Berry — Present Tendencies in Paleontology. 11 



types? It seems to me that no single rnle of general 

 application can be laid down. There should be no 

 dogmatism! In general the broadly conceived species 

 which are abundant, are long ranging and of less value 

 than the perhaps rarer more restricted types. One type 

 of organism may be much more valuable than another. 

 I should regard the active Zeugledon of the open sea as 

 a much more critical indication of Upper Eocene age than 

 a dozen species of Mollusca. Similarly I should regard 

 the sea lizards of the Upper Cretaceous or fishes like 

 Pycnodus as of much more diagnostic value than species 

 of Exogyra or Inoceramus. The wider removed the 

 areas to be correlated, the more important are the geo- 

 graphically wide ranging and geologically restricted 

 forms and the greater the importance to be attached to 

 their initial appearance. 



Progress depends on research, as even an outcrop 

 chaser in Oklahoma would probably admit, but research 

 is about as much abused a term as culture. Eesearch to 

 the neophyte at the university, particularly in current 

 biologic and psychologic investigation, consists in "hav- 

 ing a problem' ' and I often wish that the Board of 

 Health classed "having a problem" along with other 

 communicable diseases and would quarantine its victims. 



True research does not depend on subject matter but 

 on method and the invidious distinction and discussions 

 of pure and applied science would have no point were it 

 not for the pragmatic individuals, false and mercenary 

 ideals and superficial Burbank methods that characterize 

 so much of applied science. 



I should wish to depreciate the tendency, rampant 

 throughout the world, and accelerated by war conditions, 

 to seek a justification for research as a means toward 

 some economic end. If the elucidation of earth history 

 and the origin and evolution of life on the globe are not 

 of prime importance as ends in themselves ; if the v whence 

 and the why and the whither are not supreme, then 

 indeed has our lot fallen among evil days. 



Research is, I suspect, a dangerous subject for discus- 

 sion before a body of men the majority of whom are con- 

 nected with a great Federal Bureau. There are so many 

 very necessary and commendable public services crying 

 for accomplishment, and there is so much justification for 

 the pious wish to give the people what they think they 



