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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 694 



a great shortage of men here as compared 

 with the number available for such work 

 in European countries. It must be con- 

 fessed, too, that the scientific output of in- 

 dividual workers in this country is smaller 

 than it should be and could be were the 

 conditions for work made more favorable. 

 As yet we have only a handful of men who 

 devote their whole time and energies to this 

 kind of study and these are hampered in 

 their woi^k by serious defects in the condi- 

 tions which surround medical research in 

 America. In our medical schools the pro- 

 fessors who are able to do investigative 

 work and have the desire therefor, are 

 often so overloaded with the routine work 

 of lecturing, laboratory instruction and ad- 

 ministration, that they really have not the 

 time for the intense and absolutely undis- 

 turbed work necessary for the creative 

 mind. Further, it is rare in this country 

 to find an investigating professor supplied 

 with research assistants to help him prac- 

 tically to carry out his ideas, whereas in 

 Germany, by means of a graded staff and a 

 department budget which permits the em- 

 ployment of several research assistants, the 

 hands of the man with original notions are 

 multiplied several fold and there is a much 

 more rapid conversion of new ideas into 

 new results.' Another hindrance to re- 

 search lies in the insufficient financial re- 

 wards of academic work. We are undoubt- 

 edly holding back our people and the pres- 

 tige of the country in which we live by the 

 inadeqtiate provision we are now making 

 for the material side of the lives of pro- 

 fessors in our universities and medical 

 schools. This is false economy; commer- 

 cially speaking, it is bad business. Until 

 university trustees and the public generally 

 recognize the necessity of retaining the best 

 brains which develop among us in the serv- 

 ice of instruction and research the activities 



' Cf. Stieglitz, J., " Chemical Research, in Amer- 

 ican Universities," Science, N. S., 7, 1907. 



of those brains will inevitably, in many 

 instances, be diverted to other fields. The 

 man with investigative ability, with the 

 power of observing closely, of reasoning 

 accurately, of thinking originally and of 

 experimenting rigorously, is rare. The 

 critical attitude of mind, the inspiration to 

 originate, the training which makes men 

 able to extend the boundaries of knowledge 

 and to win new power from nature, is not 

 common. Only a few men have the faculty 

 of determining and grasping facts, and of 

 verifying and digesting them; and still 

 fewer have the ability to conceive fruitful 

 hypotheses connecting these facts or ex- 

 planations, united with the initiative neces- 

 sary to test the validity of the hypotheses 

 by experiment. Research work requires a 

 patience and an enthusiasm, a self-denial 

 and a perspicacity unknown to the average 

 man. When we discover a worker who can 

 find his way in medical regions as yet un- 

 trodden, who can discern new relationships 

 among facts, who can elucidate some of the 

 mysteries which for centuries have puzzled 

 us, we should cherish him. He needs all 

 our sympathy and support, for the condi- 

 tions under which he works are lonely and 

 difficult. He has, as a rule, but few com- 

 panions, and his work is not in the public 

 eye. He has to set his own tasks and to 

 establish his own standards of excellence. 

 Fortunately, he is a man of high ideals and 

 his reward comes chiefly from his work, 

 from the actual joy of the labor. But, 

 since the results not only increase knowl- 

 edge but promote the safety and happiness 

 of the people, it is the duty of society to 

 provide the facilities and conditions for his 

 work, to elevate his position in life and to 

 give him the honor and appreciation con- 

 sonant with his high calling.' 



» Cf. Eliot, C. W., " The Qualities of the Scien- 

 tific Investigator," address at the opening of the 

 laboratories of the Rockefeller Institute, New 

 York, May 11, 1906. 



