POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



cipal events in his life since that sketch 

 Avas published was his election, in 1883, 

 as one of the eight foreign associates of 

 the French Academy of Sciences — the 

 highest honor that that institution is 

 competent to confer. Besides Bunsen's 

 personal interest in the work and suc- 

 cess of his students, one of his most 

 salient traits, as described by a careful 

 and appreciative biographer in the New 

 York Evening Post, was his absent- 

 mindedness concerning what he had him- 

 self accomplished. He was afflicted with 

 an " incipient aphasia," which made it 

 impossible for him to talk about them. 

 " He could not answer verbal questions, 

 whether oral or written. He could not 

 have pass'ed a decent examination in his 

 own discoveries. Let. the question come 

 in the shape of an emergency in a chem- 

 ical operation, and a wealth of knowl- 

 edge would be poured out, but let it 

 be put in words and he could not an- 

 swer it." He is said to have answered 

 a student once, who asked him about 

 some substance, that he knew nothing 

 about it — " You will have to look up 

 the literature." The student looked up 

 the literature, and found that it con- 

 sisted of a single article, and that by 

 Bunsen! Professor Bunsen prized what 

 would stimulate him to effort, enjoyed 

 life, was fond of travel and interested 

 in everything human, and was a good 

 novel reader. 



The TJnprofitableness of Strikes. 

 — The cost of a large strike is impres- 

 sively illustrated in some of the results 

 of the great colliery dispute of 1898 in 

 South Wales, as they are set forth in 

 the British Board of Trade returns and 

 the reports of the consular service. In 

 direct financial loss, the company suf- 

 fered to the extent of $100,000, and the 

 men of $300,000 in Avages, besides the 

 demoralization from being so long out 

 of work. To a certain extent, other dis- 

 tricts gained what the South Wales 

 mines lost by the diversion of trade to 

 them, but that simply aggravated the 

 evil in the mines, for some of this di- 

 verted trade will stay where it went. 

 It is sometimes said, indeed, that strikes 

 have only a temporary effect on busi- 

 ness, from which it will recover in time. 

 This is true, however, as is suggested in 

 Industries and Iron, only when the lo- 

 cality affected has a virtual monopoly 



of the trade, while in the competition 

 of the nations instances of that kind are 

 growing rarer, lilngland especially has 

 many rivals in these days, eager to take 

 advantage of every opportunity to profit 

 by its mistakes or misfortunes, and 

 which, when they get their hands on a 

 good thing, are not apt to let go. Not- 

 withstanding some strikes at home, the 

 coal trade in the United States derived 

 benefits from the British sti-ike by send- 

 ing to markets which the Welsh mines 

 should have supplied; Germany sent 

 coal to Sweden, and Belgium increased 

 its shipments to the Canary Islands. 

 Other countries are induced, by condi- 

 tions making the usual sources of sup- 

 ply inconvenient to them, to a more ac- 

 tive development of their own resources, 

 as Austria-Hungary, Spain, and France 

 were in the present case. So it is 

 more than doubtful whether the pres- 

 ent strike paid. 



The Scientific Spirit. — The study 

 of science, especially of an experimental 

 science, said Prof. R. H. Chittenden in 

 an informal talk to students of the 

 Sheffield Scientific School, is peculiarly 

 adapted for developing the poAver of in- 

 dependent thought, and of training one 

 in drawing logical conclusions from ex- 

 perimental data. In the laboratory is 

 afforded an opportunity for making ob- 

 ser\ations, but if real benefit is to be de- 

 rived from the experimental work there 

 must be a full realization of the neces- 

 sity of careful thought in drawing de- 

 ductions from the results observed. 

 Broad generalizations built on a slender 

 foundation of fact frequently topple to 

 the ground, and sometimes carry de- 

 struction with them, all because of a 

 lack of that critical spirit which prompts 

 a careful and thorough consideration of 

 all the premises. The man who has ac- 

 quired the habit of careful thought, of 

 reasoning out each step in a process, 

 of weighing carefullj' each reaction in- 

 volved, of seeking in his own mind the 

 reason for this or that phenomenon, 

 who looks at both sides of a question, 

 and carefully considers all the facts 

 available, will build much more surely 

 and firmly than he who by specious 

 arguments constructs a glittering hy- 

 pothesis, only to see it fade away. 

 Hasty reasoning, insufficient data, ob- 

 scure facts, are the bane of modern sci- 



