June 4, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



881 



which occurred during my mound-work in 

 Florida. 



At one time I had almost completed the 

 slicing-down of a large mound in which no ob- 

 ject in any way connected with Europeans had 

 been found. 



WTiile my back happend to be turned I heard 

 a cry and went to the colored digger from whom 

 it came and who, I found, held in his hand an 

 iron spike — a sure sign of European contact. 

 " From where did this come? " I asked. 

 The digger did not seem to comprehend my 

 question and, as time pressed, I asked a leading 

 question, which no investigator should do. I 

 inquired again, "Did it come from the base?" 

 " Yes, sah, from de base," replied the digger. 

 I was somewhat nonplussed, for I never had 

 (and never have) dug down a mound of any 

 size where artifacts of white origin were present 

 other than superficially. 



Suddenly an idea struck me. ' ' Where is the 

 base? " I asked. 



"Why, at de top, sah," replied the digger. 

 Once in conversation with a very intelligent 

 man, the leading citizen of a town on the Ockla- 

 waha river, I was somewhat startled at the in- 

 formation that the speaker had in his house a 

 grooved stone axe found on his place. 



I pointed out that no report had yet appeared 

 as to the discovery of a grooved axe in Florida. 

 The speaker was positive. He kneiv he was 

 right. I asked him, as a favor, to consult with 

 his family at dinner as to the matter and to let 

 me know later on. 



In the afternoon he called on me and stated 

 that the grooved stone axe was a present from 

 a friend in Alabama and that the implement 

 found on his place had no groove. 



Claeence B. Moore. 



the smithsonian institution and a na- 

 tional university.* 

 Since our conversation about the organization 

 and purpose of the Smithsonian Institution I 

 have been thinking much about the matter. 



*A letter addressed by Professor Benjamin Ide 

 Wheeler, of CoineU University, to the Hon. Gardiner 

 G. Hubbard, Washington, and pnblijhed here with 

 the permission of Professor "ftTiee'er and Mr. Hub- 

 bard. 



Certain things seem clear. The Institution is at 

 the National Capital ; whatever it does must 

 represent the best there is in the country. The 

 plan of its foundation and the purposes of the 

 founder were broad ; it ought, if it can be found 

 in any way practicable, to represent more than 

 one, two or three branches of scientific knowl- 

 edge. The problem is how, with the limited 

 fund at disposal, to combine the two things, su- 

 preme excellence and wide scope. 



I think I can conceive of a plan. Whether it 

 is practical or not will be for others who are 

 nearer at hand and better acquainted with the 

 details to determine. 



Since the Institution began its work the con- 

 ditions of scientific work in this country have 

 radically changed. There were then but few 

 recognized departments of scientific endeavor ; 

 now the differentiation of the sciences has ad- 

 vanced into great multiplicity. Then a single 

 man was able to cover a large field and there 

 were Humboldts in the land ; now a man may 

 not venture to call himself a chemist, but de- 

 fines his specialty as Physical Chemistry, Agri- 

 cultural Chemistry, Chemistry of Gases, Inor- 

 ganic or Organic Chemistry, etc. Then there 

 were no universities in the present sense. There 

 were no institutions where any large number 

 of different scientific fields were occupied by 

 advanced investigators. There were colleges 

 which taught, not universities which learned. 



It is now no longer possible for the Smithso- 

 nian Institution to compete, even in a single de- 

 partment, with the larger universities. Accord- 

 ing to its present organization it has, and can 

 have, but one or two men for one or two de- 

 partments. There are now a half-dozen uni- 

 versities that can and do employ a considerable 

 force of men for each of a large list of scientific 

 departments, each of which is equipped with 

 laboratories, apparatus and collections. A man 

 who permanently establishes himself in resi- 

 dence at Washington at the Institution cuts 

 himself off from many associations he would 

 find at a university. He loses the opportunity of 

 laboratories and carefully assembled collections 

 of the literature of his subject. He loses the 

 stimulus of teaching and of working with inves- 

 tigators and of directing investigations. The 

 Smithsonian Institution is not a university and 



