CHAPTER XCI 

 SCIENCE AND CIVILIZATION 



526. Casual and purposeful science. Much of the science of 

 the past has been a casual or even accidental product. People 

 just happened to discover this or that. But in modern times — 

 within the last three centuries, and especially during the past 

 fifty years — science is being systematically studied for the 

 purpose of solving special problems. Instead of depending 

 upon an occasional man who is both interested in scientific 

 study and free to devote himself to the study without needing 

 to earn a living, we are coming more and more to provide 

 the opportunity for those who show special aptitudes in that 

 direction. Every large university is in a position to pay a few 

 hundred dollars a year to several students who are willing to 

 devote themselves to special investigations, and who have shown 

 that they have the ability to do work that is worth while. 

 Scholarships for such investigations are provided by the direc- 

 tors of industries who wish to have special problems pertaining 

 to their materials or processes investigated ; or wealthy people 

 endow such scholarships as a means of contributing to the 

 general betterment of society. 



527. Organization of research. As we come to realize the 

 value of such investigations to the whole nation or to the 

 race, we depend less and less upon the casual endowment of 

 research by people who have money to spare, and depend more 

 and more upon public effort in this direction. Thus, every 

 state in the Union has one or more agricultural experiment 

 stations, in which investigations are being carried on with a 

 view to finding out the behavior of different kinds of soil in 

 relation to crops, the most favorable conditions for the growth 



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