HARVARD OVER ASIA

Occupied with problems and duties at home, Harvard students are inclined to ignore a field of action in which the University takes quiet but profound pride. The latest reports of the Bowles expedition in Tibet, which bid fair to replace several missing tiles in the exotic and unfamiliar mosiac of that region, show once again that the triumphs of Harvard scholarship are far from being confined to Cambridge. If present hopes are realized, the discoveries made by Mr. Bowles and his party, although taking place in remotest Asia, will throw an essential light on the perplexing problem of the origin of the American Indian, a subject of inestimable value to the study of this country's past.

Harvard is wise in recognizing the importance of these far-flung laboratories in getting to the bottom of modern scientific problems, since books are so hopelessly inadequate in the more intricate investigation. Circling the world today, from the jungles of Slam, where Dr. Andrews is making his ethnological observations, to the mountain fastnesses of the Chilean Andes, where altitude studies are being made by Dr. Keyes and the Fatigue Laboratory, Harvard is everywhere the patron of scientific research. With anthropological and archeological studies increasing in importance every year, Harvard has adopted the commendable policy of supplying its individual departments with ample funds to carry out this work, rather than rest shakily on the grants of philanthropic individuals.

From a utilitarian standpoint alone this policy is wise, since the University achieves immeasurable prestige from these quiet triumphs. A discovery such as that made recently by Professor Lake's expedition in the Sinai Peninsula, when the tomb of the Egyptian goddess Hathor was unearthed, brings to an institution of learning the credit to which its efforts entitle it. Present day science has reached the stage where much of the most vital work is done far from the cloistered museums and libraries. Like bread cast upon the waters, the support given Harvard to its globetrotting expeditions is repaying the University many times.