THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



"Then the wood failed— then the food failed— 

 then the last water dried — 

 In the faith of little children 

 we lay down and died." 



Did our time allow, and could we go 

 through this history in more detail, we 

 should see how the more important of 

 the earlier workers were students in 

 pure science attempting to make what 

 were termed in the earlier days "con- 

 tributions to knowledge"; we should 

 realize how the long fight over the ques- 

 tion of spontaneous generation was for 

 centuries only an abstract and academic 

 matter of no seeming value in everyday 

 affairs ; we should learn how the burden 

 of this jjioneer work was borne by men 

 who were given scant public assistance 

 and little recognition at the time — who 

 followed no path of least resistance. 



"On the sand-drift— on the veldt-side— 

 in the fern-scrub we lay, 

 That our sons might follow after 

 by the bones on the way." 



The lesson for us is plain. Are we 

 in this day of enlightenment doing 

 much better by the workers in pure sci- 

 ence? We hail extravagantly the suc- 

 cessful investigator in applied science, 

 like Edison, and he is well rewarded; 

 although what he gets is insignificant 

 compared with that allowed by society 

 to its swashbuckling captains of indus- 

 try. But we do not provide for the 

 man of promise in abstract science a 

 chance to keep at his work, in the hope 

 that he may make real contributions to 

 knowledge. We are greedy over the fin- 

 ished product, while we turn out, to 

 starve or teach, the young men among 

 whom the Leeuwenhoeks of some future 

 science must be found. 



The criticism is that our civilization, 

 although made possible by the control 

 of nature which science has brought, is 

 not offering adequate opportunity for 

 further investigations. We are neglect- 

 ing that which might lead to things as 

 undreamed of as was the germ theory 

 of disease, when Antony van Leeuwen- 



hock discovered certain "little animals 

 observed in Eain, Well, Sea, and SnoAv 

 Water as also in Water wherein Pepper 

 had lain infused." 



Knowledge of the Life Illstonj of the 



Fresh-water Mussel, Which Alloivs 



Control of the Pearl and Button 



Industries, Was Gained in 



Theoretical Research 



The details of the life cycle of the 

 fresh-water mussel were discovered 

 after years of study by those adven- 

 turers of science who struck into the 

 "hinterland" of nature, where lay no 

 beaten trails; and the facts established 

 in this earlier period and with no utili- 

 tarian aim have during the past twenty 

 years been turned to account in com- 

 mercial enterprise. 



Briefiy, the life cycle of the mussel is 

 as follows: The sexes are separate, the 

 spermatozoa are discharged freely into 

 the water. These enter the body of the 

 female with the respiratory water cur- 

 rents and there fertilize the eggs con- 

 tained in brood-pouches which are 

 formed by a modification of the gills. 

 Development now begins and continues 

 until a larval stage, known as the 

 "glochidium," is reached. In this stage 

 the young are discharged into the wa- 

 ter. The glochidium, which in size is 

 near the limit of visibility for the un- 

 aided human eye, now rests upon the 

 bottom of the stream and must perish 

 before many days unless accidentally 

 brought into contact with a fish. In 

 the latter event, the glochidium fastens 

 itself upon a fin or gill, whereupon a 

 growth of the fish's epithelium takes 

 place and, in the course of a few hours, 

 the glochidium is completely enclosed 

 within the tissues of its host. Tints se- 

 curely placed, it undergoes development 

 to a stage in which it is able to assume 

 the life of the parent mussel. It then 

 drops from the fish to the bed of the 

 stream and takes up an existence which 

 is continued throughout life. Two 

 points are of importance in this cycle. 



