January 12, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



65 



first thought is to obtain some problem for 

 his doctor's thesis, and, if he is fortunate, 



in the selection or assignment of a work- 

 able subject, and can obtain material to 

 work with, his best energies are henceforth 

 centered round that particular work, for he 

 is led to believe that his future career de- 

 pends lai'gely on his discovering at once 

 something of importance. 



He feels that his time has been thrown 

 away if at the end of a certain period he 

 has no results on hand worth publishing. 

 In the absence of such results and in his 

 haste to get his degree, there is danger that 

 after prolonged meditation he may uncon- 

 sciously supply the deficiency by giving to 

 his discoveries an importance they do not 

 possess. By padding his paper with per- 

 sonal and irrelevant details, or by picking 

 an unnecessary quarrel with his predeces- 

 sors, and with the aid of an elaborate his- 

 torical summary, he can generally get to- 

 gether an article of sufficient dimensions to 

 produce a favorable impression on the bio- 

 logical commnnity, excepting, of course, the 

 half dozen or so individuals that read it. 



In his research work the student is sus- 

 tained by the thought that he is carrying 

 on some profound investigation. But his 

 work is largely mechanical. It may re- 

 quire a great deal, of patience, a little man- 

 ual skill, and perhaps some intelligence, 

 but it very rarely shows any genuine orig- 

 inality. The student is really seeing and 

 doing what he is told for he has not suf- 

 ficient knowledge of his subject to steer his 

 own course, or to clearly grasp the signif- 

 icance of the question at issue. Much of 

 the research work of the faithful student 

 type is of this nature. In fact, the in- 

 structor does the research, and the student 

 the manual labor. 



Another evil likely to arise from the over- 

 emphasis of research work is the danger 

 of a great waste of time and energy on 

 sterile problems. If it is downright cruelty. 



as Huxley says, to add one unnecessary hour 

 to the work of the medical student, it is no 

 less an offense to assign aline of special in- 

 quiry to a candidate for the doctor's degree 

 with a possibility that at the end of one or 

 two years his chances of getting the de- 

 gree are as far off as ever, because through 

 no fault of his own the work gave negative 

 results, or because his results have been 

 anticipated elsewhere. Another student, 

 more fortunate in the assignment of his 

 problem, may get his degree with the ex- 

 penditure of half the time and labor. 



Of course it may be urged that in most 

 cases no one can know whether a given 

 problem will be fruitful or not till it has 

 been tried, and the candidate must take 

 his chances. He must, no doubt, take his 

 chances in after life, and he accepts the con- 

 ditions more or less cheerfully, provided he 

 is not asked to wager more time and strength 

 on the hazard than are honestly his. 



Meantime the candidate for a doctor's de- 

 gree has been so absorbed in his research 

 work, that he has not had time to think 

 about his own development or his examina- 

 tions. It is usually assumed that, when 

 the time comes, ' a few weeks hard plug- 

 ging will fix that all right,' and experience 

 generally justifies the assumption. In a 

 case that came directly under my own ob- 

 servation, a Japanese student of zoology 

 was to demonstrate his knowledge of botany 

 by describing how they cultivated tea in 

 Japan . 



After two or three years of investigation, 

 the graduate student is liberated with an 

 exaggerated idea of his own importance as ' 

 a contributor to the world's store of knowl- 

 edge, and quite unti-ained in the only work 

 he is likely to do well, or even have a chance 

 to try, namely, teaching in the secondary 

 schools. 



The layman, looking for a teacher with 

 an up to date equipment for his work, 

 may be impressed by the doctor's volumi- 



