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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. Xi"o. 1012 



the same time prepare the way for their 

 widest application and utilization. 



The efficiency of the scientific worker 

 bears a very direct relation to the motives 

 which guide him in his work. The tempta- 

 tion to follow the line of thought or study 

 that for the time appears most attractive is 

 very great and for some irresistible, and 

 advance in one direction proceeds only 

 until a new and more inviting path is 

 crossed, but the scientist who pursues such 

 a wavering course is apt to be like the 

 aeronaut, very much in the air. The most 

 effective workers are those who have the 

 greatest power of sticking to a subject until 

 every means of forcing the truth to reveal 

 itself has been exhausted. As the neces- 

 sity increases for a general attack upon the 

 more difficult and fundamental problems, 

 the greater is the demand for patience and 

 perserverance in the prosecution of inves- 

 tigation. The homely, but expressive say- 

 ing, "It's dogged as does it," which was 

 often quoted by Darwin, illustrates a men- 

 tal characteristic which has led many a 

 man to overcome apparently insurmounta- 

 ble difficulties. 



It is also easy to fall into the error of 

 assuming that the collection of data is 

 science and that whoever actively and in- 

 dustriously accumulates a large collection 

 of observations on various natural phe- 

 nomena thereby contributes largely to 

 scientific progress. But the application of 

 thought in lines that lead to definite and 

 tangible results, and the collection of data 

 to some useful purpose, "will always have 

 as their guiding motive the testing of some 

 tentative hypothesis needed for the expla- 

 nation of our experience." The shelves 

 of our libraries bear many a musty tome in 

 which are recorded countless observations 

 on the phenomena presented by plants, but 

 many of these observations have little mean- 

 ing for science to-day either because they 



were not made with sufficient discrimi- 

 nating care and precision to give them 

 scientific accuracy, or because they lacked 

 the correlation with well established facts 

 necessary to their interpretation in har- 

 mony with later discoveries. Other obser- 

 vations have remained in oblivion or con- 

 scious neglect, either because of the accident 

 of their place of publication or because 

 they did not appear in one of the "recog- 

 nized" mediums of scientific utterance. 

 It seems reasonable to assume that the 

 scientific accuracy or validity of published 

 observations or conclusions depends upon 

 the efficiency of their author rather than 

 upon the place of publication. Those who 

 regard a restricted group of books and 

 journals as a canon to which alone they 

 look for authentic scientific utterance, and 

 regard all others as apoehryphal do but 

 perpetuate the ancient schism between the 

 botanists, on the one hand, and the gar- 

 deners and horticulturists on the other. 



Efficiency implies not only a wide knowl- 

 edge of facts, but also a breadth of view 

 which will enable the relations between 

 various categories of facts to be seen clearly. 

 How the lack of understanding of the 

 known phenomena and facts may operate 

 to retard the diffusion of knowledge is well 

 illustrated by the failure of contemporary 

 scientists to understand and accept the dis- 

 coveries of the early plant breeders. While 

 the gardeners were making discoveries the 

 importance of which was not recognized 

 until nearly a century later, the real scien- 

 tists were occupied with the recognition 

 and classification of species. The failure 

 of botanists to give credence to the early 

 investigations in plant breeding has been 

 variously explained, but we may well accept 

 the view of Focke* that "these discoveries 

 did not fit into the idea of nature then 



4 Focke, W. O., "Die Pflanzen-Misehlinge, " 

 1881, s. 433. 



