462 Memorial of George Bro7vii Goode. 



Having said this much in defense of the scientific men of the United 

 States, I wish, in conclusion, to prefer some very serious charges against 

 the country at large, or, rather, as a citizen of the United States, to 

 make some very melancholy and humiliating confessions. 



The present century is often spoken of as " the age of science, ' ' and 

 Americans are somewhat disposed to be proud of the manner in which 

 scientific institutions are fostered and scientific investigators encouraged 

 on this side of the Atlantic. 



Our countrymen have made very important advances in manj^ depart- 

 ments of research. We have a few admirably organized laboratories 

 and observatories, a few good collections of scientific books, six or eight 

 museums worthy of the name, and a score or more of scientific and 

 technological schools, well organized and better provided with officers 

 than with mone5^ We have several strong scientific societies, no one of 

 which, however, publishes transactions worthy of its own standing and 

 the collective reputation of its members. In fact, the combined publish- 

 ing funds of all our .societies would not pay for the annual issue of a 

 volume of memoirs such as appears under the auspices of an)^ one of a 

 dozen European societies which might be named. 



Our Government, by a liberal support of its scientific departments, 

 has done much to atone for the really feeble manner in which local 

 institutions have been maintained. The Coast Survey, the Geological 

 Survey, the Department of Agriculture, the Fish Commission, the Army, 

 with its Meteorological Bureau, its Medical Museum and lyibrary, and 

 its explorations; the Navy, with its Observatory, its laboratories and its 

 explorations; and, in addition to these, the Smithsonian Institution, with 

 its systematic promotion of all good works in .science, have accomplished 

 more than is ordinarily placed to their credit. Many hundreds of volumes 

 of scientific memoirs have been issued from the Government Printing 

 Office since 1870, and the.se have been di.stribvited in such a generous and 

 far-reaching way that they have not failed to reach every town and village 

 in the United States where a roof has been provided to protect them. 



It may be that some one will accuse the Government of having usurped 

 the work of the private publisher. Very little of value in the way of 

 scientific literature has been issued during the same period by publishers, 

 except in reprints or translations of works of foreign investigators. It 

 should be borne in mind, however, that our Government has not only 

 published the results of investigations, but has supported the investigators 

 and provided them with laboratories, instruments, and material, and that 

 the memoirs which it has issued would never, as a rule, have been 

 accepted by private publishers. 



I do not wi,sh to iinderrate the efficiency of American men of science, 

 nor the enthusiasm with which many public men and capitalists have 

 promoted our .scientific institutions. Our countrymen have had won- 

 derful successes in many directions. They have borne their share in the 



