226 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1024 



quate reason to suppose that our reputa- 

 tions may be much improved by invidious 

 reflections on the methods in science fol- 

 lowed by men who happen to live "in 

 Washington." Here again it is useful to 

 remember that we and they belong to the 

 same species. 



But in order that any measures of relief 

 and of response to the pressing demands of 

 society may become adequately and pro- 

 gressively effective, certain other require- 

 ments of greater importance must be real- 

 ized. These requirements must be supplied 

 chiefly by men of science. To a far greater 

 extent than ever before the methods and the 

 applications of science are concerned with 

 the daily affairs of domestic, national and 

 international life. Ours is an era of un- 

 equalled opportunities in science; but it 

 remains in part, at least, to be demonstrated 

 whether the types of men called scientists, 

 whom it has taken many generations to 

 evolve, are prepared to meet the respon- 

 sibilities as well as the duties now falling 

 upon them. It is an open secret that as a 

 class doctors in science are on trial, and 

 properly so, in so far as they may suggest 

 remedies for the body politic. In the evo- 

 lution of society they are a sort of "fourth 

 estate ' ' and the latest in the order of human 

 development. It is not so long ago, quite 

 within the recollection of some here pres- 

 ent, when society was guided almost wholly 

 by three other classes typified by the man 

 in the saddle, by the man in the pulpit, 

 and by the man on the bench. The role of 

 the man of science as manifested somewhat 

 sensationally to the popular mind, for ex- 

 ample, in the conduct of industries, in the 

 control of epidemics and in the construction 

 of the Panama Canal, has been recognized 

 only recently as one of vital importance to 

 communities and to states. It is especially 

 incumbent on us, therefore, at this juncture, 

 to put our scientific houses in order and to 



be ready to demonstrate the validity of 

 whatever claims we may set up by the pro- 

 duction of work which will stand on a basis 

 of verifiable merit. It would be unscien- 

 tific, and inimical to progress, to ask for 

 easier conditions of entrance into the 

 world's affairs, from which as a class we 

 may no longer advantageously either hold 

 ourselves aloof or be debarred by other 

 classes. 



Fortunately, there is now little danger 

 that the prejudice and the ignorance which 

 provoked so many wordy wars and so long 

 contested the advent of the "fourth estate," 

 will exert anything like such sinister influ- 

 ences in the future as they have exerted in 

 the past. Science is ever ready and will- 

 ing to settle matters in dispute by the arbi- 

 trament of demonstration, and the conclu- 

 siveness as well as the fairness of this pro- 

 cedure is now nearly universally conceded. 

 Indeed, the effectiveness of the methods of 

 science is now not only generally recog- 

 nized within each of the older "estates" 

 just referred to, but even the more conser- 

 vative members therein are making and 

 projecting scientific researches with a 

 degree of enthusiasm which compels our 

 admiration. The dangers which beset us 

 are rather dangers of popular over-confi- 

 dence in our methods, of amateurism and 

 dilettantism and of premature generali- 

 zations. The prevailing optimism needs to 

 be chastened by the reflection that the 

 millennium is not in sight, that sound re- 

 search means arduous enterprise and that 

 advances in knowledge come, as a rule, 

 only after prolonged and even painful 

 effort. In the meantime, while guarding 

 carefully against these dangers, it is the 

 part of wisdom to take every legitimate 

 advantage of the present highly favorable 

 attitude of our contemporaries towards re- 

 search. We of the "fourth estate" need 

 especially to fraternize with our colleagues 



