542 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



dividual enterprise comes properly first, for, without that, without 

 the influence of guiding spirits, the other agencies must fail. In 

 a restricted sense, however, except perhaps as regards the begin- 

 nings of science, individual enterprise is the weakest force of all. 

 To the modern investigator leisure and opportunities are necessary ; 

 in chemistry and physics, at least, apparatus and laboratories are 

 indispensable; and few men working alone can command either 

 the needful time or the bare material resources. During this 

 century nine tenths of the great discoveries have been made by 

 men with institutions back of them, through the aid of which 

 the work was rendered possible. Wealth, scholarship, ability, 

 and the spirit of research too seldom go together ; and happy is 

 the man in whom all these conditions are fortunately united. 

 Under our second heading, in the shelter of schools and universi- 

 ties, the science of to-day has chiefly been developed. 



The truth of my last statement may be verified by a reference 

 to the files of those standard scientific journals in which original 

 researches are recorded, or by scrutinizing in detail the history of 

 any great discovery. In either case, whether we consider this 

 country or Europe, the university work will be found to predomi- 

 nate overwhelmingly, and for obvious reasons. Every true uni- 

 versity is something more than a distributor of knowledge ; it is 

 a producer of knowledge also ; and in Germany, where the uni- 

 versity system is most fully developed, the two functions are 

 equally recognized. A German student, aspiring to academic 

 honors, must do original work, and the professors' chairs are 

 always filled from among the men who have most distinguished 

 themselves as investigators. A chemist who had done nothing 

 for pure science could hardly be recognized in Germany ; not one 

 of the higher professional positions would be within his reach ; 

 erudition alone, unsustained by evidence of creative ability, would 

 do little for his advancement. In consequence of this policy, 

 Germany now leads the scientific world ; and, in consequence of 

 that leadership, a certain industrial supremacy is fast becoming 

 hers. One example will serve to illustrate the tendency to which 

 I refer. The aniline dyes were discovered by Perkin in England 

 about thirty-five years ago, and in that country the manufacture 

 began. To-day, through the researches of German universities, 

 Germany is the center of the coal-tar industry, and Engalnd has 

 only a subordinate rank. Until recently the English universities 

 have slighted experimental science, and English manufactures 

 are paying for the neglect. One German firm alone, producers 

 of coal-tar colors, employs over fourteen hundred workmen ; but 

 with them there are about fifty scientific chemists, every one a 

 man trained in pure research, the product of the university sys- 

 tem. These men are engaged to make investigations ; to improve 



