Effective
research involves so intricate a network of problems and
considerations that no one engaged in it can fail to profit by the
suggestions of kindred spirits, even if less acquainted with the
subject than he is himself. Intelligent discussion suggests new
ideas and continually carries the mind to a higher level of
thought. We must not regard the typical scientific worker, even of
the highest class, as one who, having chosen his special field and
met with success in cultivating it, has only to be supplied with
the facilities he may be supposed to need in order to continue his
work in the most efficient way. What we have to deal with is not a
fixed and permanent body of learned men, each knowing all about
the field of work in which he is engaged, but a changing and
growing class, constantly recruited by beginners at the bottom of
the scale, and constantly depleted by the old dropping away at the
top. No view of the subject is complete which does not embrace the
entire activity of the investigator, from the tyro to the leader.
The leader himself, unless engaged in the prosecution of some
narrow specialty, can rarely be so completely acquainted with his
field as not to need information from others.
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