NOVEMBEB 7, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



735 



pounds, which are at present so greatly- 

 needed but so little known. 



The institution would of course always 

 stand ready to afford to competent workers, 

 pursuing special lines of research of gen- 

 eral scientific interest, special laboratory 

 facilities, aiding them with grants of ex- 

 pensive material and the loan of costly 

 apparatus in all cases where the circum- 

 stances justified it. 



This in short is what I think the Car- 

 negie Institution ought to become, viz., a 

 great center for the classification and pub- 

 lication of past and current scientific litera- 

 ture, on a scale never before attempted. A 

 great center of physical and chemical re- 

 search on the various constants of nature, 

 as well as a place where special chemical, 

 physical and other scientific research on 

 any subject of sufScient importance could 

 be initiated, fostered, and aided, and finally 

 a bureau of publication, where the ultimate 

 results of all these activities could be pub- 

 lished and widely distributed, for the gen- 

 eral benefit of mankind. 



Edwin A. Hill. 



Washington, D. C, 

 October 14, 1902. 



To THE Editor of Science : As one who 

 has recently been concerned with labora- 

 tory research, who has had to encounter 

 the difficulties incident to the publication 

 of a doctorate thesis and who is now pro- 

 fessionally interested in educational work, 

 may I be pardoned for expressing my opin- 

 ion in regard to the application and dis- 

 tribution of the Carnegie fund? 



It is a fact that in America the scientific 

 career holds out no such inducements of a 

 social or civic sort as does a similar career 

 abroad, notably in England and Germany, 

 where decorations, titles and various pub- 

 lic honors both furnish an incentive and 

 reward within professional circles and 

 bring men of science and the public into 



closer touch, to the mutual advantage of 

 both. However true it may be that the 

 investigator's work is its own reward, it is 

 probably equally true that the cause of 

 science across the water has profited by the 

 existence of such honors. It has seemed to 

 me that the Carnegie Institution, if devoted » 

 to a single purpose, might bring about 

 similar conditions on this side of the At- 

 lantic. 



The first thing, therefore, that the an- 

 nouncement of the fund suggested to me, 

 and I doubt not to others, was the estab- 

 lishment of a great institution not only 

 for the purposes of administration but also 

 for the prosecution of research, a Mecca 

 for men of science, a university of univer- 

 sities, controlled by a body of men of ac- 

 knowledged ability and peopled by grad- 

 uate students (perhaps solely by men who 

 had already received their doctorate) whose 

 merit had been tested. Appointments for 

 a term of years (for I presume that rota- 

 tion would be the most desirable policy) 

 to the chairs and instructing staff of such 

 an institution would go far toward a rem- 

 edy of the existing deficiencies in the 

 incentives for honors in American science. 

 The students might be selected by competi- 

 tive examination from a list of candidates 

 indorsed by the universities or chosen with- 

 out actual examination by a tribunal of 

 competent authorities after inspection of 

 their credentials. 



I am aware that the idea of a central 

 institution for the prosecution of actual 

 research has been condemned by men whose 

 opinions are far weightier than mine. 

 President Harper, for instance, has said 

 that if the Carnegie fund, instead of en- 

 couraging and strengthening the work 

 where it already exists, 'undertakes to 

 establish new foundations, independent of 

 these institutions, in order that its own 

 work may be more tangible, it will prove 

 to be the greatest curse of higher eduea- 



