Januaky 12, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



55 



research to the university should give way 

 to direct and positive encouragement, an 

 encouragement which should manifest itself 

 in such an allotment of routine duties as 

 would afford a reasonable amount of time 

 for research to all suitable teachers in 

 the university ? I say suitable teachers, 

 and, speaking as a physiologist, I should 

 like to raise the question, whether the 

 teacher of an experimental science, like 

 physiology, if he is truly a suitable teacher, 

 must not be an investigator also. Do not 

 the two of necessity go together '? And 

 must not the university, if at all zealous 

 for the character of the instruction offered 

 within its walls, see to it that its teachers 

 of science are not merely adepts at expound- 

 ing that which is known, but are equally 

 ambitious to open up new paths of knowl- 

 edge in their respective departments of 

 science ? 



Another, and more direct, reason whj' 

 the university should encourage and aid 

 scientific investigation is that by so doing 

 it enlarges its own scope of usefulness as 

 an educational center. The modern uni- 

 versity, if it is to fulfill its purpose as 

 an educational institution, must be well 

 equipped with laboratories and those other 

 facilities which go to make the teaching of 

 an experimental .science a success. What 

 would the teaching of physiology and 

 physiological chemistry, even in elementary 

 form, amount to without the aid of labo- 

 ratory facilities ? The university, whether 

 it looks with a favoring eye upon investi- 

 gation or not, must have ample appliances 

 for the teaching of the experimental sci- 

 ences, and the more complete the equip- 

 ment the better adapted is the university 

 for carrying on its legitimate work. More- 

 over, the university of to-day is called upon 

 to provide instruction for more advanced 

 students ; men and women who are them- 

 selves looking forward to the possibility of 

 becoming teachers, who are anxious to 



learn the methods of scientific work, and 

 who are desirous of demonstrating for them- 

 selves experimentally the facts upon which 

 the important theories and hypotheses of 

 their chosen science depend. For the 

 realization of proper instruction in these 

 respects, the university must provide suit- 

 able equipment if it is to live up to its high 

 privileges, as well as have a suitable corps 

 of instructors capable of leading on such ad- 

 vanced workers. The university must, 

 therefore, have at hand all those appliances 

 which are essential for research or investi- 

 gation, and which the individual worker 

 can rarely afford. Why should not these 

 be utilized by competent investigators for 

 scientific research ? Fine laboratories and 

 fine apparatus are of value only so far as 

 they contribute to the spread of knowledge, 

 and if they can be utilized for the acqui- 

 sition of new facts, so much greater will be 

 their usefulness, and so much more credit 

 to the university that renders them avail- 

 able. But, having the appliances, should 

 not the university make strenuous efforts 

 even to encourage i-esearch ; not passive 

 encouragement, but direct, positive encour- 

 agement, that will not rest until the labo- 

 ratory is filled with earnest workers taking 

 advantage of the various facilities provided ? 

 I think, yes, and it takes very little imagi- 

 nation to picture the direct and indirect 

 advantages accruing both to the university 

 and to science by the fulfillment of such a 

 suggestion. 



Contrast, as you easily can, the difference 

 in the atmosphere between a physiological 

 laboratory, for example, occupied solely by 

 a class at stated intervals on certain days 

 of the week, and the laboratory in which 

 zealous workers are to be found, ever ex- 

 perimenting on new problems, spurred on 

 continuously by the stimulating influence 

 of new facts and new observations, making 

 a rallying place for the earnest thinkers 

 and workers who constitute an ever-present 



