40 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



With all my heart I accept this responsibility. American science 

 is rapidly gaining a prominent place in the e.steem of Europe. More 

 and more our eyes are turned westward. Important discoveries on 

 fecundation, on sexuality, on the microscopic representatives of the 

 heredity qualities, on systematic relationships, and on numerous 

 other subjects contributory to the great science of evolution have of 

 late been made in America. The honor you are this day bestowing 

 upon me I appreciate very largely, because it implies the desire to fra- 

 ternize. No words are needed to assert that this desire is perfectly 

 reciprocal. 



In trying to sketch for you my conception of the aim and work 

 of this new laboratory, allow me to use a metaphor. Science is a 

 source of light amid almost universal darkness. Brightly it shines 

 on mankind, delivering us from ignorance and impotence, f jom doubt 

 and fear. The light has to be kept bright ; but, moreover, the field 

 of its influence must steadily be enlarged. Hundreds and thousands 

 of industrious men are engaged in this work. Large numbers of 

 scientific institutions provide the means and direct the efforts. On 

 all sides the illuminated area is being extended, increasing the bless- 

 ings of knowledge. 



Besides this assured and systematic progress another method is 

 from time to time adopted. Centers of illumination are thrown out 

 far away into the surrounding darkness, con.stituting new starting 

 points from which to win dominion. Often they become extin- 

 guished, leaving no trace of their existence, but sometimes persist 

 and glow. In these cases the small point of light vigorously in- 

 creases, and all the territory intervening between the new and the 

 greater field of light becomes in time illuminated. Science is a 

 mighty means of broadening our conceptions and our ideas, as well 

 as our power to utilize the laws and materials of nature. Such new 

 centers of illumination are the great landmarks of its progress. 

 They immortalize the names of their founders. Bacon and Newton, 

 Lyell and Darwin stand preeminent among all. Edison and Marconi, 

 Rontgen and Curie are adding their genius to the universal effort. 



With this lofty conception of a twofold method of scientific prog- 

 ress the Carnegie Institution fully complies. At W^ashington it is 

 working toward a general increase of knowledge. Besides this, it 

 has thrown out a first center of illumination far away into the arid 

 desert to emit the rays of .science and inquiry over phenomena not 

 yet understood and over fields apparently uninhabitable and useless 

 to man. MacDougal, Coville, and Cannon are guiding the work, 



