EDITORIAL STATEMENT. 



^\'hen the Barney Memorial Science Hall was completed and the 

 work fairly begun in the new quarters the advantages presented to the 

 student were so great, as compared to those which the writer had en- 

 joyed in the early days under Professor Hicks, that the fact of the 

 great debt we owe to the laborers of the past and the foundation that 

 they laid was so forcibly presented as to suggest the thought of col- 

 lecting in some permanent form such facts as could be obtained with 

 reference to the work in science in Denison University and the lives 

 and works of those who wrought so faithfully in the past. In order 

 to show the fruits of their labors it is also important to show the pres- 

 ent state of the scientific work and equipment. 



In tracing the development of science in this country, and espe- 

 cially the development of the scientific laboratories, the very signifi- 

 cant fact is manifest that almost all the large laboratories have been 

 built and equipped through the generosity of broad minded and public 

 spirited men of large fortune. 



It is true that the United States government and most of the 

 States have, at public expense, made large investments in the building 

 of experiment stations and research laboratories for scientific work and 

 instruction. Yet it cannot be said that in this country the government 

 is the leading patron of the scientific laboratory. In many other coun- 

 tries the government has taken the leading part in furnishing the means 

 for the pioneer work in the development of the scientific laboratories ; 

 but with our form of government, where the mass of the people is 

 the governing power, it is evident that the people must first be shown 

 the benefits to be derived from the establishment of such expensive 

 plants for scientific work before they will vote their money to the sup- 

 port of such enterjjrises. 



Thus it is that while the value of public schools maintained at 

 public expense was early recognized as a necessity and provided for, 

 yet it must be said that the higher institutions of learning have largely 



