May 29, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



853 



give new inspiration for work and added 

 stimulus for. greater effort. 



Everywhere among educational men is 

 heard the urgent call for investigation. 

 Trained investigators are sought on every 

 side. Investigation is demanded of col- 

 lege professors by governing boards. It 

 is inspired in students. The investigators 

 make the ivorld move. They are the 

 leaven that moves society to demand social 

 reforms. They open new fields for com- 

 merce. Educational reforms are suggested 

 by them. To them we look for the allevia- 

 tion of diseases, for the control of pesti- 

 lences. If the fabled fountain of immortal 

 youth is ever found it will surely be 

 through the efforts of this noble class of 

 men. They have practically banished the 

 curse of yellow fever in the tropics; by 

 their efforts the Oriental fruits are grown 

 on the opposite side of the earth ; electricity 

 has by leaps and bounds, at their magic 

 touch, entered almost every occupation of 

 civilized man; by their unflagging efforts 

 the unwritten history of past ages has be- 

 come common property; space has been 

 annihilated by their inventions; the farm- 

 er, the fruit-grower, the merchant, the 

 lawyer, the laborer, all must acknowledge 

 the powerful influence exerted by the in- 

 vestigators. 



Division of labor is being differentiated 

 very rapidly during the last decade. The 

 pressure for specialization in occupations 

 and professions is fast driving men into 

 one single phase of a subject for an occu- 

 pation. This differentiation of occupa- 

 tions and division of labor will become 

 more and more circumscribed and com- 

 plex as the years go by. Each new dis- 

 covery and invention multiplies the possi- 

 bilities of increased work ten, twenty or 

 a hundredfold. The specialist who by 

 continued investigation adds new ideas 

 and new inventions to the world's large 



list benefits the race by so doing, and adds 

 luster to his name and nation. But at the 

 same time he draws more sharply the line 

 that marks the life work of his successors. 

 His work is demanded. It indicates the 

 highest degree of mental activity. It de- 

 mands a fertile brain, a vivid imagination, 

 a philosophical mind, a benevolent and 

 humanitarian nature. 



It is not to be expected that every in- 

 vestigator in the state should be a member 

 of the academy, but certainly every mem- 

 ber of the academy should be an investi- 

 gator. Each person should have some one 

 idea, or several ideas, which may demand 

 original work, whether it be in the field of 

 science, arts or letters. The meetings of 

 the academy should be given up almost en- 

 tirely to reports of work in progress. They 

 should be the means of making public the 

 work of investigation carried on by the 

 members, and no paper should be consid- 

 ered too technical for presentation. 



The object of the Academy is stated in 

 Article II. of the constitution. 



"The object of the academy shall be 

 the promotion of sciences, arts and letters 

 in the state of Montana. Among the 

 special objects shall be the publication of 

 the results of investigation, the formation 

 of a library, and the promotion of a thor- 

 ough scientific survey of the state." 



This is a broad and liberal field for ac- 

 tion. It may be appropriate here briefly 

 to summarize some of the opportunities 

 presented to the members of the academy 

 in the state of Montana. 



The state contains approximately 146,- 

 000 square miles of territory. About one 

 third of this is agricultural land, either in 

 cultivation or capable of being cultivated 

 by the use of water; one third is grazing 

 land, either too remote from water for irri- 

 gation or too uneven to permit the use of 

 water ; the remaining third is mountainous. 



