738 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 307. 



applied in any case is likely to serve as a 

 precedent for the next. 



It goes without saying that the method 

 of selection of such heads is, in our coun- 

 try, an unsatisfatcory one. Not that this 

 method always secures incompetent ap- 

 pointees ; many eminent men have come 

 thus into the government service in spite 

 of the method ; but it presents an open 

 door to the formidable class of opportunists 

 whose claims to high office are not based 

 on professional qualifications. Thus, not 

 infrequently, notoriously unfit men are 

 placed temporarily in charge of the highest 

 grades of scientific work. Their ridiculous 

 careers in such roles are generally short, 

 but yet long enough to establish precedents 

 which place-hunters of all sorts are not 

 slow to utilize. Hence it follows that the 

 tenure of office of the heads of our scien- 

 tific bureaus is short ; that the conduct of 

 bureau work is usually less effective than 

 it ought to be ; and that the employees in 

 such bureaus are periodically distracted 

 with the fear that at the next turn of the 

 kaleidoscope they may find themselves offi- 

 cially decapitated. It is a fact, we believe, 

 that the superintendents of the Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey have succeeded one another 

 during several decades with a rapidity only 

 surpassed by that of recent political events 

 in China. One may well marvel how, un- 

 der such adverse conditions, it has been 

 possible for this bureau to accomplish so 

 much first-class scientific work as is actu- 

 ally recorded in its bulky annual reports. 



But the practical enquiry in this connec- 

 tion is, ' what are we going to do about it ?' 

 How long is it going to be possible, for ex- 



ample, for mere ' influence,' often prepared 

 in the most shameless manner, to stampede 

 the President of the United States into ap- 

 pointing to professorships of mathematics 

 in the navy men who know nothing of that 

 science, or into appointing to the superin- 

 tendency of the Coast and Geodetic Survey- 

 men who may convert that bureau into a 

 manufactory of ten-place logarithms ? 



Our correspondent suggests, we think, a 

 practicable way out of the difficulty. It 

 does seem proper, as he urges, that the sci- 

 entific organizations of our country should 

 interest themselves in matters which, ac- 

 cording as they are well or ill administered, 

 must reflect credit or discredit on American 

 science. Why may not the National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences become in fact, as it is by 

 law entitled to be, the adviser of the gov- 

 ernment in matters scientific? Or, if it is 

 for any reason impracticable for this Acad- 

 emy to fulfill its natural functions, why may 

 we not have a board of regents, similar to 

 that of the Smithsonian Institution, whose 

 duty it shall be to give the government ad- 

 vice concerning the direction of national 

 scientific work? There is no reason, ap- 

 aarently, why we may not have such an 

 advisory body unless it be the inadequate 

 reason of ' general apathy. ' Our govern- 

 ment could, if it would, and our scientific 

 organizations can, if they are willing to 

 make the effort, secure just such expert ad- 

 vice as is needed free of cost. We venture 

 to assert, for example, that if either the 

 National Academy of Sciences or the Amer- 

 ican Society of Civil Engineers were asked 

 to do so it would speedily suggest two or 

 three eminently worthy candidates for the 



