THE RELATIONSHIP OF MINING TO SCIENCE 609 



science ; and again, the need not only of a practical, but of a 

 theoretical training. 



What is being done to meet this new situation, to meet the 

 demand for a more highly trained class of men ? Technical 

 education has of late years no doubt made great strides, and a 

 brief retrospect bearing upon the subject will assist in showing 

 our present position. The relationship between science and 

 industrial enterprise 1 to-day is very different from what it was 

 a few years ago. Both have undergone the natural process of 

 evolution, and that process, like all natural processes, has been 

 for the benefit of mankind. Looking back over a period of years, 

 it is not a difficult matter to trace out the services that science 

 has rendered to humanity. But what is noticeable is that they 

 were services bestowed, as it were, by the scientific few upon 

 the unscientific many. Many of the world's greatest achieve- 

 ments and industrial revolutions have sprung from the genius 

 of a few men. Such men as Kepler, Newton, Watt, Stevenson, 

 Davy, each express for us some clearly defined acquisition of 

 knowledge. Mankind during these periods were for the most 

 part mere onlookers, and reaped the fruits of those gifted few. 

 And what we wish to observe here is that, in spite of the 

 scientific genius of these men, the age which produced them can 

 scarcely be called scientific. 



It is three hundred years since Bacon published The Ad- 

 vancement' of Learning. At that date (1605) science, as we 

 have come to regard it, did not exist. Bacon's ideas were far 

 ahead of his time, and the atmosphere in which he lived was 

 not conducive to the progress of knowledge. Nevertheless, the 

 publication of his work did much to lay the foundation of modern 

 natural science, and in 1662 this took practical shape in the birth 

 of the Royal Society of London. Then followed Newton with 

 his theory of gravitation, as set forth in his Principia, published 

 in 1687, an d the seventeenth century closed with a considerable 

 measure of scientific activity — a partial realisation of Bacon's 

 anticipations. 



Since then other two centuries have passed, and again we 

 mark the change. The age, we are glad to think, is becoming a 



1 Much of what follows is an amplification of what formed the basis of an 

 address ("Mining : is it a Science ?") given before the Nova Scotian Institute of 

 Science on December nth, 1905, and I am indebted to that Institute for permission 

 to make use of it. 



