NEW CONCEPTIONS IN SCIENCE 



this discovery will lead to others of equal import; 

 it may deeply modify our present physical concep- 

 tions of matter; it may even give rise to a mighty 

 industry, as did Faraday's discovery of electrical 

 induction. Already Sir William Crookes sees here 

 a possible source of light, heat, and power suffi- 

 cient to supply the world. 



This is no isolated instance. Hertz's discovery 

 of electric- waves, revealing the identity of light and 

 electricity; Tesla's marvellous performances with 

 high-frequency currents; Poulsen's magnetic pho- 

 nograph; Professor Rontgen's find of the X-rays; 

 Simon's observation that an ordinary electric arc 

 can be made to talk like a telephone, sing like a 

 bird, and be used for wireless telephoning; all these 

 marvels of the last ten years were due to the steady 

 advance of electrical science. They were inevitable, 

 not accidents. It is the same in every field of 

 scientific endeavor. Schleiden and Schwann's dis- 

 covery, that all living bodies, animal or vegetable, 

 are made up of minute cells, or Pasteur's proof of 

 the unsuspected microbe, came with the perfect- 

 ing of the microscope ; it opened up to man whole 

 new realms, of which we have realized as yet only 

 the first-fruits. Without the telescope, the camera, 

 and the spectroscope, astronomy would have re- 

 mained where it was left by Ptolemy. Instances 

 of like import might be multiplied endlessly. 



298 



