OCTOBEE 10, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



581 



attitude may be temperamental and not to 

 be remedied by the acquisition of greater 

 leisure, in a great many instances it rep- 

 resents the real barrier to be removed. 

 More ample time for research can be 

 afforded highly qualified individual workers 

 by provision for research assistants, pro- 

 vision for the purchase or manufacture of 

 special or expensive apparatus, or possibly 

 by arrangement with university authorities 

 for relief from an undue burden of elemen- 

 tary instruction. 



In addition to the assistance that may 

 be afforded individual workers of maturity 

 and position, there is a scarcely less im- 

 portant field open in the granting of assist- 

 ance to those just entering upon a profes- 

 sional career. It is no longer true that the 

 attainment of the degree of doctor of phi- 

 losophy carries with it the immediate offer 

 of a college chair or indeed of any position 

 whatever. The period intervening between 

 the obtaining of the doctorate and the 

 securing of a satisfactory academic position 

 is often the most critical in the whole career 

 of the young investigator. American con- 

 ditions have not favored the engrafting of 

 the docent system, and as matters stand at 

 present there is nothing to bridge over this 

 difficult transition period. Men with 

 promise of high capability for investiga- 

 tion are often forced at this stage into the 

 premature preparation of text-books or into 

 other still less permanently valuable activi- 

 ties. It is of course not true that all young 

 men receiving the degree of doctor of phi- 

 losophy are equally worthy of assistance, but 

 there are always some among each year's 

 graduates who should not be smothered with 

 routine or with bread-and-butter work be- 

 fore they have been allowed to develop their 

 powers to the fullest extent. The whole 

 future of research depends upon these be- 

 ginning investigators, and the best of them 

 should be carefully sought for, and when 



found given every opportunity to make the 

 most of themselves. 



Orgahized groups or associations of scien- 

 tific men may further the interests of re- 

 search in a somewhat different way. Un- 

 dertakings impossible for the individual 

 workers may be set on foot and carried 

 through to a triumphant conclusion by the 

 cooperation of many workers in different 

 localities; extended series of experiments 

 may be carefully planned and coordinated, 

 and a system for the rapid interchange of 

 results and methods may be made to accel- 

 erate greatly the work in hand without in 

 any way curtailing the independence or 

 freedom of the individual worker. There 

 are already instances— as in the study of 

 the physiological action of alcohol— where 

 such cooperative, coordinated methods have 

 been effectively applied. This tendency is 

 apparent in many directions. Special insti- 

 tutes for the study of cancer and of scarlet 

 fever, special committees for the study of 

 biological variation, of atomic weight, of 

 water analysis and of many other topics 

 appealing to considerable groups of workers 

 are utilizing the services of many individu- 

 als and are greatly facilitating concentra- 

 tion along effective lines. The impulse to- 

 wards economy of energy that has led to 

 industrial concentration is forcing upon 

 scientific work the same necessity. Isolated, 

 desultory work is becoming distinctly less 

 effective ; researches by groups of investiga- 

 tors, whether of master and pupils or of lar- 

 ger groups, are playing an increasing part 

 in the advancement of science. Some 

 branches of scientific work are especially 

 fortunate in possessing already well-organ- 

 ized associations for the advancement of 

 research. The eminent group of natural- 

 ists who have founded and maintained the 

 Marine Biological Laboratory is one of the 

 most notable of these associations. It would 

 seem most natural that the Carnegie Institu- 



