January 12, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



63 



of the spirit of research, instruction in the 

 methods of research is regarded as an essen- 

 tial part of the teachers' university train- 

 ing. The same kind of instruction is being 

 rapidly transplanted into the college cur- 

 riculum, where it may form part of the 

 work of advanced students during their 

 junior and senior years. 



We shall not try to point out here the 

 value of research to the university, or to 

 discuss what may be done to give it new 

 scope and direction. Let us rather inquire 

 whether there is not a tendency to confound 

 the university attitude toward investigation 

 as a method of training, with that of the 

 learned society or academy toward research 

 as an end, and whether, as a result of this 

 confusion, our higher educational institu- 

 tions are not substituting too extensively a 

 training in investigation for more direct 

 methods of instruction. 



The criticism may be fairly made that 

 in research work an enormous amount of 

 time is devoted to mechanical details that 

 do not yield adequate returns, either in in- 

 struction or in training ; that much of this 

 work is begun before the student is properly 

 prepared to undertake it, and done at the 

 expense of the best opportunity he is likely 

 to have of acquiring a broad, sympathetic 

 culture, and a secure foundation knowledge 

 of the subject in which he proposes to spe- 

 cialize; and finally, that the research work 

 to which the student devotes so much of 

 his time rarely, if ever, serves as a prepara- 

 tion for the kind of work by which he ex- 

 pects to earn a living, — namely, teaching in 

 the college or secondary schools. 



It seems to me that such criticisms are 

 largely justified, and that they are specially 

 applicable to the biological student, whom 

 I shall have in mind in the discussion that 

 follows. 



This is mainly due to the nature of bio- 

 logical work, and to the character of the 

 biologist. The latter is generally an en- 



thusiast who follows his subject for its own 

 sake, without hope of the large financial 

 rewards of the inventive chemist or physi- 

 cist. In rare cases he may be a man of 

 wealth and leisure, but more generally he 

 has very moderate means and is without 

 the best preliminary training. In the great 

 majority of cases, he must earn his living 

 by teaching, and use his leisure time only 

 for research. 



In biology the frontier separating the 

 known from the unknown is everywhere 

 close at hand, and new methods of research 

 make it easy for comparatively untrained 

 workers, with a little guidance, to bring 

 important facts to light. 



It is not necessary to devote the long 

 years of training required in music and art, 

 to make the eye and hand of the biologist 

 effective instruments for the performance 

 of his work, and the apprehension of the 

 mere materials with which he deals, taken 

 alone, does not make great demands on his 

 mental resources. 



The daily occupation of the biologist may 

 be so absorbing, that once he begins to sec- 

 tion and stain, and put things safely away 

 in bottles, he is likely to keep on doing so 

 till he dies. 



There is, therefore, a great temptation 

 for the biological student to begin his crea- 

 tive work at an early period, and he is 

 eager to do so because it gratifies his pride 

 to be investigating something, and because, 

 on the whole, investigation is a very en- 

 tertaining occupation. The instructor is 

 not likely to oppose his inclinations in 

 this direction, since he finds it an easy 

 way of keeping the student busy, and in- 

 cidentally of clearing up little problems he 

 has no time to work out for himself. 



But there is probably no other subject in 

 which there is greater danger of too early 

 specialization than biology, because there 

 is no other science which sends its roots 

 more deeply or intricately into other sci- 



