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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 475. 



to the honors that he earns and the credit that 

 he wins. If he is laureled by some exclusive 

 society of select spirits wherein the seating 

 capacity is small, some ancient, time-honored 

 fraternity whose notice is recognition of his 

 successful achievement, let him wear his hon- 

 ors. They are well won and were well worth 

 striving for, unless the world is to be made 

 over. But laurels on the wheels of a great 

 machine will be very much in the way. 



This central agent of science will, you ven- 

 ture to hope, obliterate all individual rivalry 

 for precedence, all controversy directed to en- 

 force or maintain the individual view or in- 

 terpretation, and differences of opinion are, I 

 infer, to be adjusted by conference and arbi- 

 tration ; but I hold it the very essence of scien- 

 tific vigor that the investigator maintain his 

 conclusions against all comers. In keen, well- 

 behaved controversy, more than in conference, 

 in determined and relentless adherence to con- 

 viction, rather than in meek surrender to ' the 

 good of the party,' the real vitality of scien- 

 tific labor reveals itself. If any laborer in 

 your own field of research is weak, faulty in 

 his method, careless of fact and indifferent in 

 deduction, it is somebody's duty to tell him so 

 or the truth may remain concealed, and, I take 

 it, it is the truth we are after and not merely 

 the ' advancement of science.' But a science 

 machine that will do away with all this, throws 

 laurels in the waste basket and calls every one 

 mister, stops the mouths of lions, pools all 

 individuality and makes us all sucking doves 

 and a spectacle for angels, may seem a benefi- 

 cent institution, for now that all American 

 men of science have been reduced to mere 

 algebraic expressions, tagged and filed, there 

 would be nothing for them but to take their 

 numbers, get their union cards and try to 

 live up to the motto, ' Better to be the tail of 

 a mouse than the head of a lion.' 



After perusing your article with care I am 

 disposed to apprehend that centralization of 

 science means the creation of a juggernaut 

 which will crush endeavor, stupefy ambition, 

 incinerate stimulus, minify personal achieve- 

 ment and cachinnate at honor — the sweet 

 recompense which comes from a life of earnest 

 labor. John M. Clarke. 



January 12, 1904. 



To THE Editor of Science : I thank you for 

 your invitation to join in discussing the ques- 

 tion how best to organize into one cooperative 

 fraternity all our national scientific societies. 



I would have the members of the council of 

 the American Association feel that the entire 

 burden of this holy mission rests on their 

 shoulders; that as success would be their 

 crown, its failure would be their undoing; if 

 need be the martyr spirit is to be dominant, 

 and whosoever would be chief, let him be the 

 servant of all. 



Say to them, always seek to draw and not 

 to drive, to encourage and not to discourage; 

 to suggest cleverly and not seem to direct; to 

 attract and not to coax or bully. The old say- 

 ing, Where the carcass is there will the eagles 

 be gathered together, will prove true in their 

 case as in every other. Eemember what Jean 

 Paul told us long ago, Not all are always rea- 

 sonable, but all have feeling — never forget 

 that in addressing them. 



I would have the council in this matter gen- 

 erous to a fault. A distinguished botanist 

 living 3,000 years ago or such a matter, who 

 knew the plants of his country from the 

 lichens to the conifers, must have been think- 

 ing of our association council when he wrote : 

 ' There is that scattereth and yet increaseth 

 and there is that withholdeth more than is 

 meet and it tendeth to poverty.' 



Try to improve your volume of Proceedings. 

 It is not altogether hopeless, though you 

 shake your heads. Remember Hercules. 

 Moreover, dear friends, the weekly journal 

 chosen to be the Aaron of our scientific Moses 

 ought to be dignified, true to the truth always, 

 but at the same time moderate in utterance. 

 Surely, surely, no council planning to do mis- 

 sionary work can make friends at the outset 

 by denouncing through its official organ three 

 highly honored institutions of science as hav- 

 ing completely failed. 



' Let dogs delight,' etc. 



Take especial pains to have at the annual 

 gatherings and mass meetings men of distinc- 

 tion, of whom all have heard and whom they 

 desire to see. I recall the long-ago delight 

 with which my young eyes first gazed on E. B. 

 Tylor, and when as a student I held in my 



