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SCIENCE 



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



rally, but relatively suddenly, unprece- 

 dented demands for researcli, on the one 

 hand from communities and states, and on 

 the other hand from academies, societies, 

 institutes and universities. We should ob- 

 serve, however, that this intellectual up- 

 rising dates back at least a half century, to 

 about the time when your science was 

 emerging from the limbo of "natural his- 

 tory" in which it had been left to slumber 

 by Pliny the elder. It is part of the gen- 

 eral uprising of the nineteenth century of 

 which the multiplication and fruitful 

 activity of scientific societies in America is 

 another surprising and gratifying manifes- 

 tation. Quite naturally, also, along with 

 this greatly enlarged appreciation of the 

 value and desirability of research there has 

 come a corresponding demand for enlarged 

 facilities and particularly for funds. This 

 demand, like most unanticipated demands, 

 is in the aggregate vastly greater than the 

 present or possible supply, but not greater 

 than can be met if pruned of its adven- 

 titious appendages. Research and research 

 organizations are somewhat in danger of 

 being swamped by an excess of symbiosis. 

 In these circumstances there is constant 

 need of the caution and the deliberation 

 which distinguish scientific investigation 

 from impulsive and emotional mental con- 

 duct. We should frequently recall that the 

 characteristic defect even of deliberative 

 bodies is lack of deliberation. We need 

 constantly to apply our well-known methods 

 of research to the questions confronting us. 

 Instead of following precedent, we should 

 in general avoid it. When, for example, 

 a research fund is established we should 

 not make haste in academic fashion to set 

 up poor-boy scholarships and roving fel- 

 lowships to be awarded to the amateur and 

 to the tyro, but we should seek to originate 

 and to conduct research under the auspices 

 of competent and responsible investigators. 



And as regards research in academic circles, 

 we need to fix attention rather on the pi-o- 

 fessors who are qualified to extend the 

 boundaries of knowledge than on their 

 pupils. These latter, if worthy of the name, 

 will require little formal instruction in the 

 presence of evolving discoveries and ad- 

 vances; moreover, they must learn early to 

 think with their own heads if they may 

 hope to become either competent teachers 

 or leaders in work of research. 



And finally, men of science, if they are 

 to meet the requirements now demanded of 

 them, need more of contact with, experience 

 in and sympathy for, ordinary business life. 

 We are as a class of too recent monastic 

 descent to fit comfortably in our present 

 social environment. The man of affairs 

 does not understand us, and hence often 

 looks upon us with suspicion or even with 

 contempt. He is generally sure that the 

 man of science can know little of finance 

 and of other affairs vaguely emphasized 

 by the adjective "practical." Argument 

 concerning this matter is idle in the face of 

 existing conditions which determine major- 

 ities in boards of trustees and in legislative 

 assemblies. Nor would it be the part of 

 wisdom to change abruptly if we could the 

 present course of evolution in affairs of 

 administration. We need to accept the 

 situation as we find it and to qualify for 

 gradual entrance into, and participation in, 

 the details of this ordinary life. It will 

 not be taken for granted, for example, that 

 we can keep accounts and live within in- 

 come, but a positive demonstration will be 

 accepted without protest. It may be easily 

 shown to our satisfaction by a priori rea- 

 soning that men of science are no more 

 likely to wreck corporations than financiers, 

 general managers or promoters, but proof 

 by numerous concrete examples must be 

 forthcoming from us. And in proving 

 capacity for trustworthiness in these, to us, 



