From Dream to Discovery (review)

BOOK REVIEWS Rom Dream to Discovery. By Hans Sblye. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964. Pp. xiv+419. $6.95. This is a remarkable book filled widi much wisdom—much of it gleaned from die literature, but most ofit derived from a very interesting life, spent largely in laboratories. The book is made up ofeleven chapters: Why should you do research? Who should do research? What should be done? When should it be done? Where should it be done? How to behave; how to work; how to diink; how to read; how to write; and how to speak. Every scientific worker, and every young man who is dunking of going into science, and especially into research, must read diis book. Usually I skim through a book in a few hours, stopping here and diere to study and memorize some fine passage, but diis book is so full ofsplendid material dut Ijust could not skim any ofit: I had to read it slowly and carefully, stopping on mostpages to study, and perhaps make note ofa most thought-producing paragraph, or perhaps a quotation from some great man. Onpage 38, Dr. Selye says so wisely, "Just as die work oftalent leads to fame, so does fame lead away from work. . . . Many—no, I should say most—scientists, are eventually bogged down by die by-products ofdieir own successes. They are given large institutes which must be administered; they have a voluminous correspondence; invitations come for lectures, monographs, reviews, dedications ofnew labs or hospitals; more and more visitors must be received; innumerable former students ask for letters ofrecommendation every time diey change dieirjobs, etc., etc. None ofdiese interruptions in die scientist's workcanbe avoided easily. He mayevenwelcomesome ofdiem—buteventuallydiere is nodiing left but interruptions." Dr. Selye might have told die story of"Popsy Welch" who apparendy solved diisproblem byrarelyreading or answering aletter unless it came from some old associate who, he felt sure, had some good reason for writing him. "Inexorably, fame kills die real person by petrifying die man into a monument ofhis own past accomplishments. ... As he becomes more proficient he will have to be very brave to resist the inevitable offers ofhighly paid and influential administrative posts___ A scientist must learn to design his whole way oflife in such a manner as to protect himselfagainst die sterilizing influences, or he will not be able to succeed." Selye believes in die great importance of"creative thinking." But in order to dunk, a man must have peace ofmind, and freedom frompetty irritations, and diis peace is often hard to get. He says so truly, "The more we rely on complex instruments, die more die faculty of observationtendsto atrophy." Ihave oftendiought ofdiis, as Ihavewatcheddietenden271 cy of the modern intern or resident to expect his diagnoses to^be made for him in a laboratory or an X-ray department. As a result, he sees little need for looking at die patient or talking to him. How true is Dr. Selye's quotation from Epictetus, who said, "It is impossible for anyone to begin to learn what he dunks he already knows." Perhaps at die moment Selye was thinking ofsome ofdie students ofFreud. On page 85 is Selye's statement—again so true—diat "one ofdie worst diseases ofdie scientific mind is the tendency to see what we want to see; in our lab we have come to call this 'corruptive optimism.' " I love Dr. Selye's quotation from W. I. B. Beveridge: "When discoveries are made before their time, diey are almost certain to be ignored or to meet widi oppositionwhich is too strong to be overcome. So in most instances, they may as well not have been made." I have often thought ofdiis, and I have wondered if, instead ofspending seventeen years studying intestinal peristalsis and diirty years studying litde strokes, I would have done better to have gone fishing! Anodier remarkable statement die author took from Norbert Wiener, who said, "I learned diat scholarship is a calling and a consecration, not a job. I learned a fierce hatred ofall bluffand intellectual pretense, as well as a pride in not being baffled by any problem which I could possibly solve." I love...