Septembee 18, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



369 



dergraduate time in college to tlie elements 

 of the subject in its broadest, and, if he 

 wish, technical scope, having the benefit of 

 marvelously detailed appliances and a 

 broad knowledge of general facts. If he 

 can and will work for a higher university 

 degree, thus equipped, he may delve into 

 the depths of the most limited specialty, 

 guided for a time for those who have al- 

 ready broken soil there, and left at last 

 with a rich and unexplored vein for his own 

 elaboration. With this training, if he be 

 fortunate in securing a position offering op- 

 portunity for research, or if he enjoy inde- 

 pendent means, he may hope for a life-time 

 of more or less uninterrupted opportunity 

 for unearthing the wealth of discovery that 

 lies just within his reach. 



Considering the prevalent conditions, my 

 subject naturally divides itself into two 

 quite distinct parts: the opportunity of in- 

 stitutions and of individuals. "We stand 

 to-day, apparently, at a transition point. 

 Most of the active workers of the present 

 time are college professors, who have done 

 the research work that has made their 

 names known, during the leisure that could 

 be found in the year's routine of instruc- 

 tion or during their long vacations, and 

 with facilities nominally secured for class 

 use, or, in many instances, like those of a 

 generation ago, the private property of the 

 investigator. Even when appreciated at 

 something like its true value, their original 

 work, for the most part, has been closely 

 watched to prevent it from encroaching 

 upon the first duty, class work; and in most 

 cases the facilities that they have been able 

 to bring together are in direct proportion 

 to the number of students attracted to their 

 departments, and, therefore, in inverse ra- 

 tio to their own leisure for research. But, 

 as I have already stated, the feeling is 

 growing among men able to foster such en- 

 terprises that research is a thing worthy of 

 being promoted, and we have before our 



eyes the spectacle of a gradually unfolding 

 class of institutions in which investigation 

 is not only tolerated but expected, either as 

 an adjunct to instruction, as in the greater 

 number of colleges, as a concomitant of ed- 

 ucational displays, as in botanical museums 

 and gardens, or, at least nominally, as a 

 basis for technical or economic research, as 

 in several of the larger drug houses, and, 

 notably, in various agricultural experiment 

 stations and the National Department of 

 Agriculture. Perhaps the time has not yet 

 come when laboratories of botanical re- 

 search can stand out quite alone and justify 

 their existence without reference to other 

 ends, the utility of which is more generally 

 understood and conceded, but it seems safe 

 to predict that the next decade will see 

 their complete evolution. 



Opportunity, for institutions, lies pri- 

 marily in equipment, and secondarily in its 

 use. The problem of equipment for research 

 is a complicated and difficult one. So long 

 as there were no laboratories specially de- 

 signed for this purpose it was natural that 

 the instructional laboratory should be fur- 

 nished with appliances for demonstration, 

 and that these should be amplified, as far 

 as possible, for the repetition of experi- 

 ments, in the first place, and afterwards 

 for their extension ; and it is no doubt true 

 that a number of the smaller educational 

 laboratories are to-day over- equipped when 

 account is taken of the possible use to which 

 they can be put. With a specialization 

 such as we now see in progress, it may be 

 questioned whether the ordinary collegiate 

 equipment cannot be reduced in scope in 

 many instances, with benefit to the institu- 

 tion, by releasing money often badly needed 

 in other directions, either in the same or 

 different departments. On the other hand, 

 it is certain that the equipment of the 

 broader research laboratories, whether con- 

 nected with universities or independent, 

 must be made much more comprehensive 



