1HE IRRIGATION AGE. 



141 



grading in masses-by nations, and yet 

 under different influence. In Germany 

 the tendency is all toward the centralizal 

 tion of power in government, the remova- 

 of individual responsibility, and the work- 

 iug together of large masses of men as one 

 man. In America the tendency has been 

 different; there the individual is developed; 

 he has great powers and responsibilitiep- 

 the man is the unit. Who shall say how 

 these great influences will work out? 



The beautiful and accurate pictures of 

 animals and plants now obtainable, where 

 thirty years ago there were almost none, is 

 an instance of one of the smaller, and yet 

 important influences of modern life. Pic- 

 tures convey ideas swiftly and accurately 

 therefore they serve as a new and power- 

 ful factor in education, scientific education, 

 in paticular. A man may become com- 

 paratively familiar with the animal forms 

 of the world in a short time through the 

 perfect pictures now obtainable, whereas a 

 few years ago it would have taken a 

 lifetime. 



Then there are other influences. In 

 Europe there is the influenc of what is 

 military selection, all the younger men 

 being taken at a certain age, removed from 

 productive labor or study, and put through 

 exactly similar traingng for one or two 

 years, In Americr there is no such 

 influence. How such training or lack of 

 it will develop the race is a question to 

 which the future must furnish the solution. 



Medical selection is one of the most 

 powerfuf modern influences. Medical 

 science has made great srtides in the last 

 few years; it saves many lives that other- 

 wise would have been lost and frequently 

 it keeps people with dangerous diseases 

 alive for years. This must not only tend 

 to bread a sickly race, but it necessarily 

 swells the population largely, the crowding 

 bringing with it new and difficult 

 problems. 



The earth is now almost wholly inha. 

 bited; there are no longer any new places 



for immigration and the development of 

 virgin land- This means the elimination 

 of that potent influence which has had sq 

 great a share in the progress of the world 

 during the last few hundred years. The 

 contest must npw change. Instead of dis- 

 covering and settling new continents and 

 fighting savages, civilized man must set 

 himself to a terrible new struggle for exis- 

 tence, between the older nations; for 

 instance, in commerce and trade, tariffs, 

 spheres of influence, and so on; and the 

 strongest, most easily adaptable, most 

 resourceful, most favored nations will win. 



The remarkable, retrogression of the 

 Latin races during the last few decades is a 

 striking instance of this new struggle- 

 especially the retrogression of the once pow- 

 erful Spain. 



The nineteenth century has been the gol- 

 den era of science there will never again 

 be so many discoveries of profound impor- 

 tance. There are no more great universal 

 generalizations to be made, like the law of 

 conservation of energy, the attraction of 

 gravitation, and the theoary of natural 

 evolution. The work of future scientists 

 will deal largely with the application of 

 the great principles and generalizations 

 already well known. This does not mean 

 that wonderful new scientific discoveries 

 will not be made, but that they will not 

 have the profound importance of these 

 laws. 



I look for the greateat future develop- 

 ment in the science of chemistry. Some 

 day by its aid man will be able to produce 

 a living substance by artificial processes; 

 in other words, to make life is not at all 

 beyond the range of science, strange and 

 improbable as it may seem. It is only 

 what plants are doing all the time, taking 

 so many parts of carbon, hybrogen, nitrogen 

 and so on, and combining them into the 

 albuminous substance which we call proto- 

 plasm, the living substance. Science can 

 combine these elements just as nature does, 

 the proportion being exactly known, but 



