Abstract
THE American Society of Naturalists arranged fora discussion on the duties of universities with regard to investigation, and the American journal, Science, has recently published the contributions to the discussion made in the end of last year at the New Haven meeting. Profs. Dwight of Harvard, Chittenden of Yale, Jastrow of Wisconsin, Patten of Dartmouth, and Dr. Macdougal of the New York Botanic Gardens—five distinguished representatives of the natural sciences in America—made a formal and deliberate expression of their opinions, and an examination of these convictions cannot fail to be valuable to English readers. On all salient points these experts are in complete agreement. They have no doubt that the connection between universities and research is fundamental. Dr. Macdougal dismisses it as “axiomatic.” Prof. Jastrow declares that a university should be the “natural habitat” of investigation. Prof. Dwight is “sure of a sympathetic hearing from public and universities for discussion of the modes and conditions of university research.” The others differ only in the precise phraseology they employ. Nor is there any doubt but that university teachers should be investigators by temperament and habit. As Prof. Chittenden insists, the primary function of a university is a diffusion of the knowledge already gained, rather than the provision of new knowledge; but, although teachers who were not investigators have existed, the ideal teacher must be more than a diffuser. All universities of standing make success in investigation a necessary qualification for their teachers, and, in effect, our witnesses all agree that, having chosen rightly such men, it is the duty of the universities to see that time and opportunity for investigation should be found for them during their tenure of office.
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The Position That Universities Should Take in Regard to Investigation . Nature 61, 417–418 (1900). https://doi.org/10.1038/061417a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/061417a0