10 TOWN GEOLOGY. 



science has done for man, look, as a single instance, at 

 the science of Sanatory Reform ; the science which does 

 not merely try to cure disease, and shut the stable-door 

 after the horse is stolen, but tries to prevent disease ; 

 and, thank God ! is succeeding beyond our highest 

 expectations. Or look at the actual fresh amount of 

 employment, of subsistence, which science has, during 

 the last century, given to men ; and judge for yourselves 

 whether the study of it be not one worthy of those who 

 wish to help themselves, and, in so doing, to help their 

 fellow-men. Let me quote to you a passage from an 

 essay urging the institution of schools of physical 

 science for artisans, which says all I wish to say 

 and more : 



"The discoveries of Voltaic electricity, electro- 

 magnetism, and magnetic electricity, by Volta, QErsted, 

 and Faraday, led to the invention of electric telegraphy 

 by Wheatstone and others, and to the great manufac- 

 tures of telegraph cables and telegraph wire, and of the 

 materials required for them. The value of the cargo of 

 the Great Eastern alone in the recent Bombay telegraph 

 expedition was calculated at three millions of pounds 

 sterling. It also led to the employment of thousands 

 of operators to transmit the telegraphic messages, and 

 to a great increase of our commerce in nearly all its 

 branches by the more rapid means of communication. 

 The discovery of Voltaic electricity further led to the 

 invention of electro-plating, and to the employment 

 of a large number of persons in that business. 

 The numerous experimental researches on specific 

 heat, latent heat, the tension of vapours, the pro- 

 perties of water, the mechanical effect of heat, etc., 

 resulted in the development of steam-engines, and 



