August 16, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



199 



Under these acts the scientific collections, 

 museums and libraries of Washington and 

 their other facilities were made accessible 

 to scientific investigators and to advanced 

 students, "under such rules and regula- 

 tions as the heads of the departments 

 and bureaus mentioned may prescribe."^ 

 Apparently the act of 1892 also contem- 

 plated that the advanced students who do 

 work in the departments would have the 

 assistance of the members of the scientific 

 staff, for the preamble includes the phrase, 

 "promote the work of education by at- 

 tracting students to avail themselves of the 

 advantages aforesaid under the direction 

 of compete7d instructors." 



These laws have been taken advantage 

 of to a small extent. As pointed out by 

 President Hadley, their main service has 

 been to men who are already trained for 

 their work and are competent to carry on 

 investigations independently of direction. 

 These men have simply come to Washing- 

 ton and there used for their ends the ma- 

 terial which the departments have afforded. 

 For advanced students who still need the 

 guidance of formal instruction the effect of 

 these laws has been so small as to be almost 

 negligible. Substantially the only excep- 

 tions are the one or two departments in 

 which the scientific staff have voluntarily 

 as a part of their duties given instruction 

 either to the younger members of the staff 

 in order better to fit them for their work, 

 or to outside men. The best illustrations 

 of this are furnished by the Bureau of 

 Standards, the Public Health and Marine 

 Hospital Service and the laboratories of 

 the Bureau of Fisheries at Woods Hole and 

 Beaufort. 



EXPLANATION OF MEAGER RESXJLTS 



That no large results have come from 



^Anno. Fed. Stat., Vol. II., pp. 860-861 (Ed- 

 ward Thompson Company). 



the acts mentioned, one of which has been 

 a law for more than ten years, might be 

 regarded as evidence that the position 

 above taken concerning the desirability of 

 making the opportunities at Washington 

 available for scientific work is unsound. 

 However, it is obvious that the failure of 

 these laws to produce marked effect is due 

 to three reasons. 



1. There is no information published de- 

 scribing the facilities for research at Wash- 

 ington and the different lines of work 

 which may be there profitably pursued. 



2. There has been available no single bu- 

 reau to which application can be made for 

 the use of the facilities, no one to guide the 

 work of the advanced students, no one to 

 correlate the different lines of work. It is 

 perfectly futile to suggest that a student 

 go to Washington, enter a bureau, tell some 

 official that he has come to take advantage 

 of the provisions of the laws mentioned. 

 This a man would not do ; and if he did so 

 the chances are that he would gain very 

 little satisfaction by so doing, for he would 

 be lost in the mazes of the bureaucracy. 

 As President Hadley puts it: "The stu- 

 dent who comes to Washington to-day to 

 get his scientific training in the govern- 

 ment departments comes under his own 

 impulse and at his own risk." 



3. For effective advanced work it is nec- 

 essary that regular instruction be given. 

 The existing laws do now provide for such 

 instruction. If the proposal be accepted 

 that members of the scientific staff be per- 

 mitted as a part of their duties to give a 

 limited amount of instruction, this funda- 

 mental necessity for successful advanced 

 work is met. In this connection it is no- 

 table that in those instances where instruc- 

 tion has been given by the members of the 

 staff, illustrated by the Bureau of Stand- 

 ards and the Bureau of Fisheries, the 

 facilities for advanced instruction have 



