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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1013 



public exhibitions we call museums, the in- 

 quiry into the day of the expert is one that 

 vitally touches the whole ofScial activity of 

 every museum worker. The inquiry nat- 

 urally divides itself into four: 



What has been the position of the expert 

 among us? 



What change suggests itself? 



What are the bearings of change ? 



What are the prospects of change? 



We shall offer replies to these questions 

 in succession: (1) by arguing that the pre- 

 vailing attitude of institutions of the hu- 

 manities in this country toward their ex- 

 pert employees is out of date; (2) by speci- 

 fying a reform that would bring it up to 

 date; (3) by meeting criticism of the new 

 order; and (4) by noting its approach. 

 We shall describe an outgrown condition, 

 state and defend an adjustment, and re- 

 port progress toward it. A glimpse of the 

 past will lead to a glimpse of the future. 



By expert will here be meant a person 

 whose achievements demand special apti- 

 tudes long exercised ; and by his day a time 

 when these developed abilities are used to 

 the best advantage of the community. 



For the expert in this country, to-day, 

 according to frequent remark, is not such a 

 time ; but there are signs that to-morrow 

 will be. 



Here and now, the work of the expert is 

 largely carried on as a branch of corporate 

 activity. Our men of science, pure and ap- 

 plied, our lawyers, doctors, educators, 

 clergymen, social workers, artists and stu- 

 dents of art, while they may practise their 

 specialties alone, very commonly also serve 

 some corporation, and in great numbers 

 serve a corporation exclusively, as do most 

 of us assembled here. 



A corporation is a body of men empow- 

 ered by the state to join in a certain pur- 

 pose, and held responsible for its due ful- 

 filment. At the end of his brief and hamp- 



ered career as premier of England, Lord 

 Rosebery is reported to have said: "Re- 

 sponsibility without power is hell. " To be 

 discharged successfully, duty must be 

 coupled with corresponding authority. 

 This is the foundation principle with which 

 any study of the corporate sphere of the 

 expert must begin. 



A corporation engaging the aid of a staff 

 is responsible at once for every detail of 

 their action in its service, and for every de- 

 tail of their outside life, in so far as this 

 reacts upon their official activity ; and hence 

 possesses equivalent rights of control, sub- 

 ject only to law and custom. 



Rights of total control presuppose in 

 turn competence for total control. To en- 

 sure it, two methods of selecting the mem- 

 bership of a corporation are possible. In 

 giving a certain purpose into the sole 

 charge of cei'tain persons, regard may be 

 had either to the purpose chiefly, or to the 

 persons chiefly ; to their special competence, 

 or to their general competence. 



In the history of this country, the choice 

 among men of the professions concerned 

 was a colonial method; that among men of 

 ability, however displayed, has been our 

 national method. 



The colonial method was an inheritance 

 from the old world. Leonardo da Vinci is 

 spoken of as the last European to take all 

 knowledge for his province. With the de- 

 velopment of the sciences and the arts after 

 him, even men of commanding powers be- 

 came specialists. Following the example 

 of the mother country, the colonies placed 

 their first colleges under the control of edu- 

 cational experts — in the main their clerics 

 par excellence, or clergymen. An interpre- 

 tation of the charter of Harvard College of 

 1636 given later by the colonial legislature, 

 affirmed that the corporation was restricted 

 to members of the teaching force; as the 

 corporations of Oxford and Cambridge in 



