July 19, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



73 



foundations would breed despondency 

 among those who were compelled to work 

 with simpler devices and less ample means, 

 and thus they would do harm. Despond- 

 ency and research do not dwell together. 



Research is a frame of mind. A man 

 may have little leisure and trifling re- 

 sources, may never have published, but if 

 he examines his world in a questioning 

 spirit, if he carries with him not only con- 

 clusions, but the observations on which 

 they rest, if he refuses to pound square 

 facts into the round holes that he happens 

 to have in hand, he has attained illumina- 

 tion. The spirit of research is nothing 

 mysterious or remote, it is every-day hard 

 sense. Unfortunately, that does not make 

 it common, but it does make it attainable. 



It would be a sorry outcome of these new 

 foundations if they should act as hin- 

 drances to investigation in the university 

 laboratories. 



The fear that they will do this is often 

 based on the false impression that the sup- 

 ply of scientific problems is limited and 

 thus in danger of exhaustion. Let us be 

 rid of that idea. Every advance creates 

 new problems, problems of increasing im- 

 portance — exhaustion is impossible. 



By reason of the permanency of their 

 programs and freedom from certain forms 

 of responsibility, institutes may wisely un- 

 dertake investigations of a sort hardly pos- 

 sible under university conditions. The field 

 is thus divided, or rather enlarged. Both 

 the university laboratories and the insti- 

 tutes should gain by this arrangement, and 

 what is more, they do. 



Before leaving this aspect of our prob- 

 lem, permit me to point out a peculiar 

 advantage enjoyed by investigators who 

 are working under university conditions. 

 When we contrast the institutes with the 

 universities, we find that it is within the 

 walls of the university laboratory that it is 



most easy to carry on the search for new 

 knowledge undisturbed by the thought of 

 any applications which it may have. 



In the face of some things already said, 

 this statement may appear paradoxical — 

 yet it describes a condition. In the judg- 

 ment of the educated public, the teaching 

 investigator fulfills his public obligations 

 when he gives a stated amount of instruc- 

 tion. After that, there is a general feeling 

 that the man should be allowed to follow 

 his bent, and if this takes the form of re- 

 search, the community does not feel obliged 

 to inquire too closely concerning the prac- 

 tical value of the work. Thus in a way the 

 university man is protected in his research 

 by his teaching obligations, while the man 

 in the institute, engaged in the same sort 

 of investigation, is, if anything, more open 

 to criticism, and at the same time without 

 the defense which is possessed by his uni- 

 versity colleague, and in so far he stands at 

 a disadvantage. 



As you see, I have been concerned in this 

 address with medicine as represented by 

 yourselves in relation to the research insti- 

 tutes, and that explains the manner of this 

 presentation. 



It has been my purpose to show that in 

 these foundations we have something which 

 represents an advance in our educational 

 devices. 



Their independence is an asset. They 

 may be counted on to mediate in a measure 

 between the initial facts of the laboratory 

 and the problems presented by disease, but 

 more important, though harder to main- 

 tain, is their function as laboratories where 

 new knowledge is obtained, which in turn 

 must have still wider applications. 



All this concerns you who are just enter- 

 ing on your life work. You can receive 

 direct benefits and enjoy new privileges by 

 reason of these greater opportunities, but 

 they also bring to you fresh responsibilities. 



