THE FUTURE OF SCIENTIFIC WORK IN CUBA ' 



BV PROFESSOR C. F. BAKER, M. A. 



Jefe del Deparfnmcuio de Botánica de la Estación Central Atjionómica 

 de Santiaffo de las Vegas. 



Froui tlie days of Poey and Gundlach to the cióse o£ the Spanish- 

 American War, any systematic, organized work in the Botany and. 

 Zoology of Cuba or in the other sciences, was almost a practical 

 impossibility, due to the extremely untoward political conditions 

 then existing. A few resolute individuáis like Dr. Gómez de la 

 Maza maintained activity through it all. But the broader develop- 

 ment, especially in the biological sciences, that has marked the 

 higher, freer phases of civilized life in every country, was not 

 possible under those conditious. Since Cuba has become a free and 

 independent nation with the respousibility for her higher intellec- 

 tual development resting squarely upon the shoulders of her repre- 

 sentative men, there ha ve beeu signs of a remarkable awakeniag 

 along all lines. This is the day of Cuba's Renaissance in Science. 

 Witness the lehabilitatiou of the University, the important begin- 

 niug in the establishment of a home for the Academy of Sciences^ 

 the founding by the State of a technical Estación Central Agronó- 

 mica with a corps of practical iuvestigators drawn frora Cuba and 

 au}»^ other country where traiued experts in the various lines could 

 be found, the rapid development of the government sanitation and 

 medical departments — and finall}' but by no means least, the found- 

 ing of this periodical for the freest expression of the highest and 

 raost progressive thought. These are all things pregnant with hope 

 and great proraise and bespeak a capacity and culture among our 

 educated raen of which we niay well be proud. The stability of a 

 nation — even its very right to exit — are more strougly evidenced 

 by these, than In' any other possible acts. 



The development of scientitic work in Cuba will be watched 

 with greatest iuterest by the scientific world at large as well as by 

 all those who have at heart the broader and truer interests of the 

 Cuban national life. In Science, we stand upon the threshold 

 opening into a period of tremendous possibilities — in an almost 

 virgin field of unsurpassed interest — and the success in realizing 

 those possibilities will depeud very largely upon the character of 



1 Escrito en l^o'i y para la Revista. 



