192 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 8 



the beginning of the present, it was still possible for an individual, 

 working alone, with comparatively limited facilities, to achieve epoch- 

 making results in the borderline fields of research. The surface has 

 now been well explored and it is consequently necessary to probe 

 deeper and to enlist the cooperation of trained specialists in such 

 widely diversified fields as chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering. 

 Elaborate equipment and apparatus are now required for the conduct 

 of researches, for they must be performed on a mathematically correct 

 basis with constant control of all variables. 



There were ages when science moved haltingly or drooped in dis- 

 couragement beneath the indifference of hostile rulers and super- 

 stitious peoples. 



Today the speed of communications alone has woven the world of 

 science more tightly, so that each bit of fresh knowledge is known 

 everywhere as soon as it is proved. It no longer takes months for a 

 new fact or method to filter from nation to nation, or years for it to 

 be practically applied. 



Considering the accelerated pace of recent years and the rate at 

 which science has revolutionized our daily lives, it would be easy to sit 

 back complacently and call this an age of scientific miracles, to remark 

 that we had reached the ultimate in development, that there could 

 be no more worlds to conquer. 



It would be easy to say it, but your chemist, above all men, could 

 tell you it is not true. He knows that chemistry, though brilliant its 

 gains, has only scratched the surface — knows how pitifully meager is 

 the hoard of knowledge so far acquired. In physics, in chemistry, in 

 engineering, in medicine — the dearth of knowledge is the same. The 

 swift progress that has been made must not make us overconfident 

 and lose us that humility which we must retain if we are to be dispas- 

 sionate searchers after truth. 



If we take the time to glance back through the pages of history, we 

 can see how easily each age has fallen into the error of believing that it 

 represented the ultimate in civilization. There was a time when Europe, 

 steeped in its troubles, guessed of no new land or opportunity like 

 America. The Middle Ages seemed highly developed to its own 

 peoples, but most of the great inventions and discoveries of science 

 have come long since then. Even as late as 1900, millions felt that we 

 had gained as much from science as we were likely to win. Yet in 

 the short span of 35 years we have seen the first "red-devil" auto- 

 mobile become a necessity for the masses, turn transportation ideas 

 upside down, revolutionize our industrial structure. We have seen 

 radio burst upon the world and link distant lands by new seven-league 

 boots. We have seen early ventures in flight give another dimension 

 to transport. Television next, and meanwhile scores of new products, 

 new foods, new industries of which, a generation ago, no one guessed. 



