THE DEBT TO PURE SCIENCE 37 



few exceptions, the results are given to the world without 

 compensation. Scientific men are accustomed to regard 

 patents much as regular physicians regard advertising. 



America owes much to closet students as well as to ed- 

 ucated inventors who have been trained in scientific modes 

 of thought. The extraordinary development of our material 

 resources — our manufacturing, mining, and transporting in- 

 terests—shows that the strengthening of our educational 

 institutions on the scientific side brings actual profit to the 

 community. But most of this strengthening is due pri- 

 marily to unremunerated toil of men dependent on the 

 meager salary of college instructors or government officials 

 in subordinate positions. Their aptitude to fit others for 

 usefulness, coming only from long training, was acquired 

 in hours stolen from sleep or from time needed for recupera- 

 tion. But the labors of such men have been so fruitful in re- 

 sults that we can no longer depend on the surplus energy 

 of scientific men, unless we consent to remain stationary. 

 If the rising generation is to make the most of our coun- 

 try's opportunities it must be educated by men who are not 

 compelled to acquire aptness at the cost of vitality. The 

 proper relation of teaching-labor to investigation-labor should 

 be recognized, and investigation, rather than social, rehgious 

 or poUtical activity, should be a part of the duty assigned 

 to college instructors. 



Our universities and scientific societies ought to have 

 endowments specifically for aid in research. The fruits of 

 investigations due to Smithson's bequest have multiphed 

 his estate hundreds of times over to the world's advantage. 

 He said well that his name would be remembered long after 

 the names and memory of the Percy and Northumberland 

 families had passed away. Hodgkins' bequest to the Smith- 

 sonian institution is still too recent to have borne much 

 fruit, but men already wonder at the fruitfulness of a field 

 supposed to be well explored. Nobel knew how to apply 

 the results of science ; utihzing the chemists' results, he applied 

 nitroglycerin to industrial uses; similarly he developed the 

 petroleum industry of Russia and, like that of our Amer- 

 ican petroleum manufacturers, his influence was felt in many 



