174 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 370. 



wherein bodies of trained men should take 

 up, systematically and thoroughly, the 

 problems which are too large for individ- 

 uals to handle. Suppose that some of the 

 wealth which chemistry has created should 

 return to it in the form of a well-built, 

 well-equipped, and well-endowed labora- 

 tory, devoted to research alone— what 

 might we not expect from such a foun- 

 dation! Libraries, museums, schools and 

 universities receive endoAvments by the 

 score; observatories are equipped for 

 astronomical research; why should not 

 chemistry come in for her share of the 

 benefactions? Are our achievements so 

 great that we seem to need no aid 1 In this 

 hint there is a modicum of truth ; the users 

 of chemistry, the great industrial leaders, 

 see the wonderful resources of our science, 

 and do not realize that she can require 

 more. That the giver of help should her- 

 self demand assistance is a hard thing to 

 explain. 



This, then, is our greatest need; the en- 

 dowment of laboratories for systematic re- 

 search, wherein chemistry and physics 

 shall find joint provision. I say ' sys- 

 tematic research, ' in order to distinguish it 

 from the uncorrelated work of separate in- 

 dividuals. In physics, or for physics 

 primarily, a beginning has already been 

 made ; the Reiehsanstalt, at Berlin, the new 

 physical laboratory in London, and the 

 Bureau of Standards, at Washington, can 

 cover a part of the ground. But it is only 

 a part; for in each ease, and in other like 

 institutions, the researches are undertaken 

 mainly in response to industrial demands ; 

 to furnish methods and standards rather 

 than to develop principles and laws. The 

 advancement of science as science is quite 

 another affair. Neither does the Davy- 

 Faraday Laboratory in London exactly 

 meet our requirements. It is organized to 

 help individuals, by giving facilities for 

 work ; but it doesnot provide for the system- 



atic investigation of large problems, 

 through the combined efforts of a body of 

 chemists operating under a common plan. 

 These institutions are all steps in the evo- 

 lution of the research laboratory; but the 

 development, as yet, is incomplete. Labo- 

 ratories for instruction have been lavishly 

 provided, but in them research is subordi- 

 nate to teaching. The thesis of the stu- 

 dent may represent good work ; the leisure 

 of the instructor may be fruitful also ; but 

 organized research is a different thing, and 

 must have its own independent resources. 



Either at public expense or by private 

 enterprise, laboratories for research should 

 be established in all of the larger civilized 

 countries. By conference between them 

 their work could be so adjusted as to avoid 

 repetition, each one reinforcing the others. 

 Their primary function should be to per- 

 form the drudgery of science ; to undertake 

 the tedious, laborious, elaborate investiga- 

 tions from which the solitary worker 

 shrinks, but which are nevertheless essen- 

 tial to the healthy development of chem- 

 istry. Brilliant discovei'ies might be made 

 in them, but incidentally, and not as their 

 main purpose. Such discoveries would 

 surely follow if the fundamental work was 

 well done; but the latter should come first 

 as being the most essential. "Whether we 

 serve pure science or applied science, we 

 all feel the need of data which are as yet 

 undetermined, and whose ascertainment we 

 cannot undertake ourselves. How often 

 are we baffled in our own researches for 

 want of just such material ! In the verifica- 

 tion of methods and the determination of 

 constants, the research laboratory would 

 have plenty to do, even were nothing more 

 attempted. 



By the creation of laboratories such as 

 I have suggested, the independent scholar 

 might be aided in many ways. The antece- 

 dent data, without which his researches are 

 crippled, could often be furnished, thus 



