68 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 864 



an eye single to the truth. He has to con- 

 sider not only the observations which fit his 

 theory, but any others as well. The erratic 

 eases invariably make trouble, but they are 

 often disguised blessings. They may in- 

 deed be of far greater moment than those 

 which have been anticipated, for they may 

 point the way to entirely unsuspected facts. 

 In my early studies on digestion I well 

 remember how much I was annoyed by the 

 repeated failure of some animals to show 

 any signs of digestive activity during the 

 period of observation. You can imagine 

 how suddenly my vexation changed to deep 

 interest when the troublesome inhibition 

 was found to be an accompaniment of 

 fright or anxiety which these animals 

 showed while being looked throiigh with 

 the X-rays. 



After the investigator has completed his 

 examination of a group of questions which 

 have interested him, his leading idea, his 

 tests and his results must be described with 

 scrupulous exactness. In thus reporting 

 his work he should strive to be like clearest 

 crystal, receiving the light and transmit- 

 ting it untinged by any trace of color. 



Scientific activity implies, of course, 

 thorough disinterestedness. The investiga- 

 tor asks no favors and renders none. Any 

 intimation that he act as a retainer or 

 special pleader, any hint or suggestion 

 that he restrict his explorations within cer- 

 tain limits lest he injure cherished tradi- 

 tions, is a step towards the confinement of 

 the free spirit of intellectual inquiry. 

 Rather than surrender that freedom of in- 

 quiry or the right of untrammelled an- 

 nouncement of fresh discoveries, men of 

 science have in the past submitted to tor- 

 tures and painful death, and you may be 

 sure that, if need be, they will be ready to 

 sacrifice themselves again. So exalted is 

 the regard in which the man of science 

 holds the ideal to which his life is devoted 



that he would find in these words of 

 Fichte his solemn pledge: 



To this I am called, to bear witness to the 

 Truth. My life, my fortunes, are of little mo- 

 ment; the results of my life are of infinite 

 moment. I am a Priest of Truth; I am in her 

 pay; I have bound myself to do all things, to 

 venture all things, to suffer all things for her. 

 If I should be persecuted and hated for her sake, 

 if I should even meet death in her service, what 

 wonderful thing is it I shall have done — what but 

 that which I clearly ought to do? 



Th§ satisfactions of a life devoted to 

 investigation, like the satisfactions of other 

 careers, arise from the profitable use of 

 one's powers. The peculiar powers which 

 are needed for research I have just de- 

 scribed. The employment of these powers 

 in perfect freedom, and the immeasurably 

 important results that flow therefrom, 

 render the satisfactions of productive 

 scholarship especially keen. These satis- 

 factions we may now consider in relation 

 to the special qualifications of the investi- 

 gator. 



The requirement that the investigator 

 learn what other men have done before him 

 in the field he seeks to enlarge gives him 

 an unusual realization of the part he may 

 be playing in the promotion of natural 

 knowledge. Knowledge grows like the 

 picture in the dissected puzzle. Every 

 addition must fit the parts already ar- 

 ranged in order to possess significance, 

 and also every addition makes possible the 

 fitting of new parts whose positions in the 

 enlarging picture become thereby suddenly 

 revealed. One of the delights of research, 

 therefore, is the sense that every bit of new 

 knowledge finds its place in the structure 

 of truth, and that sooner or later it will 

 be required for the further building of that 

 structure. The relation which the fresh 

 contribution bears to that already estab- 

 lished, the discoverer clearly sees; what 

 relation it will certainly bear to further 



