EDITOR'S TABLE. 



2 43 



methods that shall he adopted. Help 

 should have come from men of author- 

 ity, and an expression of the Ameri- 

 can Association would have had great 

 weight and a salutary influence with 

 the people. Yet a committee was ap- 

 pointed at its Portland meeting to 

 report upon the subject of better meth- 

 ods of general scientific instruction, 

 and at the recent Hartford meeting it 

 was discharged without having done 

 any thing, the chairman stating that he 

 had never even heard of his appoint- 

 ment ! This indifference, we think, is 

 very much to be regretted. 



Prof. New comb says that The Pop- 

 ular Science Monthly has never at- 

 tempted to supply the great want of 

 making known the progress of science 

 in this country, and is even behind the 

 English periodical Nature in this re- 

 spect. It certainly was not the chief 

 object of the establishment of this mag- 

 azine to report the doings of American 

 investigators, and this for several rea- 

 sons. In the first place, the field was 

 already occupied by a journal of high 

 character, which, with the proceedings 

 of scientific societies, gave this infor- 

 mation to the class most wanting it 

 the students of science. Moreover, the 

 public press has latterly entered upon 

 the work, and is constantly seeking for 

 scientific novelties, as matters of ordi- 

 nary news. Besides, as Prof. New- 

 comb shows, American contributions 

 to the progress of science are but an 

 insignificant portion of the total work 

 that is doing in the scientific world, of 

 which no single periodical could give 

 even a synopsis. Nor is it to be for- 

 gotten that an immense amount of that 

 which is currently published as "new 

 results" has but a momentary impor- 

 tance! But a small portion of such 

 work stands the test of time. Of the 

 score or two of original contributions 

 to mathematics, published in the trans- 

 actions of our learned societies since 

 the Declaration of Independence, Prof. 

 Newcomb assures us that "it is not 



likely that more than one or two of 

 them contain any thing worthy of quo- 

 tation or remark." With this enor- 

 mous shrinkage of scientific values, we 

 think it is quite as well that the new 

 results should be tested, discussed, and 

 the chaff blown away by scientific 

 criticism, before the final product is 

 pressed upon the general public. 



But the strongest reason why the 

 Monthly has not assumed the duty of 

 reporting American scientific work is, 

 that is was started for distinctly an- 

 other object namely, to interest the 

 non-scientific public, and to create a 

 taste for scientific literature, and an 

 appreciation of scientific knowledge in 

 the reading community. The general 

 ignorance of science is simply deplor- 

 able! The literary culture to which 

 general education is committed does 

 not lead to science, but, by its exclu- 

 sive claims and overshadowing influ- 

 ence, hinders and prevents its study, so 

 that, among so-called intelligent peo- 

 ple, the ignorance of scientific subjects 

 is so gross as to give much excuse to 

 scientific men for their contempt of the 

 hopeless work of its popularization. 

 Between the state of mind of learned 

 scientific explorers and that of the 

 mass of magazine-readers throughout 

 the country the gulf is already wider 

 than the Pacific Ocean, and is con- 

 stantly widening. As regards science, 

 there is very little that is common be- 

 tween them. But a journal which 

 aims to influence a non-scientific public 

 must be somewhat suited to its state 

 of mind, or it will not be read. Were 

 we to fill the Monthly with the re- 

 sults of laboratory processes and observ- 

 atory work, or with that which most 

 concerns investigators, it might rise in 

 appreciation with them, but it would 

 not be wanted by the people, as all 

 experience with such publications has 

 shown. The public needs rudimentary 

 explanations much more than the " last 

 results " of science. The theory of this 

 periodical is, that those who write for 



