November 7, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



12,1 



Finally, I believe that there is need of 

 assistance to existing laboratories for the 

 purchase of equipment for new lines of 

 research too extensive to be undertaken by 

 the university, and also for the establish- 

 ment of small typical laboratories in insti- 

 tutions that can not afford to provide for 

 them. There are few universities that deal 

 so bountifully with every department of 

 research that further material acquisitions 

 are not earnestly desired. Nor is there any 

 reason -why, as some have intimated, it 

 should be considered in any sense an indica- 

 tion of incapacity or niggardliness for any 

 university to allow its departmental dis- 

 tributions to be supplemented by donations 

 from the Carnegie fund. The wealthiest 

 university has unsatisfied needs, and Mr. 

 Carnegie's generosity has no flavor of 

 charity. 



If I may be allowed to plead for the form 

 of investigation in which I am just now 

 personally interested, I should mention the 

 establishment of psycho-educational labora- 

 tories as a subject worthy of the considera- 

 tion of the administrators of the fund. 

 However great were the differences of opin- 

 ion which the discussion in 1898 revealed, 

 there was a striking unanimity in the 

 utterances of Professors Titchener, Royee 

 and Mlinsterberg, all three of whom inde- 

 pendently urged the necessity of a linking 

 science between psychology and education. 

 I believe that the plan of establishing 

 psycho-educational laboratories in con- 

 junction with the psychological and edu- 

 cational departments of universities is one 

 of the obvious means for the practical exe- 

 cution of these plans. If, for instance, sev- 

 eral such laboratories could divide between 

 them such a question as the methods and 

 values of 'psychometric' tests upon stu- 

 dents, a very important problem could be 

 satisfactorily settled. And this is but one 

 of a host of problems. 



To summarize, I have advocated (1) 



that, if practically the whole fund is to be 

 devoted to a single purpose, the establish- 

 ment of a central institution for the trans- 

 action of research would best meet the needs 

 of science in America (especially by supply- 

 ing some inducement and visible reward 

 for service which would attract men of 

 ability to the profession), (2) that, if the 

 fund is to be, for the most part, divided, 

 its objects should include (a) the assist- 

 ance of publication by the amalgamation of 

 journals, the establishment of a Bureau of 

 Printing and Engraving, the publication 

 of 'year-books' and monographic reviews, 

 (5) the establishment of fellowships and 

 scholarships in existing institutions for 

 graduate students, (c) the assistance of ex- 

 isting laboratories and the foundation of 

 new laboratories in the universities — a need 

 especially felt in the application to educa- 

 tional theory of the results of the science on 

 which it is in part based. 



Guy Montrose Whipple. 



To THE Editor of Science: Scientific 

 research in the past has been made by men 

 who have been workers in college or uni- 

 versity laboratories and who have in many 

 eases taught at the same time. This is true 

 of such research the world over. It does 

 not seem to me necessary, in order to pro- 

 mote research, to build new laboratories, 

 to found a special institution or to spend 

 money on a plant. Let present facilities 

 which are open to all and are available in 

 all parts of this country be utilized. There 

 is to-day no lack of laboratory space. If 

 there were it would be far better to in- 

 crease the size of existing laboratories by 

 moderate appropriations than to create a 

 new one by a large expenditure. Let us 

 have all the money for the direct purpose 

 of aiding research. 



Scientific research progresses slowly, 

 each step being a short one, making a little 

 advance from the previous position. It is 



