i8o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



only a lai'ge and high university can command, is necessary to allow 

 him the fullest development. 



And this is specially so in our science of physics. In the early days 

 of physics and chemistry, many of the fundamental experiments could 

 be performed with the simplest apparatus. And so we often find the 

 names of Wollaston and Faraday mentioned as needing scarcely any- 

 thing for their researches. Much can even now he done with the sim- 

 plest apparatus; and nobody, except the utterly incompetent, need 

 stop for want of it. But the fact remains that one can only be free 

 to investigate in all departments of chemistry and physics, when he 

 not only has a complete laboratory at his command, but a friend to 

 draw on for the expenses of each experiment. That simplest of the 

 departments of physics, namely, astronomy, has now reached such per- 

 fection that nobody can expect to do much more in it without a per- 

 fectly equipped observatory; and even this would be useless without an 

 income sufficient to employ a corps of assistants to make the observa- 

 tions and computations. But even in this simplest of physical sub- 

 jects, there is great misunderstanding. Our country has very many 

 excellent observatories: and yet little work is done in comparison, 

 because no provision has been made for maintaining the work of the 

 observatory; and the wealth which, if concentrated, might have made 

 one effective observatory which would prove a benefit to astronomical 

 science, when scattered among a half-dozen, merely furnishes tele- 

 scopes for the people in the surrounding region to view the moon with. 

 And here I strike the keynote of at least one need of our country, if 

 she would stand well in science; and the following item which I clip 

 from a newspaper will illustrate the matter: 



"The eccentric old Canadian, Arunah Huntington, who left $300,- 

 000 to be divided among the public schools of Vermont, has done some- 

 thing which will be of little practical value to the schools. Each dis- 

 trict will be entitled to the insignificant sum of $10, which will not 

 advance much the cause of education." 



Nobody will dispute the folly of such a bequest, or the folly of 

 filling the country with telescopes to look at the moon, and calling 

 them observatories. How much better to concentrate the wealth into a 

 few parcels, and make first-class observatories and institutions with it! 



Is it possible that any of our four hundred colleges and universities 

 have love enough of learning to unite with each other and form larger 

 institutions? Is it possible that any have such a love of truth that 

 they are willing to be called by their right name? I fear not; for the 

 epirit of expectation, which is analogous to the spirit of gambling, is 

 strong in the American breast, and each institution which now, except 

 in name, slumbers in obscurity, expects in time to bloom out into full 

 prosperity. Although many of them are under religious influence, 



