REMINISCENCES, ETC. 249 



Experimental labor is exacting, expensive, and 

 in some departments perilous. It is exacting, be- 

 cause it demands the- whole time and the most in- 

 tense thought. The hours of the day when other 

 kinds of labor are prosecuted, and which cease with 

 the setting sun, do not suffice for the experimenter. 

 An idea or difficult scientific problem, pressing on 

 the mind, becomes almost a material object there ; 

 and if it were a brick, or a lump of lead, it could 

 not more effectually disorder the natural functions 

 of the brain and prevent sleep. A great deal of 

 agitation is made over the hours of labor at the 

 present time, and eight hours of labor and sixteen of 

 rest are clamored for by an influential party. This 

 relates to physical labor. Hard work in this world 

 is not alone the lot of those who handle the hoe and 

 spade, or swing the sledge-hammer. The laborer 

 in the field of experimental research reverses the 

 modern idea, and devotes sixteen hours to work, 

 and eight to imperfect rest. 



Experimental research is expensive, as there is a 

 constant drain upon the purse for the implements 

 wherewith to prosecute the labor. Platinum and 

 gold and silver, among the expensive metals, are 

 requisite, and in a thousand little ways money dis- 

 appears as if by magic. From imperfect memo- 

 randa in our possession it is shown that we have 

 expended, during the past third of a century, for 



