February 12, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



143 



her own sake and good name, let me lay before you 

 one or two examples demonstrating how the disad- 

 vantages I refer to, are due entirely to existing laws, 

 and what we would gain by the changre in them. A 

 very excellent procedure on the part of the govern- 

 ment is now in force, which consists in sending, at 

 stated times, a certain number of midshipmen of the 

 navy to the Smithsonian institution. Here steps 

 are taken to instruct them in marine zoology or other 

 matters from which science may be furthered some 

 day, as the opportunities of these young men may 

 afford. Those only are chosen who appear to prom- 

 ise the most, so far as the object in view is con- 

 cerned. In the long-run, and after all degrees of 

 success of this scheme have revealed themselves, we 

 may obtain, sooner or later, in this way, a man who 

 is really a naturalist in every sense of the word. If 

 I am not mistaken this has already been done, for I 

 have sufficient acquaintance with the young man to 

 say so. He has produced excellent work, published 

 some creditable things, and described several new 

 species. Now no law strictly defines the disposition 

 that shall be made of this one success, in a hundred 

 perhaps, but worse thau this, it is more than likely 

 that the operation of the ordinary military impedi- 

 menta will defeat, in a very short space of time, 

 what is really a splendid investment on the part of 

 the government. If it falls to his lot to be placed 

 aboard of a man-of-war, under some one who has no 

 appreciation of the importance of such things, and 

 he makes the attempt to utilize his knowledge, it is 

 again more than likely that he will be told that if he 

 wishes to follow such- pursuits he had better resign. 

 This proposition is discreditable, I think, any way we 

 look at it, for surely the navy will gain a greater de- 

 gree of respect for having among: their number one 

 who shows ability in any particular line of research, 

 and it certainly seems that the government fails in 

 its duty in not turning such a person to the best ac- 

 count, to say nothing of the interest it would pay her 

 on the original investment. 



Precisely the same impedimenta constantly con- 

 front the scientific investigator in the army, and my 

 observations upon all that such workers have to con- 

 tend against in civil life, lead me to believe upon 

 comparison, that they can never entertain any con- 

 ception of the thousand and one contrivances that 

 surround him, to defeat, and in no way further, his 

 efforts. Not that such persons would object to any 

 thing that the struggle for existence might impose 

 in the natural order of things, when one grows the 

 wiser and the better for the test, but the distractions 

 I refer to, are exceedingly pernicious, and of a far 

 more serious character. Say, however, an ordnance 

 officer wins his reputation as a pathologist, and just 

 such parallel cases have occurred, and always will 

 occur, what happens ? — why in some roundabout 

 way we soon find him in the laboratory, but unfortu- 

 nately with an order over his head directing his re- 

 turn to the arsenal. Now this is bad, for if he goes 

 back to the arsenal the habit of his mind, in spite of 

 his personal integrity, will prevent him from being 

 a good ordnance officer, while on the other hand, the 

 government has abundant need of efficient patholo- 

 gists, and here is one perhaps whose fame is world- 

 wide. If he be retained in the laboratory the pres- 

 ent law demands that he do good work by stealth, 

 which is very bad for the investigator, and not a 

 creditable thing for the country, for we should be 

 enabled to do such things entirely abDve board, and 



be able to express our pride in them as a people, 

 without apology, besides. 



It would be superfluous in me to attempt to point 

 out the least part of the incalculable benefit that the 

 work of these scientists has been to their country, in 

 the vast majority of instances, nay, to the world at 

 large, and I must believe that the establishment of 

 the scientific corps, that I suggest, would be a step 

 in the right direction. 



To say one of the smallest things in its favor, it 

 would obviate the necessity of the recurrence of the 

 ridiculous farce we were, as a nation, unavoidably 

 guilty of, in offering Lieutenant Greely after his 

 arduous expedition, a position in the quartermaster's 

 department, — or such things happening, as occurred 

 only a short time ago, an officer being reported to 

 his department commander, because he was found 

 guilty of pursuing lines of research foreign to his 

 duties, and publishing the results of his investigations, 

 notwithstanding the fact that it was proven that 

 said duties had not been neglected in consequence. 



The number of officers composing this corps should 

 be limited to thirty, and transfers to it from other 

 departments or the line, should be made only upon 

 the consent of the officer. Officers should be allowed, 

 however, to apply for such a transfer, and such ap- 

 plication should be given due consideration by the 

 National academy of sciences, which constitutes the 

 highest advisory body to the government we have to 

 decide such matters. 



If the individual is found worthy of such distinc- 

 tion, and his work passes the required test as now 

 applied by the academy, and he be willing, then the 

 transfer should be effected at the earliest practicable 

 date. E. W. Shufeldt. 



Fort Wingate, N. Mex., Jan. 25. 



Science and Lord Bacon. 



A year ago the honorable Ignatius Donelly appeared 

 in Washington with a documentary proof that the 

 plays of Shakspeare were written by Lord Bacon. I 

 did not hear Mr. Donelly's lecture, but several ladies 

 informed me that they believed there was ' something 

 in it.' As ' Bacon's essays ' was one of the first books 

 I bought and read, it occurred to me to examine his 

 scientific work ; but there is very little, and his sin- 

 gle experiment appears to have been the stuffing a 

 fowl with snow, which brought on the chill that 

 caused his death. It seems to me that Bacon's ser- 

 vices to science have been greatly overestimated, and 

 that Macaulay's declamation on this point is as absurd 

 as Mr. Basil Montague's arguments to prove that his 

 hero never took bribes. A writer of so much intelli- 

 gence as Bacon, and yet one who ridiculed the Coperni- 

 can theory after the discoveries of Galileo, could have 

 had but little scientific spirit ; although it is to be re- 

 membered that the England of his day was far behind 

 Italy and France in scientific knowledge. Can it be 

 that in this matter we have been imposed on by the 

 fustian of English writers, of cyclopedias and school- 

 books ? Asaph Hall. 



The competition of convict labor. 



In his reply to my criticism of his views on the 

 convict-labor problem, Mr. Butler denies that he 

 consciously stands on the grounds of the ruling order 

 of political economy. He holds that his stand-point is 

 that of ' practical ethics ' (Science, vii. No. 157). 



