CHAPTER XIX ORIGINAL RESEARCH Knowledge as sought by disinterested inquirers . . . A plenteous harvest with but few reapers . . . Germany leads in original research . . . The Carnegie Institution at Washington. We have now taken a rapid survey of invention and discovery in the fields of Form, Size, Properties, Measurement, and the Teachings of Nature. We will here somewhat change our point of view and bestow a glance at the characteristics of inventors and discoverers, noting their powers of observation and experiment, their patience from first to last in learning from other thinkers and workers past and present. What any one man, however able, can discover or invent, is the merest trifle in comparison with the resources accumulated since the dawn of human wit. And yet in adding a little to what he has learned, that little welds and vivifies his education as nothing else can. In setting out to add to known truth there must be a goodly equipment in knowledge and skill. Knowledge, therefore, may serve as a starting point for the survey before us. Knowledge Necessary. Success in discovery and invention, as in the case of a Newton or a Watt, depends not only upon rare natural faculty, but upon knowledge. Dr. Pye-Smith, of London, an eminent physician, says:--“Some would have us believe that erudition is a clog upon genius. This question has often been discussed, and it has even been maintained that he is most likely to search out the secrets of nature who comes fresh to the task with faculties unexhausted by prolonged reading, and his judgment uninfluenced by the discoveries of others. This, however, is surely a delusion. Harvey could not have discovered the circulation of the blood had he not been taught all that had been previously learned of anatomy. True, no progress can be made by the mere assimilation of previous knowledge. There must be an intelligent curiosity, an observant eye, and intellectual insight. Few things are more deplorable than to see talent and industry employed in fruitless researches, partly rediscovering what is already fully known, or stubbornly toiling along a road which has long ago been found to lead no whither. We must then instruct our students to the utmost of our power. Whether they will add to knowledge we cannot tell, but at least they shall not hinder its growth by their ignorance. The strong intellect will absorb and digest all that we put before it, and will be all the better fitted for independent research. The less powerful will at least be kept from false discoveries and will form, what genius itself requires, a competent and appreciative audience.”