132 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIIT. No. 578. 



which, respectively, publications in the 

 varied departments concerned might be 

 sent. This attempt has developed certain 

 baffling obstacles. Chief among these is the 

 awkward duty of discriminating between 

 the persons and the institutions which 

 should and those which should not receive 

 books gratis. The officer called upon to 

 decide must necessarily play the role fre- 

 quently of a dispenser of favors, and be 

 thus subject to the charge of favoritism. 



The practical questions raised by this 

 matter are, first, Is the work entailed worth 

 what it costs? And, secondly, Does such 

 work advance science? My opinion is that 

 both questions should be answered in the 

 negative; and my suggestion is that a dis- 

 tribution of publications at once practic- 

 able, equitable and effective may be at- 

 tained by offering all of them for sale 

 except those reserved for free assignment 

 to authors and to the leading libraries of 

 the world. Publications thus distributed 

 would be pretty certain to go where they 

 are needed, and they would thus also stand 

 or fall by reason of their merits or de- 

 merits, as the case may be. 



Relations of Institution to the Public. 



Precisely what relations the Carnegie In- 

 stitution of Washington should sustain to 

 the public is a qiiestion Avhich does not ad- 

 mit a ready answer. Experience alone can 

 disclose a complete reply, since it must 

 evolve with the development of the institu- 

 tion itself. Clearly, however, it must be 

 regarded as a semi-public organization, 

 somewhat similar to a university. More 

 exactly, it may be likened to a university 

 in which there are no students. 



Obviously the institution ought to sus- 

 tain close relations with universities, since 

 they are now the chief centers of reseai'ch; 

 and, within the limits permitted by mutual 

 independence, those relations should be co- 

 operative, to the end that time and effort 



may be conserved. Similar relations should 

 obtain, likewise, between the institution 

 and learned societies. But the possible 

 methods of effective cooperation remain, 

 essentially, to be discovered. 



Much less obvious, though hardly less 

 essential of provisional definition, are the 

 relations which the institution should sus- 

 tain to the larger, non-academic world. 

 One of the favorable signs of the times is 

 seen in the intelligent interest taken in the 

 affairs of the institution by this larger 

 world. In spite of a widely prevalent 

 tendency to anticipate the marvelous and 

 the spectacular from scientific investiga- 

 tions, and thus to expect too much, if not 

 the impossible, there is manifest a very gen- 

 erally just appreciation of such work. 

 Hence the commendable eagerness of the 

 modern public to learn the resi^lts of re- 

 condite researches calls for some sort of 

 cooperation between the institution and ex- 

 isting media for the dissemination of infoi*- 

 mation, with a view to furnishing such in- 

 formation in a form at once intelligible and 

 trustworthy. This, among many other 

 questions concerning the relations of the 

 institution to the general public, seems to 

 merit special consideration in the near 

 futtire. 



Attention may be not inappropriately 

 called here to the fact that while the insti- 

 tution deeply appreciates the interest in its 

 affairs shown by the public, there is no pos- 

 sibility of following more than a small frac- 

 tion of the suggestion and the advice wel- 

 comed from that source, for their abun- 

 dance is overwhelming and a choice must 

 be made. Out of the chaos of such sug- 

 gestion and advice and out of the delibera- 

 tions within the institution itself, ways and 

 means for growth and achievement ■will be 

 found. In the meantime there will be a 

 common need for application of the for- 

 bearance and the patience so indispensable 



