January 9, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



69 



pleasing objects of study for most stu- 

 dents, and they are particularly available 

 for illustration in such objects as colora- 

 tion, geographical distribution and, strange 

 as it may seem, ecological problems. 



You will pardon me, I hope, for thus 

 intruding the work of my own department 

 upon your attention. But it serves to 

 illustrate my meaning in claiming for sys- 

 tematic work the highest grade of peda- 

 gogical value. It does teach the student 

 to observe carefully, discriminate with 

 something of that judicial nicety so rare 

 and so helpful in any life, and lastly— and 

 it seems to me that this is the crowning 

 achievement in education— to describe ac- 

 curately not only from a scientific but also 

 from a literary standpoint. Lucidity and 

 accuracy of language accomplishes mar- 

 vels in the way of inciting to lucidity and 

 accuracy of thought, and, so it seems to 

 me, actually precedes them in time. 



All this may seem a digression from the 

 main theses of my address, but it will be 

 remembered that we are trying to find a 

 remedy for the scarcity of men competent 

 to occupy the field of systematic work, and 

 the first thing needful is a realization on 

 the part of our colleges and universities 

 that they have too long neglected the edu- 

 cational value of training along systematic 

 lines. Were they led to recognize this at 

 its just value, it would be provided for 

 on at least an equal footing with morphol- 

 ogy in the curricula of all reputable col- 

 leges, and this would result in the gradua- 

 tion, yearly, of a number of young men 

 and women who have the preliminary 

 training that will enable them to take up 

 systematic work in earnest. 



Of course this real systematic worlv can 

 only exceptionally be done in colleges. 

 Not even as post-graduate work can it be 

 attempted, save under circumstances sel- 

 dom realized. But the men, if worthy, 

 will find the place to work in centers where 



great museums and libraries will be at 

 their command. In this connection the 

 thought forces itself to the fore that the 

 great and greatly discussed Carnegie In- 

 stitution can do a most important work 

 in seeing to it that such young men, 

 equipped particularly for systematic work, 

 can receive enough of a stipend to feed and 

 clothe them while necessarily away from 

 home and doing important systematic work 

 in overhauling and bringing order out of 

 the chaos that prevails in most if not all 

 great museums, where a wealth of material 

 has been allowed to accumulate for decades 

 awaiting the time when the right man can 

 come to the aid of overworked ciu-ators 

 and intelligently and efficiently disentangle 

 the all but hopeless masses of material, 

 and, with keen insight and trained powers 

 of description, successfully trace the ob- 

 scure web of relationships and of descent. 

 Thus the curators will be left free to do 

 better and more worthy work along the 

 lines of their chosen studies, relieved of 

 at least a part of the all but intolerable 

 burden under which they are staggering, 

 and in spite of which so much excellent 

 work has been done. 



While no one more heartily condemns 

 scientific provincialism than does your 

 speaker, still we can rightly indulge the 

 hope that the time will come, and that 

 soon, when it will be unnecessary to send 

 to Europe for men competent to report on 

 collections made by our government expe- 

 ditions, and when collections will be en- 

 trusted to American zoologists, not because 

 they are American, but because they are 

 best able to do the work in a satisfactory 

 manner. 



It is probable that nine out of ten sys- 

 tematists, if asked what, in their opinion, 

 was the most thankless and wearying part 

 of their work would unhesitatingly answer, 

 'The bibliographic work.' In nothing are 

 our energies so wastefuUy and often need- 



