But, one by one, men were found possessing the skill and
interest in the subject necessary to unite in his work, which now
has not only a journal of its own, but is growing in a way which,
though slow, has all the marks of healthy progress towards an end
the importance of which has scarcely dawned upon the public mind.
Admitting that an organized association of investigators is of the
first necessity to secure the best results in the scientific work
of the future, we meet the question of the conditions and auspices
under which they are to be brought together. The first thought to
strike us at this point may well be that we have, in our great
universities, organizations which include most of the leading men
now engaged in scientific research, whose personnel and facilities
we should utilize. Admitting, as we all do, that there are already
too many universities, and that better work would be done by a
consolidation of the smaller ones, a natural conclusion is that
the end in view will be best reached through existing
organizations. But it would be a great mistake to jump at this
conclusion without a careful study of the conditions. The brief
argument--there are already too many institutions--instead of
having more we should strengthen those we have--should not be
accepted without examination.
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