MEN OF SCIENCE AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC. 29 



erection of a laboratory or the planning of an expedition, and I 

 am unwilling to believe that snch failures are due to anything 

 other than culpable negligence on the part of the individual. 



It is generally recognized that, aside from all questions of a 

 partisan political nature, this country is to-day confronted by sev- 

 eral problems of the utmost importance to its welfare, to the 

 proper solution of which the highest intellectual powers of the 

 nation should be given. The computation of the trajectory of a 

 planet is a far easier task than forecasting the true policy of a 

 great republic, but those qualities of the human intellect which 

 have made the first possible should not be allowed to remain idle 

 while an intelligent public is striving to attain the last. That 

 men of science have not, thus far, made their full contribution to 

 the solution of some of these great problems is due to the fact 

 that many have exhibited an inexcusable apathy toward everything 

 relating to the public welfare, while others have not approached 

 the subject with that breadth of preparation in the close study of 

 human affairs which is necessary to establish the authenticity of 

 their equations of condition. As already intimated, we do not 

 seem to be getting on in this direction. Our own early history 

 and the history of other nations is full of examples of eminent 

 scientific men who were no less distinguished as publicists and 

 statesmen. The name of Franklin is imperishable alike in the his- 

 tory of science and of politics. On many questions relating to ex- 

 act science the Adamses spoke with confidence ; Thomas Jefferson 

 was a philosopher, and, on assuming the duties of the highest office 

 in the gift of the people, counted his opportunities for association 

 with men of science as one of its chiefest rewards. Other illustra- 

 tions might be selected from the pages of the history of our own 

 country ; while in Europe, where science has been longer cultivated 

 and under more favorable conditions, they are much more common. 

 This is notably so in France, whose roll of scientific men who 

 have distinguished themselves and their country during the past 

 century includes many names prominent alike for the importance 

 of their performance in her various crises of peace and war. The 

 present President of the French Republic, himself an engineer, 

 bears a name made famous in the history of science by the rich 

 contributions of his ancestors, one of whom voted for the execu- 

 tion of Louis XVI, and was a member of the Committee of Public 

 Safety. It would be difficult to overestimate the value to science, 

 as well as to the public, of the presence in the halls of legislation 

 of even a very small number of men who might stand as expo- 

 nents of the methods of science and as competent authorities on 

 the results of their application. Our national Congress, especially, 

 is almost constantly dealing with questions of great moment to 

 the people, which can only be thoroughly understood and wisely 



