ENDOWMENT FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 623 



.'53 per cent, a patent of my invention will be wortli millions of dollars 

 for Its economy in jjrodnction. In seeking this we do not work at ran- 

 dom. 1 go to my laboratory; stndy the applications of the principles, 

 facts, and laws which the great scientists like Faraday, Thompson, and 

 Maxwell have worked ont, and endeavor to tind snch devices as shall 

 secnre my aim." 



Tliis is but an expression, in another form, of what Tyndall said 

 twenty years ago: '-Behind all our practical applications, there is a 

 region of intellectual action to which practical men have rarely con- 

 tributed, but from which they draw all their suj)plies. Cut them oii" 

 from that region, and they become eventually helpless." 



Wliat is true in one department of natural science is, I apprehend, 

 e(pmlly true ni all. The practical men do not work at random, bnt upon 

 the basis of what s(uentific research aud publication have i»reviously put 

 within their grasp. 



It is evident ther(^fore that not only the advancement of knowledge 

 itself, but all possibility of any continuous advance in those great im- 

 provements whicli are to mitigate the sorrows, aud promote the health, 

 the conveniences and the comfoits of men, is vitally dei)endent upon 

 the progress of sc^ientilic research. In recent years how marvellous 

 have these improvements been ! Besides those that are most common 

 and familiar to all, what miracles, almost, have been achieved through 

 the photograph, the spectroscope, the microscope; by the discovery of 

 the sources of fermentation and of putrefaction; by the discovery of 

 ana'sthetics and the ai»i>lication of antisei)tic methods in surgery, and 

 111 the treatment of other lesions! These latter discoveries alone have 

 ameliorated beyond expression the sufferings of man; they save more 

 liv<'s than war and pestilence destroy, suri)assing (^veii in that regard 

 the safety lamp of ^SIr lliim()hrey Davy — an invention whicii, at the 

 tiiiu^ it was made, was said to ha\ e exceeded every lu'cvious discovery 

 as a means of saving human life, except, possibly, inoculation for 

 smallpox. 



This\ital relation b<'tween the advancement of knowledge and the 

 welfare of man fiirnislies an all-sntricient reason for the<'ontinuous and 

 never-ending pros«><'ution of original research. Of necessity the original 

 work (»f discovery must always lea<l; that must always precede the 

 j>ractical apjjhcations. The lu'cessity for such research must, there- 

 fore, continue, so long as science and human society end are. As there 

 is no liiiiit to the ad\ance of knowledge, so there can be no limit to the 

 benefactions it is capable of conterring upon mankind. The moie rapid 

 the advance, the more speedy the enjoyment of its fruits. In this 

 relation alone, the need of amj)le jirovisioii for scientitic; progress is one 

 that addresses itself equally to tlui nation, to the state, to jdiilan- 

 thropists, and to all who W(Uild advance the welfare oT man. on the 

 broadest and most enduring lines. 



How sliall such research be maintained and extended.' 'The inxcsti- 



