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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 403. 



to contribute for. the px-esent $10,000 a year, 

 on condition that those interested in the 

 laboratory contribute an equal sum, the 

 condition would be met, and the funds of 

 the institution would go twice as far as if 

 it assumed control. They would indeed go 

 further ; for example, the director and other 

 scientific men serve the laboratory without 

 salary; should a director be appointed 

 from Washington, he would naturally ex- 

 pect and should receive a salary of $5,000 

 or $10,000. If the laboratory is continued 

 as an independent institution, it will soon- 

 er or later receive adequate endowments, 

 and the Carnegie Institution can then use 

 its funds for other purposes. If the lab- 

 oratory is made equal to the station at 

 Naples, and nothing less has always been 

 intended by those interested in it, an an- 

 nual appropriation of $50,000 will be re- 

 quired; should branches be established and 

 an experimental farm added, this appropri- 

 ation will need to be doubled, and no money 

 would remain for purposes equally impor- 

 tant for the advancement of biology. It 

 seems that as a branch of the Carnegie In- 

 stitution the laboratory would either be less 

 adequately supported than if it had re- 

 mained an independent institution, or it 

 would be aggrandized at the cost of other 

 biological laboratories, exploring expedi- 

 tions, etc. In either ease the centralized 

 power of money would crush the only seri- 

 ous attempt of scientific men to conduct an 

 institution for research. 



The fact that the erection of a geophys- 

 ical laboratory at Washington or the ac- 

 quirement of the Marine Biological 

 laboratory at Woods Hole does not seem 

 to be the best use of the endowment of the 

 Carnegie Institution, does not mean that 

 the institution should not conduct any 

 laboratory. There are undoubtedly serious 

 difficulties in the way of simply distributing 

 the entire income among existing institu- 

 tions. These institutions might depend on 



subsidies rather than on their own efforts, 

 and they might transfer to other uses funds 

 that are now spent on the objects that the 

 Carnegie Institution would support. It is 

 reported that one small college has asked 

 that its share of the fund be forwarded. 

 As a matter of fact there are not urgent and 

 important demands on the funds for re- 

 search already existing— the Elizabeth 

 Thompson Science Fund, tli3 trust funds 

 of the National Academy of Sciences and 

 of the Smithsonian Institixtion, and the re- 

 search fund of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science. 



The Carnegie Institution can not with 

 advantage be an Elizabeth Thompson 

 Science Fund on a large scale; neither 

 should it abandon its individuality to merge 

 its income in existing agencies. The na- 

 tional government spends $10,000,000 a 

 year on its scientific departments, and 

 universities spend annually in their vari- 

 ous activities a much greater sum. The in- 

 come of the Carnegie Institution, if merged 

 with other agencies or made coordinate 

 with them, would simply add 1 or 2 per 

 cent, to the scientific activity of the coun- 

 try, which is already increasing at the rate 

 of perhaps 10 per cent, each year. 



The endowment of the Carnegie Institu- 

 tion if invested in government bonds would 

 yield an income of $200,000 ; if invested in 

 securities approved by the courts for trust 

 funds, from $300,000 to $350,000. Per- 

 haps one fifth of the income will be required 

 for the expenses of administration. It may 

 be that Mr. Carnegie will enlarge the fund ; 

 this will doubtless depend on his judgment 

 as to whether or not the money is used 

 more effectively for the public good than it 

 could be in any other way. It seems that 

 for the present at least one half of the in- 

 come might be used to best advantage in 

 assisting researches and existing institu- 

 tions throughout the country, and in es- 

 tablishing new agencies that would become 



