3IO 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



in addition to that undertaken on the 

 Tortugas. The Department of Experi- 

 mental Evolution has, among other 

 work, collaborated with the Eugenics 

 Eecord Office in the study of human 

 heredity, constructed a vivarium for 

 cave life and used Goose Island to 

 study the changes a domesticated spe- 

 cies undergoes in becoming feral. 



Endowed institutions for research 

 are of vast importance for the progress 

 of science. Under existing social con- 

 ditions investigation can not be under- 

 taken as an independent i^rofession. 

 The sales of the publications of the 

 Carnegie Institution are less than one 

 per cent, of the cost of the work which 

 they represent. It is necessary that 

 society should in some way pay for the 

 research work which is of benefit to 

 society as a whole, but can not be sold 

 to an individual. In Germany investi- 

 gation has in the main been carried 

 forward in connection with university 

 chairs, and during the nineteenth cen- 

 tury remarkable results were obtained 

 with a small expenditure. In England 

 much of the most important scientific 

 work has been produced by men having 

 inherited wealth. In this country our 

 universities have not yet equalled those 

 of Germany in their productiveness, 

 and we have but few amateurs. 



The United States has, however, 

 taken the lead in the amount of scien- 

 tific work done under the government, 

 and the two foundations for research 

 endowed by Mr. Carnegie and Mr. 

 Rockefeller have larger resources than 

 those of any other nation. After the 

 efflorescence of the medieval universi- 

 ties there was a period in the seven- 

 teenth and eighteen centuries during 

 which the academies of sciences and 

 the newly-established observatories, 

 museums and botanical gardens became 

 the most important centers of research. 

 Perhaps the institutions endowed for 

 research will in the twentieth century 

 be the chief centers of scientific investi- 

 gation. We may, however, hope that 

 the universities, the research institu- 



tions, the national, state and municipal 

 governments and industrial enterprises 

 will unite to advance science and its 

 applications. The United States has 

 the largest natural resources of any 

 nation, and in so far as these are used, 

 the proceeds should in large measure 

 be expended on scientific work, which 

 will provide an economic equivalent 

 for the fertility of the soil, the forests, 

 the mining products and other natural 

 resources which we are consuming. 



LOUD LISTER 



In recording the death of Francis 

 Galton somewhat less than a year ago, 

 it was noted here that of the great 

 men of science who gave distinction to 

 the Victorian era only three remained 

 — Hooker, Wallace and Lister. Hooker 

 has since died at the age of ninety-four 

 years and on February the eleventh 

 Lister died at the age of eighty-four 

 years. An English journal recently 

 compiled a list of the ten greatest men 

 of the world, and Lister would perhaps 

 have been the name on which there 

 would have been the most general 

 agreement. Like Galton and Hooker, 

 Lister had distinguished scientific an- 

 cestry, his father having been a fellow 

 of the Royal Society, who, among many 

 other services, gave us the existing 

 compound microscope. 



Joseph Lister was born at Upton in 

 Essex on April 5, 1827. He received 

 the degree of bachelor of medicine in 

 1847 and that of doctor of medicine in 

 1852 from the University of London. 

 While house surgeon at University Col- 

 lege Hospital he made researches on 

 gangrene and pyemia. In 1856 he be- 

 came assistant surgeon in Edinburgh 

 Royal Infirmary, in 1860 i^rofessor of 

 surgery at Glasgow University, in 1869 

 professor at Edinburgh University and 

 in 1877 at King's College, London. 

 He was created a baronet in 1883 and 

 was raised to the peerage in 1893, with 

 the title of Baron Lister of Lyme 

 Regis. In Edinburgh he married the 

 daughter of Professor Syme, the emi- 



