2 3 8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Popular Science Monthly from its com- 

 mencement ; I know that it has been the 

 aim to make the science of the Monthly 

 not only popular, but accurate, and that 



must be my apology for writing this let- 

 ter. Very respectfully yours, 



Charles E. L. B. Davis, 

 First-Lieutenant U. S. Engineers. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



PROFESSOR NEWCOMB ON AMERICAN 

 SCIENCE. 



ANEW standard has grown up in 

 modern times by which the ad- 

 vance of nations may be measured. 

 Hitherto, military power, extent of 

 territory, historic prestige, and com- 

 mercial resources, have been taken as 

 the chief tests of national greatness. 

 These were old barbaric standards. 

 But, with the progress of civilization, 

 which means the rule of reason in 

 human affairs or the control of so- 

 ciety by pacific agencies, new ideals 

 of what constitutes national grandeur 

 are beginning to arise. The relation of 

 nationalities to science may be looked 

 upon as a true test of their rank. Sci- 

 ence is an agency of human ameliora- 

 tion universally acknowledged, which is 

 already powerful in shaping the course 

 of the world's affairs ; and it is certain 

 to be more and more appealed to in 

 future in determining the order of na- 

 tionalities in the hierarchy of civiliza- 

 tion. What is the relation of a people 

 to science the highest form of knowl- 

 edge ? How do they estimate it ? What 

 encouragement do they give to its origi- 

 nal investigation and popular diffusion ? 

 are questions not to be neglected in our 

 estimates of national character. How 

 does this country rank with other coun- 

 tries in its appreciation of science ? is a 

 home question, which it is desirable to 

 have clearly and decisively answered. 



In an able article, entitled "Exact 

 Science in America," published in the 

 last number of the North American Re- 

 view, Prof. Simon Newcomb, Superin- 

 tendent of the Naval Observatory in 

 Washington, has taken up the subject 

 of the state of science in the United 



States, and brought us into comparison 

 in this respect with foreign nations. 

 His results are not flattering to our 

 national vanity, and the inferior rank 

 which we take leads him to inquire 

 into the causes of our backwardness. 

 We cannot do our readers a better ser- 

 vice than to state some of Prof. New- 

 comb's main positions, and look a little 

 into the question he raises as to the 

 cause of the present state of things, 

 and what is best to be done. So im- 

 portant is the subject, and so excellent 

 its presentation, that we shall make co- 

 pious extracts from the article ; but we 

 must remind the reader that these ex- 

 tracts are but fragments, and can give 

 no just idea of the unity and fullness 

 of the original statement. 



Prof. Newcomb confines himself to 

 a consideration of the state of pure or 

 exact science, " to which we are im- 

 pelled by the purely intellectual wants 

 of our nature," and omits the applica- 

 tions of science to the arts of life, to 

 which we are impelled by practical mo- 

 tives, and in which " we should find our 

 country in the front ranks of progress." 

 Beginning with mathematics, he says: 

 " When we seek for published mathe- 

 matical investigation in this country, 

 we find hardly any thing but an utter 

 blank. Of mathematical journals de- 

 signed for original investigations, such 

 as we find in nearly every country in 

 Europe, we have none, and never have 

 had any. There have been a number 

 of short - lived attempts to establish 

 mathematical periodicals suited to the 

 state of science here, some of them 

 worthy of all praise ; but the neces- 

 sity of adapting their contents to the 

 capacity of their readers prevented 



