INTRODUCTION. IX 



benefited the members and patrons but by larger 

 income derived from invested funds or from the gov- 

 ernment. The work of the Agassiz Association is of 

 vast importance to science, but if it were not dependent 

 upon voluntary labor, its efficiency would be even 

 greater than it is. It has already reached a period 

 when provision should begin to be made for placing 

 its work upon the more permanent basis of funded 

 property and paid labor. That it is worthy of the 

 support already received from its thousands of mem- 

 bers cannot be questioned, and this is a sufficient 

 guarantee that it would be a proper and useful trustee 

 and administrator of a part of the large sums annually 

 distributed by public-spirited persons to institutions 

 having not a tithe of its claims to their favorable con- 

 sideration. 



The support now obtainable from legislators for the 

 uses of science is hard to get, simply because they 

 have, as individuals, no practical experience of the 

 benefits of science-teaching, either in their own lives 

 or those of their children. They allow themselves to 

 be persuaded frequently into giving appropriations for 

 the benefit of science, but they know that their con- 

 stituents have little sympathy, and are eve'n less dis- 

 posed than themselves to allow the public money to 

 be used for what seems to them purely aesthetical 

 purposes. The arrival of the public at a stage of 

 enlightenment and proper appreciation which must 

 render the task of science lighter and more effective, 

 will probably be much facilitated by the work of the 

 Agassiz Association. The numerous chapters scat- 

 tered throughout the land cannot fail to effect more 

 or less of a revolution in the modes of life and thought 

 of thousands of families, and through them sensibly 

 affect many communities. Leaving out of sight all 

 other effects, this influence alone would entitle the 



