists, 

 not because they possess any property of 

 superiority, of inferiority, or any other sin- 

 gularity, but, firstly, for the reason that 

 they are more numerous in the aggregate 

 than the devotees of all other provinces 

 combined; and, secondly, for the less ob- 

 vious but more important reason that the 

 subjects and objects of their province are 

 more numerous, more varied, more com- 

 plex, and in general less well defined than 

 the subjects and objects of any other prov- 

 ince. 



Concerning all these matters humanistic 

 which have agitated academic circles es- 

 pecially for centuries, the administrative 

 office of the institution is naturally called 

 upon to share in an extensive correspond- 

 ence. Some of this is edifying, most of it 



