.1 PLEA FOR PURE SCIENCE. 183 



hands, and the workl is losing much hy not sup})lying them with extra 

 hands. Life is short: okl age comes quickly, and the amount one pair 

 of hands can do is very limited. What sort of shop would that he, or 

 what sort of factory, where one man had to do all the work .with his 

 own hands? It is a fact in nature, which no democracy can change, 

 that men are not equal — that some have hrains and some hands. And 

 no idle talk ahout equality can ever suhvert the order of the universe. 



I know of no institution in this country where assistants are sup- 

 plied to aid directly in research. Yet why should it not be so? And 

 even the absence of assistant professors and assistants of all kinds, to 

 aid in teaching, is very noticeable, and nuist be remedied before we 

 can ex])ect much. 



There are many physical problems, especially those requiring exact 

 measurements, which cannot be carried out by one man, and can only 

 be successfully attacked by the most elaborate apparatus, and with a 

 full corps of assistants. Such are Eegnault's experiments on the funda- 

 mental laws of gases and vapors, made thirty or forty years ago by aid 

 from the French Government, and which are the standards to this day. 

 Although these experiments were made with a view to the practical 

 calculation of the steam engine, yet they were carried out in such a 

 broad spirit that they have been of the greatest theoretical use. Again, 

 what woidd astronomy have done without the endowments of observa- 

 tories? By their means, that science has become the most perfect of all 

 branches of physics, as it should be from its simplicity. There is no 

 doubt, in my mind, that similar institutions for other branches of 

 physics, or, better, to include the wdiole of physics, would be equally 

 successful. A large and perfectly equipped physical laboratory with its 

 large revenues, its corps of professors and assistants, and its machine 

 sJiop for the construction of new apparatus, would be able to advance 

 our science quite as much as endowed observatories have astronomy. 

 But such a laboratory should not be founded rashly. The value will 

 depend entirely on the physicist at its head, who has to devise the plan, 

 and to start it into practical working. Such a man will always be rare, 

 and cannot always be obtained. After one had been successfully 

 started, others could follow; for imitation requires little brains. 



One could not be certain of getting the proper man every time, but 

 the means of appointment should be most carefully studied so as to 

 secure a good average. There can be no doubt that the appointment 

 should rest with a scientific body capable of judging the highest work 

 of each candidate. 



Should any popular element enter, the person chosen would be 

 either of the literary-scientific order, or the dabbler on the outskirts 

 who presents his small discoveries in the most theatrical manner. What 



