Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/557

 SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION 551

opment of science and such^ in an accelerated measure, must be its development in the future. There is, indeed, a legitimate sphere for governmental enterprise in that gap between pure science and practical industry which has hitherto been so imperfectly bridged. But the activity of governments in this field can not stimulate the broader activities of the investigator and there is, on the contrary, ground for serious apprehension that the activities of governments in this direction may actually result in depriving the broader and ultimately more sig- nificant investigations of the means for their prosecution. The govern- ment institutes for research having been founded and munificently endowed, why should further grants and endowments be furnished for investigations which are not carried out under government control? The danger is that cheese-making and steel-making and the like being adequately provided with expert scientific advice the politician may decide that all is now well with the investigator and turn with relief to the more familiar problems of " practical politics.^'

In order to combat this tendency and to stimulate the spontaneous development of investigation in a measure commensurate with the accelerated velocity of modern social evolution, it is a vital necessity that investigators the world over should at this time take thought and counsel among themselves as to the new ways and means to be adopted, the secular changes in our procedure which will bring our institution of investigation more closely into harmony with the increasing com- plexity of modern development. Just as, from time to time in the world's history, when some crisis has brought into prominence the misfit between existing institutions and actual needs, the churches have changed and adapted their organization and the existing body of laws and legal procedure have been subjected to reform, so in this day of crisis our institution of investigation must be subject to a like scrutiny and the origin of misfit between existing need and existing procedure sought and if possible removed.

In past centuries the investigator has been largely content to rely for the satisfaction of his personal needs and those of his profession upon the largesse of patrons. So far this procedure has yielded results the vast import of which it would be impossible to exaggerate, and is imquestionably destined still, perhaps for many generations, to provide the main support of this service of mankind, but as the exclusive means of subsidizing investigation it is outworn and ill-adapted to the needs of our present time. To-day we see that increasing patronage, so far from constituting fresh opportunities for science, actually constitutes a grave danger to the welfare of the broader and more fundamentally important types of investigation. The channels are to be made deep for the ultimate trickles, but the fountain-head from which the waters of knowledge proceed is to be neglected, possibly in even greater meas-

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