168 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 422. 



It is the opinion of the committee that 

 such persons and committees should be 

 largely advisory and not executive in their 

 function. Executive work should be in 

 charge of paid employees of the Institu- 

 tion. These may be officers, research as- 

 sociates and special employees. 



Policy.— Soon after the executive com- 

 mittee began its investigations it became 

 evident that two lines of policy were open, 

 namely : 



(a) To sustain broad researches and ex- 

 tended explorations that will greatly add 

 to knowledge. 



(6) To make small grants. 



Research may be defined as original in- 

 vestigation in any field, whether in science, 

 literature or art. Its limits coincide with 

 the limits of the knowable. In the field 

 of research the function of the Institution 

 should be organization, the substitution of 

 organized for unorganized effort wherever 

 such combination of effort promises the 

 best results; and the prevention, as far as 

 possible, of needless duplication of work. 

 Hitherto, with few exceptions, research has 

 been a matter of individual enterprise, 

 each worker taking up the special problem 

 which chance or taste led him to and treat- 

 ing it in his own way. No investigator, 

 working single handed, can at present ap- 

 proach the largest problems in the broadest 

 way thoroughly and systematically. 



With an income large enough to enter 

 upon some large projects and a number 

 of minor ones, it appears to be wiser, at 

 the beginning, to make a number of small 

 grants and to thoroughly prepare to take 

 up some of the larger projects. With this 

 in view the executive committee recom- 

 mended to the Trustees that there be 

 placed at its disposal for the fiscal year 

 1902- '03, two hundred thousand dollars 

 for aid to special researches in various 

 branches of science, and $40,000 for the 

 publication of the results achieved. Dur- 



ing the year plans will be periected, data 

 secured and experience gained that will be 

 of great service in formulating recom- 

 mendations for the ensuing year. 



In the opinion of the committee, the 

 most effective way to discover and develop 

 the exceptional man is to put promising 

 men upon research work under proper 

 guidance and supervision. Those who do 

 not fulfil their promise will soon drop out, 

 and by the survival of the fittest the ex- 

 ceptionally capable man will appear and 

 be given opportunity to accomplish the 

 best that is in him. When the genius is 

 discovered, provide him with the best 

 equipment that can be obtained. 



In making grants the wisest policy ap- 

 pears to be to make them to individuals 

 for a specific purpose rather than to in- 

 stitutions for general purposes. 



Grants. — Under the authority conferred 

 upon it by the Trustees at their first meet- 

 ing, the executive committee made three 

 grants, as follows: 



March 25, 1902. To the Marine Biological 

 Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass., for gen- 

 eral support $4,000 



April 15, 1902. To Dr. J. McK. Cattell, 

 Columbia University, New York, for pre- 

 paring a list of the scientific men of the 



United States 1,000 



April 15, 1902. To Dr. Hideyo Noguchi and 

 Professor Simon Flexner, Philadelphia, 

 Pa., for continuation of their studies of 

 the toxicological actions of snake venom 

 and allied poisons 1,000 



Total $6,000 



Since the second meeting of the Trus- 

 tees, on November 25, 1902, the executive 

 committee has made the following grants 

 in the several departments of science men- 

 tioned ; anthropology, mathematics and 

 other branches will be acted upon later: 



Astronomy $ 21,000 



Bibliography 15,000 



Botany 11,700 



Chemistry 3,000 



Economies 15,000 



