638 ENDOWMENT FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 



Institute of Anatomy" is now building by Gen. Isaac J. Wistar, at a 

 cost of about $200,000, including- endowments designed for original re- 

 search.* 



Our reliance in tbis country nnist be mainly ui^on private endowments 

 and an intelligent api)reciatiou of the needs of science. The national 

 Government has douc, and is doing, niucli in certain directions. But 

 aside from the dispositions of legislators, it is restricted by the provi- 

 sions of the Federal Constitution, and by debated questions of constitu- 

 tional right. State aid is not thus hampered; but State aid is difficult 

 to obtain, to any adequate degree, on account of the previous habits, 

 prejudices, aud political training of the people. ?^o doubt this ought 

 not so to be. The State of New York ought, abstractly considered, to 

 maintain one university of the first class equal in every department to 

 any in the world. But the multiplication of institutions already exist- 

 ing, local jealousies, and aversion to State taxation, make this now 

 probably impracticable. 



The remedy is with the people, and through their own voluntary 

 methods. It is the peoi)le who have made our Government, its insti- 

 tutions, its methods, and the great aggregate, whatsoever it is, such as 

 we see it to-day. Wealth is rapidly accumulating; much of it in the 

 hands of those who, springing from the people, bear the love of the 

 comnuinity in their hearts ; and when they and the peo]>le at large shall 

 come to see that the cause of scientific advance and the discovery of 

 all new truth are in the deepest sens<' their cause, responses will, 1 be- 

 lieve, come to every urgent need; until the work of the people, by its 

 own methods, shall, even in science, be able to confront, without shame, 

 the best work of the monarchies of the Old World. 



*Siuce the above was written iiu additional million of dollars lias been given by 

 Mr. .Joliu D. Rockefeller to tbe University of Chicago, making $3,600,000 given by 

 him alone to that institution within less than three years, a munificence hitherto 

 unexampled in priA^ate endowments, some portions of which, it is hoped, will be 

 available for the maintenance of original scientific research. 



