378 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 90. 



ing until it ultimately shapes itself into a 

 definite plan. Simple as it may be in 

 theory, few things are more difficult in 

 practice than the formation and inception 

 in early life, inexperienced, and often with- 

 out certainty of the power of continuance 

 for any length of time, of a plan for a single 

 piece of research work worthy of the devo- 

 tion of a lifetime ; and few and fortunate 

 are the men, even among those who have 

 outlined and entered upon such a task, who 

 are not forced from the path by side issues, 

 or whose lives are not unduly short. More 

 commonly one must be content to choose 

 several smaller subjects, for their own sakes 

 somewhat closely related to one another, if 

 possible, and to follow these up in succes- 

 sion. It is surprising how blind even the 

 sharpest- eyed among us are to all that does 

 not directly interest us, and it is an equal 

 surprise to see how quickly one's eyes open 

 to things which he has once begun to think 

 of and look for. If for no other reason than 

 this, I would again urge breadth of early 

 training, as giving the first impulse to many 

 a series of special observations to be fol- 

 lowed up in later life. 



Once a subject is chosen, observations 

 accumulate with surprising rapidity, and 

 next to the selection of a subject nothing 

 is so important as system in pursuing 

 it. If we do not see it in ourselves, 

 each one of us can see in others a 

 great waste of energj^, resulting from 

 shiftless and ill-considered methods of pro- 

 cedure, by which the mind is so distracted 

 and the memory so overloaded with unes- 

 sentials and dissociated fragments that 

 those which belong together are not matched, 

 nor the missing bits, in plain view, gathered. 

 How often do we have to return, time after 

 time, and review partial work that we have 

 had to dismiss temporarily from the mind, 

 in which, meantime, has been lost the con- 

 nection between the completed portion and 

 the continuation awaiting our leisure. A 



phenomenal memory may enable one to 

 work in this disjointed fashion without the 

 production of scrappy results or the review 

 of all that has been done each time that the 

 task is resumed ; but for those not so gifted, 

 order and method are absolutely necessary, 

 and next to a clear idea of the end aimed 

 at, I should place the immediate making of 

 full and exact notes as their most essential 

 part. Some years since I was privileged to 

 assist Dr. Gray in collecting and republish- 

 ing the botanical writings of Dr. Engel- 

 mann, and it was a matter of surprise to us 

 both, as it has been to others, to see how 

 voluminous these were. Had Dr. Engel- 

 mann devoted his entire life to botany, they 

 would have been as creditable in quantity 

 as in quality, but for the leisure-hour pro- 

 ductions of a busy professional man, they 

 were truly marvelous. Some years later, 

 when, his herbarium and library having 

 found a resting place at the botanical gar- 

 den in the development of which he had felt 

 an interest for many years, it fell to my lot 

 to arrange in form for permanent preserva- 

 tion Dr. Engelmann's manuscript notes, 

 sketches, etc., I was far more surprised at 

 the extent of these than I had been on col- 

 lecting his printed works, for when 

 mounted and bound they form sixty large 

 volumes. In addition to their intrinsic 

 value, these are of more than usual inter- 

 est as showing the methodical manner in 

 which Dr. Engelmann worked. On his table 

 seems to have been always a bundle of 

 plants awaiting study. As each specimen 

 was examined, its salient features were 

 noted and sketched on the back of an ever- 

 ready prescription blank. When inter- 

 rupted, he laid his unfinished sketch away 

 with the specimen, to resume his observa- 

 tion and complete his study at the first op- 

 portunity, without any doubt as to what 

 had been seen in the first instance. And 

 so from individual to variety, from variety 

 to species, from species to genus, and from 



