584 



SCIENCE. 



[N. 8. Vol. XVI. No. 406. 



existing laboratories and cooperating with 

 existing institutions for the purpose. It 

 would then be possible to modify the plan 

 at any time without loss, if the erection 

 of special buildings or laboratories should 

 appear desirable. 



From the statistics of doctorates con- 

 ferred during the past five years (Science, 

 Sept. 5, 1902, p. 363) it appears that twice 

 as many degrees were given in chemistry 

 (137) as in any other subject, physics fol- 

 lowing with 68. We certainly have now 

 enough chemical and physical laboratories 

 to meet present requirements, and money 

 expended in these sciences should be de- 

 voted, not to equipping new ones, but 

 rather in assisting existing ones to do bet- 

 ter work, by aiding the purchase of appa- 

 ratus and supplies (including books) with 

 a view to special work, and in encourag- 

 ing the most promising men to continue 

 their investigations. Most of the new doc- 

 tors will never again appear as producers 

 of works of pure science, not always be- 

 cause of disinclination or incapacity, but 

 because of the necessity of earning a living 

 by devoting themselves to more profitable 

 pursuits. Probably few scientific men 

 work with the view of disinterestedly .pro- 

 moting science. More powerful motives 

 are the desire of approbation and of 

 wealth. The best men are quite as desirous 

 as others of attaining social standing, and, 

 as every one knows, social standing in this 

 country depends not so much on what one 

 does or attains, as on what one spends, and 

 few men are so constituted that the pleas- 

 ures of scientific discovery or the appro- 

 bation of perhaps a dozen specialists is 

 sufficient compensation for poverty and 

 social neglect, and this feeling is likely to 

 increase rather than diminish with advan- 

 cing age. 



The Carnegie Institution should, there- 

 fore, do as much as possible to render life 

 socially endurable to the best investigators 



by offering liberal assistance, in the form 

 either of salaries or of subsidies for inves- 

 tigation, with the understanding that they 

 are to accept no expert work requiring 

 much time, and conduct no researches the 

 results of which are not to become public 

 property, and then only when it is clear 

 that they would otherwise be driven to 

 other occupations. The awarding substan- 

 tial prizes for good work would afford a 

 further means of encouraging research, 

 care being taken that it does not lead to 

 duplication, as may happen when special 

 problems are proposed for solution. Of 

 course all immediately practical problems 

 for the solution of which there exists a 

 sufficient financial inducement should be 

 avoided. 



With regard to publication, my opinion 

 is that no encouragement whatever should 

 be given to such composite publications as 

 the Proceedings of Academies, or those col- 

 lege or university journals of mixed char- 

 acter, the object of which is clearly to ad- 

 vertise the institutions at the expense of a 

 wide circulation of the results among spe- 

 cialists concerned. These have their own 

 reward. The publication of monographs 

 might well be undertaken, and assistance 

 given to special joixrnals in the case of 

 meritorious papers which would clearly 

 otherwise go unpublished. The establish- 

 ment of a printing and engraving plant, 

 however, would seem inadvisable at pres- 

 ent, for reasons given above. 



The organization and direction of re- 

 search, while offering a field of usefulness, 

 might easily be carried too far. The best 

 scientific minds are intensely individual- 

 istic, and the attempt to place a really orig- 

 inal investigator under the direction of 

 another man would only result in detri- 

 ment to his work. Unless, therefore, it 

 should clearly appear in any case that di- 

 rection is indispensable the institution 

 should limit itself to bringing investigators 



