476 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



what wc can to extend the boundaries 

 of human knowledge by utilizing exist- 

 ing institutions. 



Gentlemen, your work begins, your 

 aims are high; you seek to extend 

 known forces and to discover and 

 utilize new forces for the benefit of 

 man. Than this there can scarcely be 

 greater work. I wish you abundant 

 success and venture to prophesy that 

 through your efforts in cooperation 

 with those of kindred societies in 

 our' country, contributions to the ad- 

 vancement of the race through re- 

 search, will compare in the near future 

 not unfavorably with those of any 

 other land. Again, I thank you. 



SCIENTIFIC WORK HERE AND 

 ABROAD. 



Mr. Carnegie expressly states in 

 his trust deed that his chief purpose 

 is * to secure if possible for the United 

 States of America leadership in the 

 domain of discovery and the utiliza- 

 tion of new forces for the benefit of 

 man,' and this function of the institu- 

 tion naturally calls attention to the 

 place now occupied by the United 

 States in the world of science. In the 

 January number of The North Ameri- 

 can Review, Mr. Carl Snyder com- 

 plains that America is not doing its 

 fair share of scientific work. In a 

 much abler article in the following 

 number of the same review, Professor 

 Simon Newcomb gives more credit to 

 American science, but entitles his arti- 

 cle ' Conditions which discourage scien- 

 tific work in America,' and dwells espe- 

 cially on the lack of appreciation 

 shown by the general public, and espe- 

 cially by legislators, to scientific men 

 and institutions. Other journals have 

 discussed the question, the New York 

 Independent remarking : " It must be 

 acknowledged that in original contri- 

 butions to knowledge the United States 

 is not in the first rank with Germany, 

 France and England, but rather with 

 such countries as Russia, Italy, Swe- 

 den and Japan." 



We take a more hopeful view of sci- 

 ence in America than the authors men- 

 tioned. Mr. Snyder, for example, 



commits tlie obvious fallacy of com- 

 paring the productivity of the United 

 States with that of all other nations 

 combined. We can divide the intellec- 

 tual world into seven groups not very 

 unequal in population — Germany-Aus- 

 tria, Great Britain and its colonies, 

 France and Belgium, The United 

 States, Italy, Spain and Spanish Amer- 

 ica, Russia and a miscellaneous 

 group, including Scandinavia, Holland 

 and Japan. The scientific rank of 

 these groups is nearly that of the order 

 in which they are given, but even 

 greater credit should be allowed to the 

 German, French and English, owing 

 to their smaller populations. The 

 United States occupies pretty definitely 

 the middle place, being outclassed by 

 the three great intellectual nations, 

 and surpassing any one of the three 

 groups into which the other nations 

 have been divided. In so far as this 

 is correct, we do approximately our 

 average share of scientific research, 

 about one seventh of the work of the 

 world. 



It is quite possible that our con- 

 temporary position is somewhat better 

 in work actually being accomplished 

 than in reputation. A scientific man 

 does not usually become eminent until 

 ten or twenty years after his work has 

 been accomplished, and the same would 

 naturally hold for a nation. We are 

 likely to think of Darwin, Pasteur or 

 Helmholtz, and to reproach America 

 for not having produced their equal. 

 But when these men were born and 

 educated the population of the United 

 States was comparatively small, and 

 its intellectual position was admittedly 

 inferior. It is only within the past 

 twenty-five years that true universities 

 have developed in the United States, 

 and positions have been opened that 

 can be occupied by men carrying on 

 scientific research. Those who first 

 availed themselves of these opportuni- 

 ties are only forty or fifty years old, 

 and while they are now doubtless doing 

 their best work, it is not yet recog- 



