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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1014 



scholars in past ages serve to remind us of 

 sad possibilities, and they should serve to 

 spur us to the noblest efforts. The greatest 

 danger which besets investigation is corrup- 

 tion within the ranks of the investigators. 

 It still remains to be proven that the lot of 

 the investigators in pure science can be 

 made permanently attractive without sup- 

 plementing them by crooks. 



We all rejoice in every new evidence of 

 the benefits derived from scientific discov- 

 eries. Those which reach every corner of 

 our land are especially fraught with signifi- 

 cance in view of their widespread effect in 

 inspiring general confidence in the value of 

 scientific investigation. Hence we have 

 good reason to rejoice at this time on ac- 

 count of the important role scientific sani- 

 tation played in the digging of the Panama 

 Canal. Such evidences have been so nu- 

 merous in recent years as to create a new 

 danger: viz., the unthinking mass may be- 

 come too easy a prey to the extortioner who 

 may use these facts to secure an undue 

 amount of money from them. Oppression 

 even in the name of promotion of science 

 can not be countenanced by those interested 

 in the permanent service of our subject. 



In closing, I desire to call your attention 

 to the fact that one of your serious duties is 

 to make people forget that you were elected 

 as members of the Sigma Xi, just as people 

 ought to forget that you are a graduate of a 

 college or that you have the doctor 's degree. 

 If, when you think of a man who is over 

 forty years old, the thing that is prominent 

 in your .mind is that he graduated from 

 Harvard or that he took his doctor 's degree 

 at Paris, it is almost certain that the man 

 does not amount to much. If our future at- 

 tainments do not overshadow our local uni- 

 versity distinctions we have not been a suc- 

 cess. 



Tour entrance into this society should 

 overshadow the honors achieved through 



your good work in the high school; but 

 compared with your future achievements, 

 these present honors should sink into insig- 

 nificance. A few years ago we thought of 

 President Wilson as the president of 

 Princeton, but to-day we think of him as 

 president of the United States. Those of us 

 who think of both of these types of positions 

 as political achievements will naturally 

 think of the latter achievement first. As far 

 as the former position implies scholarly 

 achievements, it can, of course, not be com- 

 pared with the latter. 



In purely scholarly achievements the 

 comparison is simpler, and, in this case, we 

 should always view with suspicion the man 

 of forty who is still regarded as a Harvard 

 or a Yale product; or who is still distin- 

 guished by the fact that he has a Ph.D. 

 from a noted institution. I can not help 

 thinking of such a man scientifically as still 

 a babe in long dresses. Desirable as these 

 distinctions may be in early years, they are 

 only of temporary prominence as regards 

 the man who actually is worthy of them. 

 To avoid misunderstanding, I desire to 

 emphasize the fact that I believe very 

 heartily in such scientific distinctions as 

 those which are attached to your election 

 to this body. I sometimes think we have 

 too few opportunities to mark in a public 

 way, the various steps towards higher and 

 higher scientifiei attainments. The fact 

 which I desired to make perfectly clear is 

 that our eyes should always be fixed on 

 still higher attainments. There are too 

 many intellectually satisfied people among 

 us — too many whose scientific achievements 

 could no longer be verified if they had not 

 been securely established on parchment 

 with India ink. 



We welcome you into a society which 

 stands for infinite progress in fields of infi- 

 nite riches, a society which recognizes that 

 our fathers knew less than we do and that 



