January 13, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



69 



so each fact and inference may in some phase 

 of the progress of knowledge serve to explain 

 the previously unexplained, and thus have 

 importance or comparative value. Apart 

 from such temporary and humanistic rela- 

 tions, all facts are equally important or equally 

 unimportant. When, therefore, an author 

 makes the bald statement that a fact is ' im- 

 portant,' he ascribes to it a quality and not a 

 property; and he is self-deceived if he thinks 

 of the importance as an essential character- 

 istic. 



It conduces to clear thinking as well as 

 clear writing if one fortifies the use of ' in- 

 teresting ' or ' important ' by pointing out the 

 relation which endows the indicated fact with 

 interest or importance. When that has been 

 done the need for the adjective often disap- 

 pears; and if it can not be done, the adjective 

 is a meaningless platitude. 



G. K. Gilbert. 



Washington, D. C. 



specialization, ignorance, and some proposed 

 palliatives. 

 I BEG leave to use the columns of Science 

 to express a few ideas which may strike some 

 readers as strangely naive, but which have 

 been incubating in my brain for a term of 

 years, and must now at length find some mode 

 of deliverance. I speak as one of that large 

 class of unfortunates who aspire to contribute 

 a few small stones to the temple of knowledge, 

 but who are forced to give so much time to 

 purely routine work that little is left for better 

 things. And that precious little remnant of 

 our time — how do we employ it? Largely in 

 misspent energy and unproductive elicrts; not 

 in the quest of knowledge, but of the means 

 of acquiring knowledge ; not in learning facts, 

 but in learning how to learn! After we have 

 deducted the time spent in purely mechanical 

 operations, in developing our technique and in 

 digesting the ever-growing literature of our 

 particular little fraction of a sub-science, how 

 much remains of those brief moments spared 

 from the struggle for bread? Is it a wonder 

 that ' general culture ' suffers, when even our 

 sister sciences are neglected, or that specializa- 

 tion so often results in an intellectual isola- 



tion, fatal alike to the scientist and the man? 

 Plaiitudes? — of course they are! Who has 

 not deplored these conditions? But we all 

 resign ourselves to them as inevitable, just as 

 we do to a social order which tolerates boss 

 rule, ' Standard Oil ' and the inheritance of 

 poverty or riches. Who has not wished to 

 halt the march of discoveiy long enough to 

 allow himself to ' catch up ' ? And, seriously, 

 would it be a misfortune if we should be com- 

 pelled to pause for a moment in the exploita- 

 tion of new facts, and properly assimilate the 

 ones we have? But this is not the burden of 

 my modest message. 



One can not but marvel at the absence of 

 any adequate bureau of exchange among 

 specialists in different fields of knowledge. We 

 have our societies, it is true, where papers are 

 presented which are oftentimes too technical 

 even for the limited circle of members — all 

 fellow specialists in a single science. We 

 have our journals, congested with contribu- 

 tions, good, bad and indifferent. But which 

 one of us can follow all the technical journals 

 of his own specialty, even though his path 

 be blazed by international bibliographic cata- 

 logues? We have our reviews and year-books 

 and Jahresberichten, in which the topics 

 treated are apt to gain in technicality in pro- 

 portion to the degree of abridgment. Various 

 semi-popular periodicals doubtless do a 

 splendid work in making accessible some of 

 the more general conclusions of science, but 

 their contents are necessarily fragiuentary and 

 uncoordinated. 



In our higher educational institutions we 

 find specialists engaged in two chief pursuits : 

 giving instruction to students, and conducting 

 research. A third possible function of the 

 faculty seems never to be fully recognized, 

 namely, mutual enlightenment. Why is there 

 often such utter isolation between various 

 departments? Why has there not been estab- 

 lished any recognized clearing-house for the 

 exchange of expert knowledge ? Much of such 

 exchange doubtless occurs in a desultory and 

 haphazard way, through ordinary social inter- 

 course, so that a man of requisite personal and 

 social gifts may receive and impart much of 

 value. And doubtless various public lecture 



