Maboh 10, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



375 



countries, I am not prepared to dissent. I do 

 indeed believe that Professor Gunn's picture 

 is overdrawn, when he describes our achieve- 

 ments in pure science as " insignificant," for 

 it is easy to point to achievements of very 

 high grade, even in such branches as mathe- 

 matical physics and philosophy, while of re- 

 cent years there has appeared a considerable 

 volume of quite respectable work. Still, I 

 should admit that the work of very high qual- 

 ity has been too small in amount, and that 

 the volume of recent work suffers somewhat 

 in an appraisal of its quality. I should in- 

 deed be inclined to make a further reservation 

 on this last point, as far as my own acquaint- 

 ance with scientific literature goes; for in my 

 awa. field of experimental psychology, which 

 has hitherto been chiefly cultivated in Ger- 

 many and in America, I am unable to detect 

 any pronounced superiority of the German 

 work. The Germans do, certainly, manage 

 to give their contributions a more important 

 sound; their articles are more extended, and 

 run out almost indefinitely into discussion 

 and theoretical considerations; but much of 

 this is of little real value, and many an Amer- 

 ican paper of modest length contains as much 

 of real contribution to knowledge as does its 

 German analogue of a hundred or two hun- 

 dred pages. However, let us freely admit 

 that, when we consider the number of men 

 liere who might be expected, from their train- 

 ing and their positions, to be scientific pro- 

 ducers, we find the total productivity sur- 

 prisingly small. There is much to indicate 

 that this is the fact: so numerous are the 

 cases of young men who have produced a 

 creditable doctor's dissertation and obtained a 

 college position in their specialty, but from 

 whom nothing further is heard in the way of 

 original contribution; and so numerous also 

 are the cases of men of proved ability, who, 

 after a few years of activity and after win- 

 ning a professorship of dignity, allow their 

 output to cease. Good minds and good op- 

 portunities appear to be going to waste, and 

 the problem of the causes of this condition is 

 one of the highest importance to those who 

 are interested in the advancement of science. 



It is a problem which deserves treatment by 

 the most painstaking methods of science; un- 

 fortunately, I can make no great claims for 

 my own method, for I have by no means con- 

 ducted researches on the large scale demanded 

 by the complexity of the problem. I have, 

 however, for a considerable number of years 

 been keenly interested in this particular prob- 

 lem, and am prepared to adduce a certain 

 number of facts, which, as facts, will scarcely 

 be called in question, and which I shall try to 

 show are probably pertinent. 



I will first adduce my list of facts, in sum- 

 mary form. 



1. The economic rewards for scientific pro- 

 duction, and punishments for lack of it, have 

 been smaller here than elsewhere. 



2. Similarly with other social rewards and 

 punishments. 



3. The rapid expansion of our educational 

 system has created a demand which has ab- 

 sorbed the whole supply of even reasonably 

 qualified men. 



4. This educational expansion has been but 

 a feature of the general national expansion, 

 and the general demand for men of abUity has 

 operated still further to reduce the keenness 

 of academic competition, and so to lower the 

 standard of academic success. 



5. This rapid expansion, in the presence of 

 our decentralized form of governmental con- 

 trol and generally fluid condition, has made 

 the business of the educational and scientific 

 promoter one of great importance, has op- 

 erated to give the greatest economic and social 

 prizes to the promoter, and has caused scien- 

 tific men to spend their time running errands 

 in the interest of science rather than prose-' 

 cuting their- individual research. 



6. The educational interest, as distinguished 

 from the strictly scientific, has been strong 

 among us, and has led to a considerable deflec- 

 tion of effort from the work of science.'' 



^ There is another probable fact, which I do 

 not include in the list because I am not sure of 

 it, and because it could be determined by suitable 

 inquiry, in advance of which it is best not to 

 guess at the fact. The probability is that our 

 young men do not begin to specialize so early as 

 their scientific brethren in Europe, and if this is 



