74 BULLETIN OF THE LABORATORIES 



has told us of new elements and, in the hands of Young, Langley, 

 Pickering and other Americans, has told us of the composition of our 

 own as well as of other suns so far away as to be scarcely visible to the 

 unaided eye ; the names of Hare, Gibbs and Remsen tell us of stages 

 in the progress of chemistry ; while Newcomb, Hall, Barnard, Newton 

 and their contemporaries have done their full share in the advance of 

 astronomy ; in ethnology are the monumental works of Pickering and 

 Hale as well as the splendid contributions published by the United 

 States government during the last score of years ; in botany, the pub- 

 lications of Torrey, Ciray, Englemann, Watson and a score of others 

 are models of accuracy and beauty ; in zoology, Kaird, Cope, Binney, 

 Hallowell, Marsh, Osborn, Verrill and their many co-workers have la- 

 bored on the rich faunas of this great continent and their works are re- 

 garded as among the marvels of our time ; in psychology, so rapidly 

 passing from the region of mere metaphysics to the rank of an induc- 

 tive science, American investigators are unexcelled even by the patient 

 Germans ; time would fail me to tell of those who have attained world- 

 wide fame in geology since the time when Hall, Rogers and Dana were 

 the youthful pioneers, to this day, when instead of half a score, as in 

 1837, we count more than two hundred and fifty active geologists. 

 America's surveys, geological, geodetic and coast, have been the most 

 extended in the world and the hundreds of ponderous volumes, issued 

 by state or general government and distributed with lavish hand, have 

 astonished other nations — as well they might. 



The record of Americans in applied science is even more remark- 

 able than that in pure science ; Holley remade the whole Bessemer pro- 

 cess so that steel rails can be made in this country for little more than 

 one sixth of the price prevailing twenty five years ago, and our great 

 buildings can be constructed of steel for far less than of iron ; the ap- 

 plication of Henry's curious apparatus, as made by Morse and \'ail, 

 has been modified by a score of workers until at length, by F>dison"s 

 improvements, it has become not a luxury but an ordinary means of 

 communication; the engineering feats of Americans on the railways of 

 California, Oregon, Venezuela and Chili are unrivaled ; but it is not 

 possible to go on with such a list ; our advance along all technical lines 

 causes other nations to regard America not merely with admiration but 

 even with ])cr])lexed wonder. On one occasion the London Times 

 said : 



*' In the natural distribution of subjects, the history of enterprise, 



