22 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



solved by scientists, and have in some measure endeavored 

 to foreshadow the manner of their solution. 



Now, it goes without saying that much good has been 

 accomplished by all this writing and the thought and dis- 

 cussion it has occasioned, and that from it benefits will 

 accrue to us for many years to come. 



Science workers themselves have been cheered and in- 

 spired by the enormous showing of results that has in this 

 way been presented. The reviews of the difficulties over- 

 come and the success achieved by our predecessors can not 

 fail to strengthen and encourage us; and the essential 

 unity and similarity of all the various and individual lines 

 of research, as it becomes apparent to the thoughtful reader, 

 must have cleared the mental horizon of many a hard 

 working student of nature, who has been perplexed about 

 the outcome of his own efforts. 



To science men themselves, therefore, have come and 

 are coming the first and most obvious benefits of the pub- 

 lications under consideration, especially in the proof that 

 their efforts are well worth while, on the one hand, and 

 on the other, in that by the aid of the discerning reviews 

 made by the masters in their respective departments, they 

 are enabled to take their bearings and establish their lines 

 of orientation with greater certainty and confidence. 



Perhaps no less important is the effect upon the mass of 

 the non-scientific public, who have certainly come to see 

 more clearly than ever before the debt which the race 

 owes the indefatigable scientist, and who have thus come 

 to place a higher value upon his work, to sympathize with 

 him, and to assume an attitude of friendliness and become 

 imbued with a desire to aid and comfort and applaud him. 

 The cause of science education has already received an 

 added impetus plainly traceable to this increased popular 

 interest; and this is only the beginning of a movement 

 which it cannot be doubted will be of large proportions 

 and great benefit. Bequests and gifts for the endowment 

 or establishment of schools of all grades and kinds, and of 

 libraries and museums, and for the promotion of research, 

 exploration, and discovery, are multiplying day by day and 



