414 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 402. 



modern method of systematic attack upon 

 the still unrevealed treasures of the natural 

 M'orld, and the foundation of associations 

 and the provision of large capital for the 

 work of research are the most recent in- 

 strumentalities. The Eoyal Institution of 

 Great Britain, built up by the great Amer- 

 ican, Count Eumford, the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, established in the United States 

 by a famous Englishman, and the Carnegie 

 Institution, now just founded by the great- 

 est of organizers, a Scotch American, are 

 illustrations of the latest and greatest of 

 modern systems of deliberate preparation 

 for, and of systematic prosecution of, scien- 

 tific promotion of the advancement of 

 science. 



VI. 



Results obtained, whether in the imme- 

 diate work of solution of ,the problem in 

 hand or incidentally and as bearing upon 

 other more or less related questions, should 

 be very carefully and systematically col- 

 lated, systematized with reference to theif 

 respective relations to the problem, and, 

 where practicable, tabulated in such man- 

 ner as will permit their convenient izse at 

 all times and for any purpose. The data 

 and the results of investigation will thus 

 be brought into natural relations and pro- 

 pinquity, and the whole outcome of the 

 work thus brought into relief and given 

 available form for study. 



It wiU often be found possible to employ 

 the figures thus obtained in the identifica- 

 tion of constants in already known rational 

 equations forming part of the previously 

 constructed theory of the case, or in empir- 

 ical expressions improvised for the occa- 

 sion. Wlierever numerical and mathe- 

 matical relations can be identified and ex- 

 pressed, and even when analysis does not 

 lend itself readily to the work, it will 

 often be found practicable to express the 

 law relating new data and new facts to one 

 another and to the already established sys- 



tem, so far as complete, by graphical 

 methods. In fact, for many, if not for most, 

 purposes, it is much easier to comprehend 

 and to employ a law exhibited by lines and 

 curves than when it is stated algebraically. 

 Many problems which are difficult, if not 

 impracticable, of solution by algebraic 

 analysis, may be readily, conveniently and 

 fruitfully solved graphically. 



Wherever practicable, the rational ex- 

 pression of the law is far preferable to the 

 approximate and the empirical formula 

 representing the relation of data obtained 

 experimentally, and without reference to 

 the underlying law; yet it often happens 

 that the first, and in fact only practicable, 

 system is that of plotting curves on 

 'squared paper,' 'section paper,' and ob- 

 taining their equations as the algebraic 

 representation of relations and sequence. 

 This was done by Regnault in constructing 

 his still standard and classic ' steam- tables. ' 



The laboratory for research, devoted 

 especially to that work, equipped with 

 every known device for weighing, for 

 measuring, and for recording data, fur- 

 nished with a staff of trained and scientifi- 

 cally learned men, directed by one supreme 

 directing mind, is the latest and greatest 

 of mechanisms for working those inex- 

 haustible mines in all departments of sci- 

 ence. But the laboratory for research, how- 

 ever well equipped and manned, must 

 usually have its special field, and many 

 laboratories must be employed in the 

 development of the innumerable lines of 

 scientific research already opened and par- 

 tially explored. Any one organization must 

 invariably find itself drawn by a sort of 

 grativation into some special field, and 

 specialization is as natural, and as neces- 

 sary, in fact, in research as in any other 

 biTsiness. The laboratory of one great in- 

 vestigator becomes absorbed in the study 

 of the coal-tar products ; that of another in 

 the investigation of the conductibility and 



