MEN OF SCIENCE AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC. 21 



wider usefulness/' that it has been, on the whole, less successful. 

 It is true that when we look at the history of science in America 

 during the past fifty years ; when we see at every point evidences 

 of public appreciation, or at least appropriation of scientific dis- 

 covery ; and, most of all, when we observe the enlargement of older 

 institutions of learning to make room for instruction in science, 

 and the generous donations to found new technical and scientific 

 schools, together with an occasional endowment of research, pure 

 and simple in view of all these, I say, we are almost constrained 

 to believe that scientific men have only to ask, that their facilities 

 may be increased, and that their labors could hardly have a wider 

 usefulness. 



Unfortunately, this pleasing picture is not a true reflection of 

 the actual condition of things. The attentive observer can not 

 fail to discover that the relation between men of science and the 

 general public is not what it should be in the best interests of 

 either or both. In assemblages of the former it is common to 

 hear complaints of a lack of appreciation and proper support on 

 the part of the latter, from whom, in turn, occasionally comes an 

 expression of indifference, now and then tinctured with contempt 

 for men who devote their lives and energies to study and research, 

 the results of which can not always be readily converted into real 

 estate or other forms of taxable property. It can not be denied 

 that the man of science is at some disadvantage as compared with 

 his neighbor, the successful lawyer or physician, when it comes to 

 that distribution of confidence with responsibility which usually 

 exists in any well-ordered community, although the latter may 

 possess but a fraction of the intellectual power and sound judg- 

 ment which he can command. To his credit it may be said that 

 he is usually considered to be a harmless creature, and to render 

 him assistance and encouragement is generally regarded as a vir- 

 tue. The fact of his knowing much about things which do not 

 greatly concern the general public is accepted as proof that he 

 knows little of matters that seriously affect the public welfare. 



It is true that when the public is driven to extremities it some- 

 times voluntarily calls upon the man of science, and in this emer- 

 gency it is often unpleasantly confronted with the fact that it does 

 not know where to find him. The scientific dilettante, or worse, 

 the charlatan, is often much nearer the public than the genuine 

 man of science, and the inability to discriminate sometimes results 

 in disaster in which both science and the public suffer. 



In venturing to suggest some possible remedies for this con- 

 dition of things it will be logical, if not important, to roughly 

 define the two classes under consideration, the scientific and the 

 non-scientific. One is the great majority, the general public, in- 

 cluding in the United States over sixty millions of people in all 



