August 30, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



287 



as you term it, to the free expression of our own 

 opinion. 



Very respectfully, 



(Signed) Geo. Otis Smith, 



Director 



Los Gatos, Cal., July 17, 1907. 

 Dk. Geo. Otis Smiti^, 



Director. 



V. S. Geological Survey, 

 Washington, D. C. 



Sir: I am in receipt of your letter of June 11 

 acknowledging my resignation from the survey, 

 and referring to the protest accompanying it. I 

 had intended to write to you to assure you that 

 nothing in that protest referred to you person- 

 ally; but, from your last letter, I am sorry to 

 learn that your attitude in the matter is appar- 

 ently hopelessly opposed to mine. 



You mention, somewhat vaguely, " administra- 

 tive responsibility," " official oaths " and " con- 

 gressional enactments." Now, in my conception, 

 the supreme responsibility of the scientist is to 

 discover the trutli and to tell it, in accordance 

 with the clearest vision vouchsafed him; and this 

 responsibility can not be superseded by the de- 

 mands of any administrative position nor abro- 

 gated by any official oath. As for the " letter and 

 spirit of the congressional enactments," if these 

 should ever happen to come into conflict with soi- 

 entifie truth (which does not seem to me a very 

 probable contingency, so long as congress and the 

 Geological Survey confine themselves to the ac- 

 cepted limits of their respective fields of work), 

 I would venture to suggest that congressional 

 enactments are more easily changed than the facts 

 of the universe, and that it is not necessary, in 

 the interest of the former, to suppress or falsify 

 even an individual conception of the latter. 



But you say that in joining the survey the in- 

 dividual surrenders a part of the " inalienable 

 right " of the scientist. Here, apparently, is the 

 crucial point of the whole discussion. If this were 

 generally accepted as a basic principle of the sur- 

 vey, it could not long support the claim of being 

 a scientific organization, for no scientist with the 

 highest conception of his calling would ever volun- 

 tarily accept such conditions of service; and the 

 organization would speedily become, what your 

 principle would logically make it, an artificial 

 structure of red tape, reared by " administrative 

 responsibility " (which easily becomes a synonym 

 for autocratic privilege) on the foundation of 

 " congressional enactments," and inspired by noth-- 



ing higher than the ambition to secure more appro- 

 priations. In contrast to this bureaucratic con- 

 ception, let me quote President Eliot's words with 

 reference to seientiiic investigators : " They must 

 set their own standards of excellence; for society 

 can not supply men capable of supervising, regu- 

 lating or stimulating them. . . . The scientific in- 

 vestigator must be a law unto himself. The ut- 

 most that governments or universities can do for 

 him is to provide suitable facilities and conditions 

 for his work, and to watch for results." 



Since your letter was written in your official 

 capacity, I suppose that you will not object to its 

 being published, together with mine, as a con- 

 tribution to a discussion of general interest to 

 the scientists of the country. 



With sincere regret for the difference of opinion 

 which has developed between us, I am 

 Very respectfully, 



(Signed) W. S. Tangieb Smith 



TYPE OF THE GENUS ASTACUS 



To THE Editor op Science: Within the last 

 decade, a good deal of controversy has been 

 engaged in anent the type of the crustacean 

 genus Asiacus. These differences of opinion 

 have arisen owing to authors having disre- 

 garded Degeer 1778 (" Mem. Ins.," VII.), who 

 fixed as tjrpe A. fluviatilis Fabr. {^Cancer 

 astacus Linne). 



G. W. KiRKALDY 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



COLOR VARIETIES OF THE RABBIT AND OF OTHER 



rodents; THEIR ORIGIN AND INHERITANCE^ 



In the issue of Science for January 25, 

 1907, I have shown that the agouti, or wild 

 type of coat of the guinea-pig, results from 

 the simultaneous presence of three factors, 

 which are separately heritable unit charac- 

 ters, namely, black pigment, yellow pigment 

 and a factor causing the two pigments to be 

 disposed in bands. In uniformly colored (or 

 self) varieties of the guinea-pig, at least one 

 of these three factors is wanting. If the lack- 

 ing factor is supplied by a cross with a variety 

 which possesses it, then reversion is obtained, 

 that is a return to the wild type of coat. 

 It is the purpose of the present note to 

 ^ Published by permission of the Carnegie In- 

 stitution of Washington. 



