Januabt 11, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



59 



often ignoring somewhat contemptuously 

 such estimates of cost and probable out- 

 come as may be supplied in most eases by 

 judicious forethought. The projects are so 

 small that it does not appear essential to 

 individual investigators to consider care- 

 fully their cost and bearing. Indeed, only 

 investigators of considerable experience are 

 able to use adequate forethought in this 

 respect. But when one contemplates not 

 a single small project, but the aggregate 

 of a large number of them, the need for 

 carefully drawn plans, specifications and 

 estimates is seen to be as important as in 

 the case of any large project. 



By limiting the fields of activity in this 

 direction it will be possible for the institu- 

 tion not only to make a choice amongst 

 promising investigations, but likewise to 

 make a choice amongst tried investigators. 

 This appears to me to afford a workable 

 compromise also between the extremes of a 

 limited number of large projects and an 

 unlimited number of small projects— a 

 compromise whereby the essential advan- 

 tages of both extremes may be secured and 

 their inherent disadvantages avoided. 



But while it appears desirable to limit 

 the range of activity of the institution at 

 any epoch, it appears still more desirable 

 to insist on a high standard of efficiency 

 determined by the quality and the quan- 

 tity jointly of results attained. To secure 

 this end the institution must not only seek 

 to aid mainly eminent investigators, but it 

 must seek to aid them for such periods and 

 to such an extent that their best efforts may 

 be enlisted. The grantee should be able 

 to feel that his connection, though tem- 

 porary, with the institution is creditable, 

 and, reciprocally, that the aid he accepts 

 implies higher obligations than those at- 

 taching to an educational scholarship or 

 fellowship. In many cases within the ex- 

 perience of the institution grantees appear 

 to have regarded the system of small grants 



as a sort of lottery, involving neither credit 

 to nor responsibility from either party to 

 an award. Experience of this and similar 

 kinds is inevitable, however, in the forma- 

 tive stages of the institution; for the dis- 

 tinction between a research institution and 

 an educational institution is not yet so 

 clearly defined that contemporary society 

 can avoid attributing to the former the 

 eleemosynary function which is being slow- 

 ly eliminated from the latter. 



In conformity with the views here set 

 forth the president is disposed to recom- 

 mend that in general minor projects be 

 aided only when they can be carried on by 

 investigators of known competence; that 

 such investigators become for the time be- 

 ing affiliated to and advisers of the insti- 

 tution, and that they be designated as re- 

 search associates of the institution. The 

 periods of affiliation of such associates must 

 be determined, of course, by the circum- 

 stances of individual cases. But it may 

 be observed that as a rule these periods will 

 be from two to five years, or more, since 

 few investigations well worth undertaking 

 by the institution can be brought to satis- 

 factory conclusions in shorter intervals of 

 time. 



It appears worthy of note, from the 

 point of view of evolution, that the institu- 

 tion finds itself occupied with two principal 

 divisions of activities, namely, those arising 

 from its internal affairs and those arising 

 from its external affairs. On the one 

 hand, we are busily engaged with many 

 investigations, in many diverse fields, car- 

 ried on under widely varying conditions. 

 On the other hand, we are equally busily 

 engaged with a multitude of external rela- 

 tions which are usually more or less con- 

 flicting and often incompatible. Thus the 

 development of the institution may be 

 likened to the struggle of an organism 

 which is trying at once to discover its 



