74 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



essential condition of national well- 

 being, it was absolutely necessary that 

 the people should know something of, 

 and be in some sort of sympathy with, 

 the methods and conditions of scien- 

 tific thought. In supplying this need, 

 Professor Tyndall's greatest work has 

 been done. ... He has, by his lectures 

 and his books, brought the democracy 

 into touch with scientific research. . . . 

 He has done, perhaps, more than any 

 other living man to compel those who 

 regard knowledge as valuable only in 

 so far as it is immediately useful, to 

 admit that the seed which is sown in 

 the laboratory often produces the most 

 abundant harvest in the workshop." 

 The " Times " thinks it not too much to 

 say that the thirty-four years of Tyn- 

 dall's occupancy of his professorship 

 "have effected more than almost any 

 other contemporary influence to diffuse 

 a love of scientific knowledge among 

 large classes of the community, and 

 to prepare them for the acceptance of 

 many ideas which, at least in their 

 earliest forms, appeared to run counter 

 to others which had been universally 

 received." 



We do not suppose that these 

 thoughts are new in England ; only that 

 they have just now been given formal, 

 authoritative expression. "With refer- 

 ence to Professor Tyndall, they are fa- 

 miliar in the United States, where they 

 were spoken fourteen years ago at a 

 similar banquet given to him at the close 

 of his lectures here ; a banquet which 

 was parallel in its significance and the 

 diversified representative character of 

 its company with the one in London. 

 On this occasion. Professor Henry wrote 

 that Professor Tyndall " is not only a 

 distinguished laborer in the line of origi- 

 nal research, but also one of the best 

 living expounders of scientific princi- 

 ples. His books . . . have done more 

 to give precise and definite knowledge 

 of the principles of the sciences of which 

 they treat than any other series of works 

 ever published." Professor Safford, of 



the Dearborn Observatory, said he had 

 shown us "how to employ extensive 

 and deep researches in conveying a max- 

 imum of instruction to the world at 

 large " ; and Professor Jeffries Wyman 

 desired to honor him "for his many 

 contributions to physical science, and 

 for his strict devotion to the exact 

 methods of bringing scientific truths to 

 light." 



Among other features of the ad- 

 dresses at the London dinner deserving 

 special notice are the Earl of Derby's 

 admission that the gains we have de- 

 rived from the applications of science 

 great as they are are as nothing 

 compared with those accruing from 

 the acceptance of scientific habits of 

 thought; and his significant assertion 

 that British politicians have done the 

 best they could for science "they have 

 let it alone ; they have not corrupted it 

 by their intrigues, nor vulgarized it by 

 their squabbles ; and they being what 

 they are, and science being what it is, 

 that is probably the best service they 

 could have rendered it." 



HONEST LIFE-INSURANCE. 



Under the title of " Lawsuit or 

 Legacy," we published, in the July 

 " Monthly," an article reflecting some- 

 what sharply on the one - sidedness 

 which still survives in many life-insur- 

 ance contracts ; and also alleging that 

 it is not an uncommon practice for the 

 companies, taking advantage of some 

 qualifying technicality in their policies, 

 to resist the payment of death-claims 

 by menacing or openly attacking the 

 character of the deceased. "Millions 

 of dollars," says the writer of the arti- 

 cle, "have been withheld from rightful 

 heirs by threats of an exposure the 

 more vague, the more frightful of un- 

 suspected crimes and misdeeds of the 

 beloved dead " ; and, again, that " thou- 

 sands of cases, never known to the 

 public, have been compromised, and 

 hundreds of heart-aches and unjust sus- 



