Decembek 14, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



579 



evitable animadversion to visit finally upon 

 the institution. Deluded enthusiasts and 

 designing charlatans entertain alike the il- 

 lusion that here at last is an establishment 

 that will enable them to realize their wildest 

 dreams of fame and fortune. But in the 

 end the hopes of these people are either 

 rudely shocked or wrecked, not because the 

 institution would disturb them in their fan- 

 cies but because they compel the institution 

 to decline to approve their theories and to 

 subsidize their projects. Many individuals 

 of this class are extraordinarily clever, in 

 literary capacity especially, although they 

 are almost all notably deficient in critical 

 faculties. In the initial stages of corre- 

 spondence with them they are wont to at- 

 tribute superhuman qualities to the ad- 

 ministrative officer concerned, but if he be- 

 comes at all exacting they are wont to 

 suggest a speedy degeneracy for him 

 towards inhuman qualities. The absurd- 

 ities, the arrogance and the audacity (often 

 pushed to the extreme of mendacity) of 

 their claims are generally ludicrous 

 enough, but these claims are often founded 

 also on recondite fallacies which present 

 pathetic as well as humorous aspects. Two 

 illustrations drawn from the older and 

 hence more impersonal sciences may suffice 

 to indicate the nature of the daily experi- 

 ence here in question : 



1. A teacher of youth in a public school 

 desires assistance in securing letters-pat- 

 ent for a new proof of the Pythagorean 

 theorem. And why not, since we read 

 every day in the public press and in the 

 debates of legislative bodies of "principles" 

 being patented? 



2. Quite recentlj^ it has been "discov- 

 ered" that the air and the ether contain 

 ' ' free energy. ' ' If this is so, if energy like 

 urbanitj' is free, why should it not be rend- 

 ei'ed available at the expense of the insti- 

 tution for the improvement of mankind 1 



Study and reflection concerning these 

 aberrant tjqoes and an intimate association 

 with them beginning thirty years before 

 the foundation of the institution, all point 

 to the conclusion that responsibility for 

 their undue prominence must be attributed 

 in large degree and in the last analj'sis to 

 a prevalent inadequate development of 

 critical capacity even amongst the best edu- 

 cated classes of contemporary life. Many 

 representatives of these latter regard the 

 eccentric individual as thereby worthy of 

 special attention. He is often referred to 

 as a sprite or as a male witch, but com- 

 monly, of course, under the more familiar 

 designations of our day as "a genius" or 

 as "a wizard." Thus it is quite easy for 

 obvious charlatans and ignoramuses, as 

 well as for those in pursuit of Sisyphean 

 paralogisms and anachronisms, to secure 

 letters of introduction and commendation 

 to the institution from distinguished people, 

 who pass the applicants along on the 

 theory apparently that no harm can result 

 from an effort to assist in the laudable 

 work of extending learning. It is assumed 

 that a research establishment must have ef- 

 fective facilities for utilizing the necro- 

 mantic capacities attributed to those in 

 ^particular to whom the terms genius and 

 wizard are by common assent applied. 

 Such introductions and commendations are 

 generally held to be equivalent to ap- 

 provals which may not be lightly set aside. 

 The suggestion of tests of the pretensions 

 and of checks on the deductions of these 

 applicants is repulsive to them. What 

 thej^ desire is not diagnosis but indorse- 

 ment. In all these matters there is revealed 

 likewise a widely diffused misapprehen- 

 sion concerning the meanings of the terms 

 science and research. The first maj^ mean 

 anything from occultism to the steam en- 

 gine or to the telephone and thence up to 

 those rareh' appreciated principles of which 



