May 9, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



441 



the mingling of science and militarism. 

 The chief lesson can be put in a single- 

 phrase: They do not mix. The "War Gas 

 Investigations, which formed the nucleus on 

 which the Chemical Warfare Service finally 

 developed, and the Medical Aviation In- 

 vestigations, of which I have spoken this 

 evening, were both successful largely be- 

 cause at first they were developed iinder 

 civilian control, under that splendid scien- 

 tific arm of the government, the Bureau of 

 Mines and its able director. It is a wise 

 provision of our government by which the 

 Secretary and Assistant Secretaries of "War 

 are always civilians. It would also be wise 

 for the general statf in any future war to 

 keep scientific men on a scientific status in- 

 stead of practically forcing them into uni- 

 form. 



"We all hope that we are done with war, 

 and with soldiers — at least for a generation. 

 We can, however, derive certain broad les- 

 sons applicable to the conditions of peace 

 from the experiences and intense activities 

 of war, when almost unlimited funds were 

 obtainaJble for research and the experiences 

 ordinarily scattered over years were 

 crowded into a few months. One of these 

 lessons is that scientific men need to develop 

 the capacity to become the heads of large 

 enterprises without ceasing to be scientific, 

 without degenerating, as is too often the 

 case, into the super-clerk, who seems to be 

 the American ideal of the high executive 

 ofiBcial. It is not enough for the scientific 

 man to become the expert adviser to the 

 unscientific administrator. If the latter has 

 the responsibility he will use his power as 

 he, and not as the scientific man, sees fit. 

 To this rule I have known only one splendid 

 exception. 



For the most part among us the great 

 prizes go to the man who works up through 

 clerical rather than through expert lines. 

 "We must find some way to change this. The 



path of science must lead to the top, and at 

 the top must still be science. To achieve 

 this ideal, the scientist must show generos- 

 ity toward colleagues and subordinates, an 

 enthusiastic recognition of their merit and 

 an abnegation of self-aggrandizement, no 

 less than skill in plan and energy in execu- 

 tion. It is essential also that he should de- 

 velop methods for conserving time and 

 strength b.y assigning clerical work to clerks 

 instead of becoming a clerk himself, in 

 order that he may keep mind and desk clear 

 for the really important things. 



The Chemical "Warfare Service was a 

 success largely because the chief of the Re- 

 search Division followed these principles 

 as the spontaneous promptings of science 

 and patriotism.^" Medical research in avia- 

 tion was productive just so long as it pur- 

 sued a similar course. 



He who charts this course, so that others 

 may follow it through the pathless seas of 

 the future, will make a great contribution 

 to science, education, government, and in- 

 deed to nearly everj' phase of trained activ- 

 ity in America. 



Tandell IIexderson 



Yale University 



A NEW DEPOSIT OF URANIUM OREi 



Hitherto the known deposits of radium- 

 uranium ore of commercial importance in the 

 United States have been confined to the 

 camotite fields of Colorado and Utah, and to 

 a much smaller extent to the pitchblende of 

 Gilpin county, Colorado. In the spring of 

 1918, a new uranium deposit was discovered at 

 Lusk, Wyo., which is hundreds of miles from 

 any other known fields, and which has proved 

 to be the first isolated deposit of uranium ore 

 to produce commercial quantities. The de- 

 posit at Lusk has now proved itself by the 



10 Cf. G. A. Burrell, Journal of Industrial and 

 Engineering Chemistry, 1918, Vol. II., p. 93. 



1 Published with the permission of the director 

 of the U. S. Bureau of Mines. 



