168 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 
causes and methods of evolution. Our research museum has assumed 
the rdle of recorder of faunal conditions as they are in this age. I 
reiterate, for emphasis, that I believe its greatest ultimate value will 
not, therefore, be fully realized until a later period. 
But to return to our immediate activities and their justification: 
The mass of information already at hand brings us face to face with 
numerous problems of distribution and variation. As our field work 
is carried on, we learn more and more in detail of the extent of the 
range of each species of animal, and we are able to recognize more 
clearly the correlated factors. We are able with more accuracy to de- 
fine the characters of the local races or subspecies. The study of these 
“small species ” I believe is leading to a better understanding of the 
relationships of animals and the causes of evolution than if we ignored 
the slight varieties and contented ourselves with dealing systematically 
only with the species differentiated so far as to be distinguishable at a 
glance. 
Systematists, either as members of our museum staff or students 
from elsewhere, who make use of our material, are putting on pub- 
lished record the more important facts of distribution and variation as 
they come to light. All of this activity leads to the more thorough 
knowledge of animals necessary for any sort of wider generalization. 
Our institution is a repository of facts; and no matter what may be 
said to the contrary by those who undervalue the efforts of the hoarder 
of facts, it must always be the mass of carefully ascertained facts upon 
which the valid generalization rests. I have lately learned from no 
less than three zoologists of prominence that the published scientific 
paper which does not include some induction or generalization is not 
worth while. The result, it seems to me, of such a sentiment as this, 
which is being promulgated among the younger students, is to en- 
courage premature conclusions. The object, in the view of the young 
research student, becomes the discovery of generalizations, and he is 
liable to be content with a wholly insufficient basis of facts. We can 
not expect satisfactory inductions from scanty data any sooner than 
from inaccurate data. At the same time I do realize that the ultimate 
value of the facts lies in their service as indicators of general truths. 
The amassing of detailed facts in any field of science is certainly a 
commendable pursuit; and if generalizations of wide application are 
early indicated, so much the better. Our research museum is a re- 
pository of facts. 
There is a more widely-appreciated function of our institution 
which is already asserting itself as an important one in the research 
museum’s activities, especially in its connection with a state univer- 
sity: People want to know whether or not a reptile is poisonous; 
whether or not a bird is beneficial or injurious; whether or not a 
