756 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The obvious logic of the case must 

 have been that, although this scientific 

 convocation was occupied with its own 

 avowed and proper business, yet so far 

 as ordinary outside folks were con- 

 cerned it was something of a "sell.' , 

 Now, we venture to think that this is 

 all wrong, and if the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science 

 were more liberally managed, it would 

 recognize an important duty that it 

 owes the public in each city where it is 

 invited to hold its sessions. Granting 

 that its strict and special aim is the ad- 

 vancement of science by original con- 

 tributions to its various branches, and 

 that its proper work is necessarily tech- 

 nical, and to be carried on in the little 

 meetings of the scientists themselves, 

 it is nevertheless true that there is a 

 side of science in which the public is 

 deeply concerned, and such a body as 

 this, which goes annually from city to 

 city, and has a great power of influenc- 

 ing the people for good, has no right 

 to ignore its responsibility. The peo- 

 ple are constantly appealed to by sci- 

 entific men to give their money, while 

 they live and when they die, for carry- 

 ing on scientific investigations that are 

 necessarily and largely expensive. Sci- 

 entific men, in fact, must depend upon 

 the public, and be supported by it. 

 They, therefore, incur obligations, and 

 cannot escape them. If science is a 

 beneficent agency for all, if scientific 

 truth requires to be diffused that every 

 grade of society may reap its benefits 

 in some form, then men of science, who 

 have the knowledge and the capacity 

 to present it in familiar and popular 

 forms, are bound to do what they can 

 according to their gifts and opportu- 

 nities to promote these objects. The 

 American Scientific Association, every 

 time it enters a new city to hold its 

 meeting, should contribute something 

 useful and valuable for the instruction 

 and enlightenment of all classes. It is 

 a peculiar opportunity which should 

 not be thrown away, and there are 



always men present competent to do 

 the work, and who would cheerfully 

 enter into it if it were a part of the 

 regular arrangements of the Associa- 

 tion. The British Association has done 

 its duty in this respect for years. It 

 has provided for the delivery of outside 

 lectures, popular lectures, lectures to 

 working-men given to the people in 

 large halls, by the best talent of the 

 body, and such gentlemen as Carpen- 

 ter, Tyndall, Spottiswoode, Frankland, 

 Huxley, Eoscoe, and others, have not 

 hesitated to do their share of the work 

 when called upon. Notwithstanding 

 all our talk of progress and the educa- 

 tion of the people, the old monarchical 

 and aristocratic country is far ahead 

 of us in these matters. The American 

 Association seems strangely indifferent 

 to this aspect of its usefulness. It 

 shirks its palpable duty in giving im- 

 pulse and direction to general scientific 

 education, and this omission to provide 

 instructive lectures for the people at 

 its yearly meetings seems further to 

 show that it cares nothing about sci- 

 entific teaching in any shape for public 

 purposes. 



THE AIR IX COURTS OF JUSTICE. 



Judge Moxell is dead ; and we are 

 informed he died of the foul air of the 

 court-rooms in which he had officiated. 

 Why should court-rooms poison those 

 who frequent them, like Calcutta Black- 

 Holes ? We have not been often in 

 such places, but we were never in a 

 court-room yet that we did not think 

 a fit subject for the action of the grand- 

 jury as an indictable nuisance from its 

 bad ventilation. Lawyers seem to be 

 a good deal behind the age in the ap- 

 preciation of pure air. When the 

 chemists have gone to different places 

 after samples of foul air, they general- 

 ly report the worst from court-rooms. 

 The way these are constituted for 

 breathing-purposes is an excellent ex- 

 am pie of the way things are generally 



