282 BULLETIN UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA 



classify it and place it in its pigeon-hole and give it a long name. The 

 plant or animal became a much more interesting problem. Men began 

 to look beneath the exterior appearances, to speculate as to the cause of 

 its existence, and to trace its relationship with the plants and animals 

 about it. Every plant or animal, however insignificant, became a link 

 in a series of ever branching chains. 



Let us recall the story of the man who began to study yeast plants 

 some years ago. He took up that interesting old problem of how life 

 began — whether it arose spontaneously, or whether like begets like. So 

 he worked for years over his glass tubes, with and without stoppers, 

 with long, finely-drav/n-out, bent necks, or with no necks at all, their con- 

 tents variously treated. 



Had skeptical friends remonstrated with him for wasting his life over 

 such trifles that taxed the highest powers of his microscope — and 

 no doubt they did — I can fancy his reply, insisting that they go on with 

 their important matters of life. There were balls to be attended, politics 

 to be discussed, goods to be bought and sold, fashions to be studied. Paris 

 is such a busy place. And so they took up the weighty things of life, 

 while Pasteur laid the foundation for the science of bacteriology. This 

 science in twenty years has robbed the rusty nail of its terror, shown the 

 way towards the ultimate solution of the problems of diagnosis and pos- 

 sibly the cure of all diseases caused by micro-organisms. To-day Pasteur's 

 picture hangs in nearly every hospital and physician's office in the world. 



We could supply an abundance of illustrations showing how men in 

 following pure science have laid the foimdations for future great works. 

 Seldom does a man take such a prominent position as discoverer and yet 

 live to put his investigations to some practical use. Read of the work of 

 Young and Fresnel a hundred years ago, on light. They were unread 

 then. Franklin and the ladies and gentlemen of the French court toyed 

 with electricity a hundred years before it was practically in use. Oersted 

 demonstrated electro-magnetic action, and yet failed to produce a motor. 

 Davy separated metals nearly a hundred years before their practical use. 

 These men builded for the future, and we enjoy the heritage they left us. 



There is a three-fold reason for the immediate study of the microscopic 

 life of these waters. 



Firstly — There remains much to be worked out relative to the place 

 and importance in nature of these animals and plants; and the knowledge 

 of them is essential in order that the sum of human knowledge regar^aing 

 the inhabitants of the earth may be complete. 



Secondly — These plants and animals have a wonderful economic im- 

 portance little guessed by the layman. This will be brought out later 

 under the subjects: (1) food for the higher forms, and (2) their work 

 as scavengers. 



Thirdly — The work must be done at once, before man shall have cut 

 down the forests, clogged the waters with saw-dust and much worse sew- 

 age. In fact before man shall have so changed the face of nature that a 

 scientist seeking for some primitive conditions where life can be studied 

 in its natural balance, would seek in vain. 



If I am able to make but one point to-day let it be that this Station 



