602 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 407. 



any other thing which is knowable. "\^1ien 

 the astronomer undertakes, with the refine- 

 ments of modern instrumental equipment, 

 to photograph the visible heavens from pole 

 to pole, to count the stars, and, if not nam- 

 ing them, to at least give them niunerical 

 designations, I respect his work, little as 

 it bears to-day upon the practical life of 

 man, because it is taking him and with 

 him all mankind into communion with the 

 all-creative Spirit. And when a friend of 

 mine sits down to count the number of 

 feathers which grow upon the belly of a 

 duck, or another to trace the origin of 

 the phylte of the insect world through 

 the bristles on the' backs of larvfe, I 

 feel for him in his laborious researches 

 as profound a respect as I do for mj^ as- 

 tronomical friends with their vast and 

 costly equipments. A fund given for the 

 promotion of scientific research if well 

 administered must be administered in the 

 full consciousness of the fundamental fact 

 that all loiowledge is important and that 

 all the sciences are but so many facets 

 which bound the white diamond of eternal 

 truth. The point which I mean to make 

 is simply this, that the administration of a 

 great fund like that established by IMr. 

 Carnegie will ultimately fail of its aim 

 unless those who are charged with the 

 work are broad, learned and wise enoixgh 

 to avoid discriminating unduly in favor of 

 one set of scientific investigator's over 

 against others. All the sciences should be 

 treated impartially, and every honest 

 worker seeking to add something to the sum 

 of human knowledge should at least be 

 treated sjonpatheticaUy and aided, if pos- 

 sible, in the accomplishment of any feasible 

 task. To devote the income of this great 

 endowment to the promotion exclusively of 

 a few things, the friends and advocates of 

 which may be potent in argument, and in- 

 fluential by reason of pei-sonal acquaint- 

 ance A^ath those who are the administrators 



of the trust, would ultimately create in the 

 minds of multitudes serious dissatisfaction. 

 If I understand the attitude of the gener- 

 ous giver of this endowment it is an atti- 

 tude of thorough impartiality toward the 

 friends and advocates of scientific progress 

 everjnvhere throughout the land. 



In common with yourself, in view of 

 what I have said I fear the result at the 

 outset of the assumption by the Carnegie 

 Institution of the control of existing agen- 

 cies for research and for the education of 

 students in research. To take up a few 

 existing institutions and put them upon a 

 satisfactory basis would be comparativeh' 

 an easy matter, but such a course woiild 

 inevitably in the end tie up the fund to 

 the continued maintenance of such favored 

 institutions, and the broader helpfulness of 

 the fund would very probably be ultimatelj' 

 greatly impaired. Had I any voice in the 

 administration of this fund I would plead 

 for the avoidance at the outset of ' entang- 

 ling alliances,' but I suppose that the -wise 

 men who have been selected to manage the 

 affaire of this institution in Washington 

 cannot fail to see the importance of this 

 point. 



As to various schemes which have been 

 suggested of creating in the city of Wash- 

 ington an institution equipped with build- 

 ings and laboratories for the prosecution 

 of special researches, I am inclined to think 

 that such a course is, in ^iew of all that 

 already exists, of very doubtful expediency. 

 There are already so many agencies for 

 research at work Avhich are not accomplish- 

 ing all that might be expected from them, 

 in many cases because of lack of sufficient 

 resources, as to make it doubtfixl to my 

 mind whether the creation of another 

 supplementary piece of machinery promises 

 as much as the application of lubricant to 

 machinery already in existence. What is 

 needed for the advancement of American 

 science it seems to me is not multiplication 



