SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1885. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 



The committee on the government surveys 

 having at this writing not yet made its 

 report to congress, it may be worth while to 

 consider a recommendation which touches upon 

 the subject, made by the secretary of the navy 

 in his last report, repeated indeed from former 

 reports of the same official. It is to the effect 

 that the work of the revenue marine, the 

 lighthouse board, and the coast survey, so 

 far as the latter is concerned with marine in- 

 vestigations, should be brought, with that of 

 the hydrographic office, under the direction of 

 the navy department, "whereby greater unity 

 of purpose and consistency of action would be 

 secured." 



It can hardly be questioned that the change 

 thus proposed might be economical in prevent- 

 ing the duplication of outfits, and that it 

 might open much practical and profitable work 

 to naval officers ; but, apart from the better 

 o-eneral scheme @f the national academy, there 

 is, perhaps, an element of difficulty in this 

 plan, that might be used against it. The exe- 

 cution of certain technical parts of hydro- 

 graphic work requires special skill ; and, if the 

 demand for this skill were supplied only b}~ 

 those who have made the navy their life-career, 

 it might not be so well satisfied as if sup- 

 plied from a larger circle. Moreover, the ex- 

 perience needed for the best performance of 

 certain duties can be gained only 03- years of 

 perseverance ; and, when gained, the country 

 cannot afford to lose it by its possessor being 

 ordered off' on a long cruise, as is at present 

 the fashion in naval routine. 



their recruits are drawn from all sources. They 

 are net first asked, if, above every thing else, 

 they are naval or military men, but rather if 

 they are geologists or topographers ; and, fur- 

 ther, whoever gains successful experience in 

 these services, gains also a relatively perma- 

 nent occupation in his specialty. Perhaps it is 

 in part for these reasons that the committee of 

 the national academy did not include in its 

 recommendations the suggestions found in the 

 report of the secretary of the navy. 



It may be seen that these disadvantages do 

 not appear in the present organization of either 

 the geological survey or the coast survey, for 



But all things considered, there seems to be 

 sound reason in the policy of the secretary, 

 "that the officers and seamen of the navy 

 should be employed to perform all the work 

 of the national government upon, or in direct 

 connection with, the ocean." An arrangement 

 by which the geodetic and geological surveys 

 occupy themselves with our land possessions, 

 while a bureau in the navy department deter- 

 mines what we need to know of the ocean and 

 its shores, does not seem irrational. It would 

 involve, of course, certain changes in the de- 

 partments in the direction indicated by the 

 possible element of difficult}" above named. It 

 is absolutely essential to the success of such a 

 policy, that the scientific naval bureau which it 

 requires, should not be, except in its subordi- 

 nate offices, a training-school for naval officers. 

 Its work must be directed, and for the greater 

 part carried on, b} T men permanently employed 

 for their special tasks, as is the case in the 

 coast and geological surveys. Without this, 

 there would be little gain of econom^v or uni- 

 formity, and matters would far better rest as 

 they now are. If the change were made, there 

 would be much outciy in certain quarters, and 

 perhaps, for a time, some injustice hardly sep- 

 arable from so considerable a revolution ; but 

 these difficulties would be only of a personal 

 and temporary nature, and not inherent in the 

 case. Once accomplished, we should look 

 back with wonder on the present strange order 



No. 106. — 1880. 



