The Training of a Geologist. — Branner. 151 
ought to know more about some particular branch of geology 
than anyone else. The material progress of our times is due 
largely to the division of labor which enables each individual 
to perfect his skill. Progress in science is due in no small 
degree to a similar division in scientific work. Though I can 
not dispense with a knowledge of chemistry, specialization by 
my neighbor who devotes himself to chemistry relieves me of 
the necessity of devoting a large part of my time to chemistry ; 
the devotion of another to physics gives me my time for 
geologic work proper, which, without the specialist in physics, 
I should be obliged to devote to physical studies. The 
astronomer hands me the results of his special investigations 
and saves me my time for geology, which, without his help I 
should be obliged to give to astronomy. And so it is all 
around. On the other hand I trust that my attention to 
geology will, in its turn, come to the aid of the chemist, the 
physicist and the astronomer. 
In saying a word for specialties I am fully aware of all that 
has been urged against this kind of scholarship. President 
White of Cornell University said to me in a private conversa- 
tion a few years ago, that he had his doubts and fears about 
the outcome of this modern tendency among scientific men to 
specialization. Said he : "If this thing goes on, we shall have, 
after a while, a man who will know all about the stripes on a 
trilobite's tail, but he won't know anything else." It is very 
easy to ridicule a specialist, especially if the aims of his 
studies are not comprehended. Galvani studying the twitch- 
ing of a frog's legs, Darwin breeding pigeons, and Agassiz 
planting sticks on a glacier, are inspiring or ridiculous in 
proportion as we comprehend the bearing or end of their 
studies. Whether studying the twitching of a frog's legs or 
the stripes on a trilobite's tail is an unworthy and contempt- 
ible occupation for an intelligent man depends, therefore, 
upon the ultimate objects of the study. And in regard to 
special work by those who aspire to broad culture in science I 
can only repeat what I have always held upon this sub- 
ject : that a man who is incapable of doing and has not 
done special investigation is not capable of taking a broad 
view of science in any of its relations. Mr. Darwin has done 
some of the best generalizing of our age, but before he did it 
he had done some of the best of specializing, and that too on 
