100 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vou. XXXIIL 
in various measure, but the chief part of it is shared by the 
Director and the “heads of divisions” who have the direct 
superintendence of the details of the work. The former, subject 
to the approval of the Secretary (which in most cases is given as 
a matter of course), decides the policy of the bureau in its special 
functions, the allotment of money and work to the different 
divisions, and the general character and quality of work which 
shall represent the bureau. He is also the general intermediary 
between the Department and Congressional committees con- 
cerned with the special work of the bureau, explaining the 
necessity for particular expenditures for which authority is 
asked, or the propriety of any action about which question 
has arisen. 
The “head of a division ” has generally the immediate con- 
trol of work decided upon and of the special workers, super- 
vises methods and estimates cost, is responsible for accuracy 
and economy in the use of the fund allotted to the work of his 
division, and the attendance and efficiency of those engaged in 
it. Upon him the Director relies for most details, and to him 
the individual workers look for their instructions. 
Both the directors and the “heads of divisions” are usually 
overworked, and the latter are almost invariably underpaid. 
The necrology of the scientific staff from year to year shows a 
lamentable number of early deaths from causes directly or in- 
directly connected with overwork, “ burning the candle at both 
ends.” The temptation of the opportunity for research offered 
by government laboratories, and unequaled elsewhere, is re- 
sponsible for the presence in them of many men who in private 
life would be enjoying the frugal living, high thinking, and 
long summer vacations of colleges, or from five to ten times 
their present salaries as consulting experts. Another feature 
of life in the laboratories is exemplified by the presence there 
of men who, by years of labor in their specialty, are known 
around the world as experts of the highest rank, whose contri- 
butions to science in a single year far outweigh the best college 
thesis for the doctorate of philosophy or science, and yet to 
whom the grant, by some appreciative Faculty, of this modest 
badge of honor would rouse from the mass of educators a storm 
