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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 913 



results to medicine has brought progress, 

 some have desired to furnish opportunities 

 by which this application may be accom- 

 plished where it seemed most needed. 

 Though not always explicitly expressed, the 

 programs of these foundations imply the 

 hope that by such endowments new facts 

 and new points of view fundamentally im- 

 portant to medicine may be discovered. 



I like to think that this last idea is at 

 least latent in all these endeavors, but no- 

 where, so far as I know, is quite the same 

 note struck as that which is sounded in the 

 initial program of the Carnegie Institution 

 in those words which call attention to the 

 exceptional man — the investigator. 



Turning now to some of the relations in- 

 volved, it is to be observed that these new 

 foundations are independent and not con- 

 nected with existing universities, that they 

 tend to draw men from university positions 

 by the attraction of unusual opportunities 

 for work, and finally, that for the most part 

 they take these men away from formal 

 teaching. 



The situation thus created in the world 

 of education has often been lamented and 

 no little moral pressure is exerted from 

 time to time to induce the institutes to see 

 the wrongness of their position. 



The question thus raised amounts to this : 

 Are these new foundations philanthropic 

 vagaries and mere torsos of educational 

 establishments, or do they represent the 

 result of mature consideration and a defi- 

 nite endeavor to advance? 



Of the several reasons which have 

 brought about the independence of these 

 foundations the common desire to keep 

 alive the donor's name and fame has played 

 its part, but more than this I think has 

 been the feeling that since these founda- 

 tions were to be devoted to research, either 

 in the line of mediation to which I have 

 already referred, or in the endeavor to 



obtain new truths of fundamental impor- 

 tance, therefore the workers in these insti- 

 tutes should be as far as possible released 

 from any duties likely to divert their ener- 

 gies. To make this arrangement within 

 the limits of a university is, to say the 

 least, to subject the favored appointee to 

 no little strain. 



His colleagues, being human, at heart 

 often resent his seeming freedom from re- 

 sponsibility and he is allowed to feel that 

 somehow he does not justify himself by 

 attending to his work alone. It is unneces- 

 sary to enlarge on this situation, but I 

 can assure you that it is no mere product 

 of my fancy. Separateness of manage- 

 ment brings protection therefore to those 

 who choose this work. 



Still more important for ultimate success 

 is the general conduct of such a founda- 

 tion. Our universities are guided by ex- 

 perienced administrators who feel keenly 

 the need for the diffusion of knowledge, for 

 making it accessible to large numbers and 

 for preserving withal a completeness and 

 balance in their institutions. 



These views become ingrained, but they 

 do not represent the aims of a research 

 foundation and the same board could 

 hardly manage both with like success. For 

 the investigator, buildings are fine when 

 they suit his purpose; after that he loses 

 interest. His notion of efficiency is a large 

 emergency fund and whether the fixed 

 charges are great or small is not so impor- 

 tant as the means to act promptly, de- 

 cisively and even expensively when occa- 

 sions arise. This arrangement is possible 

 only when the institution is a good deal of 

 a unit and absolutely free. 



To appreciate the needs thus briefly out- 

 lined requires the experience which breeds 

 sympathy, and it has thus come to pass that 

 so far as the arrangement of the scientific 

 program, the formation of the personnel 



