58o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Its researches tend to increase the value of public lands, and to render 

 the mineral industries of the nation more surely remunerative, produc- 

 tive, and definite. These industries already yield not far from five 

 hundred millions of dollars annually, and accurate knowledge concern- 

 ing them is essential to intelligent government. For, one function of 

 government is to levy taxes ; taxation, in the last analysis, falls upon 

 the resources of a country, and it can not be wisely adjusted unless the 

 resources are well known. A government can not even be truly eco- 

 nomical unless its taxes are laid intelligently. Furthermore, the Geo- 

 logical Survey deals with the topography of the country, and prepares 

 detailed maps of great utility. If such maps had been available dur- 

 ing the late civil war, our armies would have been spared many difii- 

 culties, and the Government would have avoided much expense. 



The Patent-Office also comes under the Interior Department ; and 

 here again we find great scientific activity, and a large corps of scien- 

 tific experts. Their duties appear simple enough when superficially 

 stated, but if studied closely they reveal the unexpected fact that the 

 Government really has become the arbiter in doubtful questions of sci- 

 entific priority. This is especially true in applied chemistry and elec- 

 tricity, and the controversies over the telephone may be cited as cases 

 in point. 



Of the other departments of the executive, little need be said. The 

 Post-Office often needs chemical work on paper, fibers, inks, or other 

 supplies. Questions often arise concerning the electric lighting of 

 public buildings ; and even the State Department sometimes has to 

 handle matters of international science, as, for example, in the organi- 

 zation of the late conference relative to a common prime meridian of 

 longitude. The Smithsonian Institution ne ed not be considered, inas- 

 much as it is maintained by a private endowment, of which the United 

 States is merely the trustee ; but the National Museum, which is in 

 charge of the Smithsonian regents, may be cited as the repository of 

 valuable public treasures, and as the place in which the material re- 

 sources of the country are visibly illustrated. 



Enough has been said in the foregoing pages, though very incom- 

 pletely, to indicate what an amount of scientific investigation and ex- 

 periment our Government is obliged to require. In addition to these 

 labors of an immediately necessary character, other scientific work is 

 frequently carried on at Government expense, which aims at the dis- 

 covery of truth for its own sake, apart from its direct applications. 

 For examples, the transit of Venus and solar eclipse expeditions may 

 be named, as well as the work carried on by the Bureau of Ethnology. 

 In the latter organization, by Government aid, valuable data are saved 

 which would otherwise be lost to science ; and this is as it should be. 

 Too often, in our busy, every-day life, we forget that there can be no 

 applied science unless there is some pure science to apply ; and that 

 the larger problems of science, including much of material value to 



