882 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. I 



resulted in an assumption of authority in 

 belief. 



The larger the university, the more in- 

 tense does this sense of the isolation of 

 superiority and of authority become, for it 

 is stimulated by association with its own 

 kind. There is much honest effort to 

 break down this barrier between the schol- 

 ars who represent universities and the 

 great host of men who represent the com- 

 munity. These men are not so isolated, 

 but they are just as dogmatic in their own 

 way, and they are immensely influential. 

 Even when the two groups^ mingle, the 

 scholar is often only a man of incidental 

 interest, who possesses much curious infor- 

 mation about many useless things. And 

 the scholar usually enjoys being drawn out 

 and made to display his curiosities, for it 

 has the familiar flavor of the classroom, 

 with its intellectually inferior students. 



Of course such contact between scholar 

 and community is not the effective one, for 

 it is merely that of audience and enter- 

 tainer. Here are two groups of men, both 

 powerfully equipped, who should be mutu- 

 ally stimulating in all that makes for prog- 

 ress. Mutual stimulation can follow only 

 after mutual understanding. It is not for 

 me to explain the community to the 

 scholar, but rather to explain the scholar 

 to the community. Even this subject is 

 far too large, for scholarship has many 

 phases, all the way from artistic apprecia- 

 tion to scientific synthesis. I shall try to 

 explain in outline only the scientific aspect 

 of scholarship, and its significance to the 

 community. 



It is evident that the public is somewhat 

 interested in scientific research. The most 

 available index of the present interest is 

 furnished probably by the newspapers and 

 magazines, which try either to respond to 

 the desires of their readers, or to cultivate 

 desires. Even a cursory examination of 



the material they furnish, which may be 

 said to deal with research, shows that it is 

 scanty in amount, sensational in form and 

 usually wide of the mark. The fact that 

 it is scanty in amount is a cause for con- 

 gratulation, if it must involve the two other 

 features. The sensational form is a con- 

 cession to what is conceived to be public 

 taste; and while to a scientific man this 

 form seems to exhibit the worst possible 

 taste, the serious objection is that to secure 

 the form truth is usually sacrificed. Some 

 of the results of this kind of information 

 are as follows: 



Men engaged in research are looked upon 

 in general as inoffensive but curious and 

 useless members of the social order. If an- 

 investigator touches now and then upon 

 something that the public regards as use- 

 ful, he is singled out as a glaring excep- 

 tion. If an investigation lends itself to 

 announcement in an exceedingly sensa- 

 tional form, as if it were uncovering 

 deep mysteries, the investigator becomes a 

 "wizard," and his lightest utterance is 

 treated as an oracle. The result is that if 

 the intelligent reading public were asked 

 to recite the distinguished names in sci- 

 ence, they would name perhaps one or two 

 real investigators unfortunate enough to 

 be in the public eye, several "wizards," 

 and still more charlatans. The great body 

 of real investigators would be known only 

 to their colleagues, thankful that they were 

 not included in any public hall of fame. 

 And yet the public is not to be blamed, for 

 it is giving its best information; and the 

 fact that it has even such information indi- 

 cates an interest that would be wiser were 

 it better directed. This better direction is 

 dammed up behind a wall of professional 

 pride, which makes an investigator look 

 askance at any colleague who has broken 

 through it. The intelligent public is cer- 

 tainly interested, but it is just as certainly 



