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we indefinitely ascribe the progress of knowledge. This dis- 

 tinction means little or nothing to us. If history teaches us 

 anything, it teaches that the advance of knowledge is the most 

 practical affair in which we may engage. It shows us that 

 scientific investigation which seems farthest removed from 

 the life of the people today, may before long have tremendous 

 bearing upon the welfare of our own species. It is, of course, 

 for us individually to decide where we can most advantageously 

 help the cause and train and broaden ourselves in the doing 

 of it ; by remaining close to what is today the vital practical 

 application of science, or to venture into studies whose ulti- 

 mate bearing upon human life can only be conjectured. To 

 those of us who are in the work of education it becomes a 

 pressing problem also to decide this question for those who 

 come under our guidance. There are certain apparent dangers 

 in the introduction of vocational work in non-technical educa- 

 tion, and so guarded have we been against them that the gen- 

 eral attitude is to admit only the minimum that is needed 

 to enlist the interest of the student. At present however, it is 

 becoming more common to admit the maximum that will not 

 conflict with well established educational principles. It seems 

 to be becoming more clear that the practical bearing of a 

 subject is a real asset. We should understand, however, that 

 the aloofness of science from common afifairs is obviously a 

 matter of degree, and time generally wipes out that difiference 

 or not infrequently inverts its terms. We may hope that our 

 pure science, in the pursuit of it or in its direct results, may 

 some day bring benefit to mankind, and we may at the same 

 time fervently believe that the immediate relation of applied 

 science to the needs of the human race does not vitiate its 

 educative value to him who engages in it. 



It is obviously not possible in the time here allotted to re- 

 view with any degree of care the multitudinous ways in which 

 the biological sciences are today affecting the progress of the 

 race. At the risk of dealing only in what may be platitudes to 

 this audience, I limit myself to some of the more general 

 aspects of the question. 



