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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 405. 



II. It should refrain from unnecessary 

 or unwelcome interference in work already 

 being done by individuals and by other in- 

 stitutions. 



III. Care should be taken to encourage 

 scientific work all over the country. 



IV. Applications for aid should be re- 

 ceived from men engaged in scientific 

 work, and these applications should be re- 

 ferred to committees of specialists for 

 advice. 



V. The national government should co- 

 operate with the Institution by providing 

 the necessary buildings at Washington and 

 by permitting, so far as convenient and 

 under proper restrictions, the utilization 

 of the scientific bureaus of the various 

 departments. 



VI. Some means should be sought to 

 utilize the sabbatical years of university 

 professors engaged in scientific work. 



I have no doubt, however, but that the 

 Institution contemplates doing all these 

 things and .many more. 



J. C. Brannek. 

 Stanford University, Calif., 

 September 15, 1902. 



I HAVE read with great interest the proof- 

 sheets of the article on the Carnegie 

 Institution. I approve of most of the 

 suggestions. The directors of the Institu- 

 tion must feel their way for a time, and 

 relative values will be made clearer by 

 experience. 



The vital principles should be, as, stated 

 in the article : 



(a) To work in harmony with existing 

 institutions, not conflicting with them, and 

 not relieving them from any present neces- 

 sity of effort. 



(b) To make the work of scientific in- 

 vestigators freer and more effective. 



I should place first in present importance 

 among the many possible lines of work 

 that of helping men who have important 



investigations or important compilations 

 (as bibliographies) well begun to carry 

 their efforts to a successful end. There are 

 many cases of this kind, in which the 

 worker needs not salary, but help, books, 

 materials, and more often clerk-hire, artist- 

 hire or means of final publication in proper 

 form. Here the exceptional man is already 

 at hand. He will do his work whether en- 

 couraged or not. He will bring it to a suc- 

 cessful end, if he can have time, help and 

 opportunity. 



The establishment of laboratories at 

 Washington for special investigations not 

 yet well provided for seems to me most 

 legitimate. One example of such an insti- 

 tution would be a breeding house or 

 vivarium for the study of heredity and 

 variation on a large scale and with a com- 

 petent force for observation and record. 

 Such an establishment shoiild be in charge 

 of the man Avho, whatever his nativity, 

 could make the most out of it. In every 

 branch of knowledge there is some real 

 demand for help of this kind. 



I trust that no part of the fund will be 

 used to pay the expenses of students as 

 such, as distinguished from tried investi- 

 gators. The university fellowship, a fund 

 for paying the board bills of those who 

 may turn out to be scholars, is not gaining 

 in esteem. Doubtless a Carnegie fellowship 

 to one doctor ir. pliilosophy out of every 

 ten would help scientific research somewhat, 

 and it could be used — as few fellowships 

 are now used— without danger of pauperi- 

 zing embryo investigators. But so long as 

 so many better uses for money exist, this 

 one need not be considered. 



I do not underrate the value of oppor- 

 tunity to the eager but impecunious stu- 

 dent. The free use of a room in the old 

 Smithsonian Tower was once the most 

 valued 'fellowship' open to young natural- 

 ists in America. The present writer, among 

 others, feels the sincerest gratitude for the 



