April 10, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



579 



and in view of the fact that our gilded 

 youth show little inclination to indulge 

 in anything so tame as research, we must 

 have, fellowships of some kind, but fellow- 

 ships with no niggardly academic restric- 

 tions. Our young men should be enabled 

 to spend months or even years in localities 

 where they can study organisms in their 

 natural environment. The prevalent type 

 of university expedition, that hurries 

 through a country, collects a few miscel- 

 laneous specimens and observations and 

 makes for home^ may be better than noth- 

 ing, but it leaves us little the wiser con- 

 cerning the most important problems pre- 

 sented by the fauna and flora of foreign 

 countries. Stuffing our museums with 

 specimens is not necessarily advancing bio- 

 logical science. And it is not even neces- 

 sary to call attention to the tropics in this 

 connection. Vast stretches of our own 

 country are all but unknown biologically, 

 and are liable to remain so as long as our 

 graduate students and fellows are per- 

 suaded that the salvation of the science 

 depends on their becoming sessile organ- 

 isms with idees fixes on the twinkling of 

 the centrosomes, the twiddling of the chro- 

 mosomes and a few other matters of simi- 

 lar import. 



I am aware that much of what I have 

 said may belong to past history, and may 

 even apply to men of straw, but there is 

 still a good deal of old straw, or what the 

 Germans call 'Zopf,' in all our universities. 

 Some of this is undoubtedly of our own 

 cultivation, but much of it has come to us 

 in the packing boxes with intellectual com- 

 modities from Europe. The sooner we set 

 fire to it the better. 



I would venture, in conclusion, to ad- 

 vance the following suggestions as a remedy 

 for some of the evils connected with our 

 fellowships : 



1. Let us select as fellows only those 

 young men who have well-developed in- 



vestigating instincts and the proper prepa- 

 ration, maturity and mental balance to 

 apply themselves perseveringly to the busi- 

 ness of research. 



2. Let these young men be given suffi- 

 cient monetary aid to detach themselves 

 from an inadequate environment and to 

 do their work wherever they can find the 

 best facilities, in America or in any other 

 portion of the habitable globe. 



3. Let us imderstand that a fellow is not 

 a recipient of alms, and that he is not only 

 honored by the university, but confers an 

 honor on any institution with which he 

 may become connected in the capacity of 

 investigator. 



4. Let us have sufficient knowledge of 

 human nature and the historical develop- 

 ment of the sciences not to expect imme- 

 diate and inordinate scientific returns for 

 any pecuniary aid which we may be able 

 to bestow. 



William Mokton Wheblbe. 



It is very gratifying to note the con- 

 stantly growing interest in scientific in- 

 vestigation in all parts of America. To 

 this many agencies have contributed. 

 Among them the universities and experi- 

 ment stations of the government, both 

 national and state, naturally come into 

 the mind as the principal institutions by 

 which research has been fostered. Endow- 

 ments placed in their hands have been in 

 almost every case wisely administered. 

 Research, however, has not, in any Amer- 

 ican university of the first rank, been defi- 

 nitely put forward as of primary impor- 

 tance. It has been compelled to conquer 

 a place for itself and show its right to con- 

 sideration under the university organiza- 

 tion. I am not sure that in some instances 

 research in the universities has not been 

 something of a 'fad.' It has been some- 

 times put before immature and naturally 

 incapable persons as the only goal for their 



