INFANT INDUSTRIES 169 



INFANT INDUSTRIES 1 



By Professor T. D. A. COCKERELL 



UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO 



THE university is, or ought to be, a nursery for young ideas as well 

 as for young people. To an aged person like myself, there is 

 something indescribably fascinating about a company of boys and girls. 

 Who knows what they may do, what they may become? Do I not 

 perhaps address myself to a Darwin, a Newton, or a Tennyson? 

 Classes have grown up and gone away : not all their members have 

 fulfilled our expectations; but yet, the harvest has been good — and 

 who knows, who can tell, what is inherent in these particular green 

 sprouts? It is the same with ideas as with people. Thoughts are 

 born, mature, live their lives, struggle with one another, and finally 

 reach their true position, if all is well. Alas ! that is a large qualifica- 

 tion, in either case. All may not be well; so much depends upon a 

 favorable environment and that, of course, is what we are all trying to 

 create. 



There is one important difference between our young people and 

 our young ideas. The former come to us at an age which — well, which 

 seems to them quite grown up. The latter are often, we hope, born 

 upon the premises, and raised by hand with tender care during their 

 helpless infancy. Like other infants, they must not be forgotten, even 

 for a little while, and they are subject to all sorts of infantile disorders. 

 Unlike human infants, they have the unpleasant habit of destroying 

 one another, and we, their nurses, are so heartless as to actually en- 

 courage this internecine conflict. Nevertheless, we prize them highly, 

 and actively resent the sneers of passers by, who either have none of 

 their own, or only horrid little brats we would not condescend to 

 look at. 



When very tender, they must often be kept at home. I used to be 

 a student at a medical school in London, where we had a very original 

 demonstrator of comparative anatomy. The results of our labors were 

 tested in examinations held, not by the teachers, but by quite other and 

 more aged professors. So our mentor used to say : " You see, gentle- 

 men, this is so and so, but I only found this out the other day, and 

 you must on no account tell it to the examiners, or they will give you 

 zero." You will appreciate the immense advantage of being ex- 



1 Chapel address to the students of the University of Colorado, April 29, 1907. 



