THE BUSINESS AFFAIRS OF SCIENCE 



That the time has come for a serious stock-taking in the 

 business affairs of science is recognised by all scientific men — 

 that it is a task long overdue is apparent to many. During the 

 last century the whole position of scientific work in relation to 

 other forms of human effort has changed. Science is no longer 

 merely a gentle preoccupation for the leisured and intelligent 

 few — for the philosophers of the Cephissus, the rural school- 

 master, the university recluse, the physician, or the well-to-do 

 amateur. It was, indeed, these who made the beginnings of 

 science, and their work was great ; but on the foundations laid 

 by them an edifice has grown up which it is beyond their 

 unaided powers to carry further towards completion with the 

 rapidity required to-day. Science has now become an industry. 

 It has indeed become the premier industry of all. It has 

 grown to affect every other industry and occupation of men. 

 Mathematics leavens not only navigation and engineering, but 

 all the other sciences, and is coming in these days to take 

 possession of physics and chemistry, and even of epidemiology. 

 In their turn, chemistry and physics enter into the very being 

 of almost all manufactures, and of physiology and medicine. 

 Physiology, zoology, and chemistry form the basis of the daily 

 work of the physician and surgeon. Chemistry and botany 

 revolutionise agriculture, and geology and mineralogy illuminate 

 mining. Nothing new can be done without a call upon some 

 branch of science— often upon some quite unexpected branch of 

 it. The wonders of modern invention — steam-engines, artificial 

 lighting, photography, the phonograph, the telephone and 

 telegraph, X-rays, wireless telegraphy, motor-cars, aeroplanes, 

 new fire-arms, aseptic surgery, scientific medicine, hygiene, and 

 agriculture — have produced a greater revolution in the world 

 than has ever occurred before as the result of the widest tribal 

 movements, the most decisive battles, and the most elaborate 

 politics — the change made during recent centuries is greater 

 than that made during all previous known periods of the past 



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