July 21, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



69 



contributions he may never know. How 

 little did the men who studied the minute 

 differences among mosquitoes, and who 

 recorded the breeding habits of those in- 

 sects realize their important role in abol- 

 ishing the pestilence of yellow fever, and 

 in bringing about the immense social and 

 political changes which will result from that 

 conquest. 



Because every discovery becomes the 

 basis for further discovery the imagination 

 of the investigator is constantly stimulated. 

 New facts suggest in turn other facts and 

 point to unsuspected relations between 

 things that have long been known. Bay- 

 liss and Starling's discovery of a natural 

 chemical stimulant which induces secretion 

 of the pancreas led directly to the explana- 

 tion of continued gastric secretion, and 

 also to finding the marvelous mechanism 

 by which the mammary glands are pre- 

 pared for the giving of milk. Thus, 

 though the interests of the man of science 

 seem at the moment narrow and restricted, 

 they may nevertheless lead his thought out 

 into many diverse realms of knowledge. 

 These excursions of the imagination offer 

 repeated suggestions for fresh adventure. 

 The look therefore is always forward to 

 what may be seen when the next step is 

 taken. Seeking new things becomes in 

 time a fixed habit. Past achievements 

 neither satisfy interest nor hold attention 

 — they become fused with the established 

 routine from which it is a happiness to 

 escape. The chance of beholding unsus- 

 pected wonders, or the possibility of find- 

 ing that something imagined is really true 

 is a constant incitement to further search 

 and furnishes the zest and interest which 

 are among the best rewards of the investi- 

 gator. 



Much happiness is found also in that 

 single-mindedness, which, as we have seen, 

 is one of the prime conditions in the pur- 



suit of knowledge. It implies freedom ^ 

 from bigotry and prejudice, freedom from 

 many of the influences and motives that to 

 their regret men feel compelled to respect 

 for purposes of prudence or policy. The 

 intrusion of any other motive, save that 

 of discovering and telling the truth, only 

 tends to distract the mind of the investi- 

 gator from his absorbing work. Faraday, 

 whose life as a man of science was near 

 perfection, wrote: 



Do not many fail because they look rather to 

 the renown to be acquired than to the pure acqui- 

 sition of knowledge and the delight which the 

 contented mind has in acquiring it for its own 

 sake? I am sure I have seen many who would 

 have been good and successful pursuers of science 

 and have gained themselves a high name, but that 

 it was the name and the reward they were always 

 looking forward to — the reward of the world's 

 praise. In such there is always a shade of envy 

 or regret over their minds, and I can not imagine 

 a man making discoveries in science under these 

 feelings. 



Single-mindedness involves also a rela- 

 tive indifference to those motives of money- 

 getting which prevail in commercial life. 

 Success in research is fortunately not meas- 

 ured by money standards. And yet re- 

 search flourishes best where there is free 

 time to spend in thought and experiment. 

 This time element is essential. The inves- 

 tigator may be made to dwell in a garret, 

 he may be forced to live on crusts and 

 wear dilapidated clothes, he may be de- 

 prived of social recognition, but if he has 

 time, he can steadfastly devote himself to 

 research. Take away his free time, and he 

 is utterly destroyed as a contributor to 

 knowledge. Free time and absence of the 

 money motive, however, are found together 

 only among the indolent poor and the indo- 

 lent rich; and the observation has been 

 made that neither of these classes is likely 

 to contribute men of science. The indus- 

 try of the investigator which results in 

 new knowledge — knowledge in its unprofit- 



