36 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE Vol. XXV, 1918 



does not follow the methods of Hippocrates but he loses nothing 

 and gains much by knowing what those methods were. The first 

 aid worker or the surgeon may apply aseptic dressings without 

 knowing of the work of Lister and Pasteur, but with such 

 knowledge he understands his own work better. The surveyor 

 may run as straight a line, or the bond holder may compute his 

 interest as accurately without a knowledge that men named 

 Euclid, Xapier, Newton or Gauss ever existed, as he could if he 

 had such knowledge. But I can conceive of some mental satis- 

 faction in the possession of such knowledge. Even just a little 

 acquaintance with the persistent and intensive labors of some of 

 the great leaders in science, of their self sacrifice, of their heroism 

 creates a profound respect and admiration, and causes one even 

 to marvel at the wonderful power and possibilities of the human 

 mind. If the superman has ever appeared I think he was ex- 

 emplified in Adams, or Leverrier who did a little figuring with 

 reference to a planet that did not behave just as it apparently 

 should and then told an astronomer to look at a certain place at a 

 certain time there to find a planet. It would not be very ditfi- 

 cult, I suspect, to convince me that Wallace was not far wrong in 

 his inference that the mathematical faculty owes its origin to 

 something outside natural evolutionary forces. I confess to a 

 slight feeling" of uneasiness when in the presence of a mathemati- 

 cian, as if something uncanny were near by. I find myself won- 

 dering as to the kind of nerve cells that make up his brain and 

 then the query insidiously creeps in "according to the law of 

 probabilities what chance is there of him becoming dangerou-^ly 

 \dolent!" 



Our school histories give us accounts of Napoleon's running 

 rampant over Europe in a career of slaughter. Wouldn't the 

 cultural and refining influence upon young minds be as marked 

 at least, if they were given accounts of the work of Lister that 

 saved more lives than Napoleon ever destroyed and that is con- 

 tinually saving lives, thousands of them, in the mad carna?e of 

 today. College histories of the next generation will devote chap- 

 ters to the wild insane orgy of blood of William II. I wonder 

 how much space will be given to the life saving work of Robert 

 Koch. In the realm of fact the work of Koch is as truly a fact as 

 the work of William II. As items of knowledge the student 

 should know both. There is no question as to which will have 

 the more humanizing effect. In my opinion the student has as 



