OCTOBEB 19, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



505 



for the development of the scientific spirit at 

 Yale than the fact that Silliman's Journal of 

 Science, for many years the one high grade 

 American periodical of its kind, was published 

 here. In other lines we have not kept up to 

 the traditions set by Professor Silliman, and 

 have suffered from it rather severely; but it 

 is by no means too late for recovery. 



The independence of the different faculties 

 at Yale is in some respects a help, and in other 

 respects a hindrance, to our investigators. It 

 is a help in that it helps to keep alive the tra- 

 ditions of academic freedom. It is a hind- 

 rance in that it sometimes prevents the most 

 effective cooperation between the laboratories 

 of different departments. 



A thing which is an unmixed help in every 

 way, and should not be overlooked in any dis- 

 cussion of Yale's advantages, is the Graduates' 

 Club. By furnishing a center in which in- 

 structors and students of all grades and visi- 

 tors from abroad meet informally on a plane 

 of social equality, it tends to diffuse the spirit 

 of academic freedom and academic progress. 

 It adds immensely to the attractiveness of New 

 Haven as a place for the ambitious investi- 

 gator, be he student or instructor, and does 

 more than any other one thing to help the 

 formation of that indefinable thing called a 

 university atmosphere. The Graduates' Club 

 was not organized with this end in view. If 

 it had been, it probably could not have accom- 

 plished the result so effectively. 



SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH} 

 A COLLEGE, as the word is usually under- 

 stood in America, is a school of general train- 

 ing. Its work is found to be the more effect- 

 ive the better it is fitted to the traits of the 

 individual, but in the nature of things its 

 work with the individual is not limited to a 

 narrow range of subjects. The university is 

 a school of instruction through investigation. 

 Its characteristics are advanced research and 

 specialized development. As matters are, the 

 faculty of the American university has to deal 

 with two sets of students and two classes of 

 ^ From the annual report of President David 

 Starr Jordan, Stanford University. 



instruction, those of the college and those of 

 the university. But in both cases it is for 

 the university to set the standard. To the 

 university teacher, individual research is the 

 breath of life, and it is the duty of the insti- 

 tution in every reasonable way to foster its 

 development. 



In the practical consideration of this prob- 

 lem we may take the following propositions 

 as granted: 



1. A few men, and but a few, even in the 

 greatest universities, ever contribute very 

 much to the direct advancement of science. 



2. No one can be a great teacher without 

 the spirit of research; without this he lags 

 behind the progress of knowledge, and his men- 

 tal equipment becomes second-hand. 



3. With most men the practical purpose of 

 research is that they may be better teachers. 



4. With most men a reasonable following of 

 students is an aid to research, not a hindrance. 



5. Those who feel called to research, but who 

 can not or will not teach, should in general 

 look outside the university for careers, at least 

 until they have clearly proved their eminence. 



6. The imiversity should recognize the su- 

 perior teacher or investigator by relieving 

 him, as far as may be, of administrative 

 drudgery, which uses up time and strength 

 more than teaching does. Every active worker 

 should have what he needs in the way of help 

 of stenographers, artists, readers, curators, 

 mechanics and the like. A man of choice 

 powers should not waste his time on what 

 cheap men can do. It is often best to relieve 

 the ablest men in the department from its 

 executive responsibility. 



7. It is desirable that a university shotdd 

 publish the results of completed investigations 

 of its professors, and do this in first-class 

 form. Such publication in worthy manner is 

 a stimulus to good work. But material 

 brought together under stress of demand for 

 publication is best left unprinted. 



A MEMORIAL TO HERBERT SPENCER} 

 A SHORT time ago a petition was presented 

 to the Dean of Westminster asking permission 

 * From Nature. 



