Apkil 16, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



557 



versities. On the other hand, experience 

 has shown that those parts of scientific work 

 which relate directly to useful applications 

 can be carried on successfully under the 

 pressure of general public demand; the 

 material rewards of successful invention 

 are a sufficient incentive to inventors. This, 

 however, has never been triie of investiga- 

 tion in fundamental fields of pure science, 

 and it is difficult to see how it ever can be 

 true. Such work itself is its own chief re- 

 ward. Isolated men of genius may make 

 great discoveries, as Boyle, Cavendish and 

 Darwin have done in England ; but in such 

 eases fortunate circumstances and leisure 

 are essential, and the number of such men is 

 very small. For most investigators the op- 

 portunity of engaging in purely scientific 

 or scholarly investigations is to be found 

 only in the universities. The relation of 

 universities to fundamental scientific prog- 

 ress is thus a peculiarly intimate one. 



Advance in knowledge, as distinguished 

 from the maintenance and application of 

 existing knowledge, thus depends ultimately 

 on the work of the investigator, and chiefly 

 on the investigator in the university. If he 

 is to accomplish his function he must direct 

 his efforts to the practicable, under condi- 

 tions that are favorable to his work — or at 

 least not too unfavorable, for good will and 

 talent can accomplish much in spite of ad- 

 verse conditions. First, what is practic- 

 able ? In his ' ' Advancement of Learning ' ' 

 Bacon, the first advocate of systematic in- 

 vestigation, says: 



I take it those things are to be held possible 

 which may be done by some person though not by 

 every one, and which may be done by many, but 

 not by any one, and which may be done in a suc- 

 cession of ages though not within the hourglass of 

 one man's life; and which may be done by pub- 

 lic designation though not by private endeavor.'^ 



2 1 wish to express my indebtedness for this 

 quotation to Dr. Mall's interesting article in the 

 Journal of the American Medical Association, 

 1913, Vol. 60, p. 1599. 



Bacon thus recognizes that many projects 

 call for collective and coordinated endeavor, 

 while others require individuals gifted with 

 the necessary talents or opportunity. Col- 

 lective action and individual action both 

 play a part, and this is as true of the ad- 

 vance of science as of any other form of 

 enterprise. Now it is a characteristic of 

 our time and country that more stress 

 seems to be laid on the importance of col- 

 lective action or cooperation in scientific re- 

 search, than on the importance of giving 

 scope to the single investigator of original 

 scientific genius. Whether this tendency is 

 right or wrong I need not discuss just now. 

 It is clear that cooperative research is essen- 

 tial for the solution of many scientific prob- 

 lems, especially those requiring the accumu- 

 lation and coordination of large masses of 

 data. Much of the work in statistics, he- 

 redity, astronomy, geology, sociology, and 

 other sciences is of this nature ; here are il- 

 lustrated Bacon's classes of work "which 

 may be done by many, but not by any one, 

 or which may be done by public designa- 

 tion but not by private endeavor" ; one has 

 only to think of what is done by geological 

 surveys, statistical associations, or scientific 

 societies. Work which can not be done 

 "within the hourglass of one man's life" 

 may be well within the scope of an associa- 

 tion; thus we have investigations relating 

 to natural events which recur infrequently, 

 like earthquakes or sunspot periods, or to 

 processes which take place very slowly, like 

 evolutionary changes in organisms, star 

 movements, or other cosmic changes. Only 

 the coordinated work of generations can 

 throw light on such matters. Cooperative 

 research thus plays an important part in 

 the science of to-day, and there is a strong 

 tendency on the part of many scientific men 

 to insist on its all-sufficiency, and to regard 

 the work of isolated or independent inves- 

 tigators as of minor consequence. 



