458 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX. No. 1272 



to congregate in a few popular marine labora- 

 tories, there to run and howl with the pack, 

 and would lead to greater independence in our 

 scientific spirit and work. 



Over against this suggestion of something 

 the government might well do, I would place 

 a suggestion of something the universities 

 might well do. In the interests of their own 

 work and of keeping it abreast of the times, 

 they might make provision for sending their 

 investigators each year to meetings such as 

 this one, and to all national meetings in the 

 field of the sciences that they cultivate : I 

 mean, pay their traveling expenses. It would 

 cost comparatively little and would help to 

 keep both men and institutions alive. 



Such means of getting together would pro- 

 vide opportimities for the exchange of experi- 

 ence, for learning new methods and for get- 

 ting help from fellow specialists. 



After all, we need to realize that coopera- 

 tion in research has its serious limitations. 

 Heal research is nearly always the work of 

 individuals. Nature does not yield up her 

 secrets to a crowd or even to a committee, but 

 only to her humble devotee, when working 

 alone and apart. When a man is f oimd work- 

 ing at a problem for which he is well trained 

 and well equipped and in which he has both 

 faith and zeal, the best way to cooperate with 

 that man is to let him alone and keep out of 

 his road. 



Cooperation is limited in advance to getting 

 oriented, and getting equipped. But after a 

 discovery of a fundamental nature has been 

 made, then cooperation is needed to learn the 

 limits of its application. Life is a complex 

 of changing factors, and environment is a 

 complex of instable conditions. A good 

 method is often good only locally and imder 

 certain conditions. Especially in field work 

 in entomology it needs to be tested out zone 

 by zone and province by province; and the co- 

 peration of many hands in many places is 

 needed to find its limitations, and its true 

 economic value. 



Let us meet and exchange experiences. 

 Progress in knowledge usually depends on our 

 ability to take a hint from nature, as to where 



to look and what to look for : and the hint we 

 may often obtain from the work of another. 

 Betterment of methods oftenest grows out of 

 comparison of results. Let me assure Dr. 

 Howard that laboratory men are not unmind- 

 ful of the limitations of laboratory methods, 

 nor tuLwilling to go out in the field and 

 acquaint themselves with the scientific prob- 

 lems the work of the bureau has raised, nor 

 indisposed to do all they can to help solve 

 them. 



J. Gr. Needhaji 

 Cornell TJniveesitt 



THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 



ORGANIZATION OF THE NATIONAL RESEARCH 

 COUNCIL! 



PREAMBLE 



The l^ational Academy of Sciences, under 

 the authority conferred upon it by its charter 

 enacted by Congress, and approved by Presi- 

 dent Lincoln on March 3, 1863, and pursuant 

 to the request expressed in an Executive 

 Order made by President Wilson on May 11, 

 1918, hereto appended, adopts the following 

 permanent organization for the National Re- 

 search Council, to replace the temporary or- 

 ganization uwder which it has operated here- 

 tofore. 



ARTICLE I. — PURPOSE 



It shall be the purpose of the National Re- 

 search Council to promote research in the 

 mathematical, physical and biological sci- 

 ences, and in the application of these sciences 

 to engineering, agriculture, medicine and 

 other useful arts, with the object of increasing 

 knowledge, of strengthening the national de- 

 fense, and of contributing in other ways to 

 the public welfare, as expressed in the exec- 

 utive order of May 11, 1918. 



ARTICLE n. MEMBERSHIP 



Section 1. The membership of the National 

 Research Council shall be chosen with the 

 view of rendering the Council an efiective 

 federation of the principal research agencies 



1 Approved by the National Academy of Sciences 

 at its meeting on April 30, 1919. 



