September 25, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



447 



Dr. J. B. Leathes, F.E.S., professor of 

 patliological chemistry in the University of 

 Toronto, has been offered the chair of physiol- 

 ogy at the University of Sheffield rendered 

 vacant by the acceptance of Professor J. S. 

 Macdonald of the chair of physiology in the 

 University of Liverpool. 



DISCUSSION AND COBSESPONDENCE 



RESEAHCH ESTABLISHMENTS AND THE UNIVERSITIES 



President Woodward's address^ contains so 

 much of concentrated veisdom on the subject of 

 scientific research within and without uni- 

 versities that no American scientist should 

 fail to read it carefully. The part which im- 

 presses me as especially timely deals with " re- 

 search in academic circles." President Wood- 

 ward does not discuss the question whether 

 research is a desirable agency in the disciplining 

 of untrained minds, but I understand this to 

 be the theory on which most university in- 

 struction in science is now based. The so- 

 called " inductive method " is simply the 

 method of research. Our science courses aim 

 only in a minor degree to impart information ; 

 their chief aim is frankly recognized to be 

 training in methods of discovering truth. But 

 is the training of students in methods of re- 

 search itself research^ This is a subsidiary 

 question which President Woodward's words 

 suggest and concerning which I think we are 

 apt to deceive ourselves. 



Our larger universities, and many of our 

 smaller ones too^ point with pride to the re- 

 search work which they are accomplishing. 

 But in not a few eases this work, if inspected 

 carefully, is found to take final shape in dis- 

 ertations for the doctorate, of doubtful value 

 as contributions to knowledge, prepared pri- 

 marily not because the author had something 

 of value to record but because he had to record 

 something in order to get the coveted degree. 



The chief energies of many professors en- 

 tirely competent as investigators are wholly 

 absorbed in laboriously dragging candidates 

 through the academic mill up to the final 



1 ' ' The Needs of Eesearch, ' ' Science, August 

 14, 1914. 



examination for the doctorate. Their success 

 as research professors and the standing of their 

 universities as centers of research is commonly 

 estimated in numbers of doctorates conferred. 

 See the publications of graduate schools, de- 

 partmental pamphlets, and even Science (Aug. 

 21, 1914) with its annual list of " Doctorates 

 conferred by American Universities." 



Now is this in any true sense research? 

 To coach an ambitious but mediocre mind up 

 to the point of making a fair showing for the 

 doctorate is the more exhausting, the more 

 mediocre the candidate. Whatever its educa- 

 tional value, it certainly has little value as 

 research. Yet this makes up a considerable 

 part of the " research " activity of our best 

 universities. Great sums of money are devoted 

 to it in the form of fellowships, scholarships, 

 buildings for laboratories and laboratory 

 equipment for the use of advanced students. 

 A small part of this investment devoted to 

 research by the professors themselves unham- 

 pered by a crowd of immature and incom- 

 petent students would doubtless be much more 

 effective in advancing knowledge. 



The attempt to combine teaching with re- 

 search has another indirect but evil conse- 

 quence. The periods which the professor can 

 himself devote to research are intermittent 

 and fragmentary. This affects disadvantage- 

 ously the topics selected for investigation. 

 They too must be minor and fragmentary. 

 Great fundamental questions requiring long 

 continued and uninterrupted investigation can 

 not be attacked with any hope of success by 

 one who has only an occasional day or a sum- 

 mer vacation to devote to research. The neces- 

 sity, too, of hunting up thesis subjects for stu- 

 dents, small enough in scope to be handled 

 successfully by a beginner in a limited time 

 and yet novel enough to make a showing of 

 originality reacts unfavorably on the professor's 

 own work. It loses both in breadth and depth. 

 He who in the full maturity of his powers 

 should be doing a day's work, runs errands for 

 boys, holds their coats and carries water. 

 Imagine what the " Origin of Species " would 

 have been like had it been brought forward 

 vicariously as a series of theses for the doctor's 



