OCTOBEK 24, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



643 



way where they would do a maximum of 

 good. And each sub-committee could, it 

 seems to me, best decide what share of its 

 grant should be used for publication, in- 

 dividual grants, exploration, prizes foi- 

 special themes of research, etc. So, too, to 

 what degree a new or retarded division of 

 its activities should be fostered to the detri- 

 ment of an older and better equipped one. 



In the matter of the character of work 

 which it should be the general policy of 

 the Institution, i. e., in every branch, to 

 provide for, I would suggest as most im- 

 portant: (1) publishing, (2) facilitating 

 bibliographical work, (3) procuring ma- 

 terial for research, (4) granting funds or 

 fellowships. And the list could be readily 

 increased. 



1. Publishing. — One estimates conserva- 

 tively, I believe, in affirming that there are 

 to-day enough worthy researches of Ameri- 

 can investigators to warrant the expendi- 

 ture of the entire income of the Carnegie 

 funds for purposes of suitable publication. 

 It has recently been suggested that Amer- 

 ican publications would be greatly aided 

 by the establishing of a Carnegie bureau 

 of engraving and printing which shoiild 

 execute at favorable rates the work of 

 various societies. Such well-intended 

 means, however, would bring with them cer- 

 tain practical drawbacks, and, judging 

 from precedents, one woiild not be sur- 

 prised if the output of the establishment 

 became more costly and less efficient than 

 that of skilfully directed private enterprise. 

 More useful in practice, I fancy, would be 

 direct grants for publication, say to peri- 

 odicals of the stamp of the American 

 Journal of Morphology, and permission of 

 Congress for lithographic work to be 

 brought through the customs free of duty 

 when sanctioned by the Institution. The 

 longer, more important, elaborately illus- 

 trated and carefully selected memoirs might 

 appropriately be brought out by the Insti- 



tution, and a splendid series of quarto and 

 folio volumes would be a fitting fruit of 

 our national work, to be to us in time what 

 the Philosophical Transactions are to the 

 British. And such publication I place 

 among the very foremost needs of Ameri- 

 can science. We need hardly recall that 

 for publication of zoological memoirs, to 

 take an example, American aiithors have 

 had either to accept the charity of foreign 

 journals or to allow their researches to re- 

 main unprinted. 



2. Bibliography.— All workers in science 

 need skilful and energetic help in the 

 thankless drudgery of reference hunting. To 

 give them necessary aid the Institution 

 should at once subsidize the Concilium 

 Bibliographicum, an American enterprise, 

 supported largely by the charity of Switzer- 

 land. The Concilium lacks only funds to 

 enable it to extend its excellent work into 

 various departments of biological science. 

 Its work in zoology is invaluable. In con- 

 nection with such a bureau it may be pos- 

 sible for the Institution to publish a series 

 of bibliographical volumes (on the lines of 

 the recent paleontological work of Dr. Hay) 

 which will be a permanent boon to students 

 in all branches of science. Another biblio- 

 graphical development, in connection pos- 

 sibly with the Concilium, is a bureau to 

 provide applicants with necessary literature 

 lists ; also a bureau in correspondence with 

 libraries to place in the hands of investi- 

 gators works of reference which cannot be 

 procured by local means. 



3. Research Material.— In some lines of 

 research this can be secured only with con- 

 siderable outlay. Thus for an important 

 embryological study a sum of from five 

 hundred to ten thousand dollars is not an 

 uncommon expenditure. In this country 

 such expense has usually been borne by 

 generous outsiders or by investigators 

 themselves; in rare cases universities or 

 societies have contributed. In Europe, 



