G10 HENKY A. KOWLAND 



think a molehill as big as a mountain, nor to teach it, any more than 

 he has to think the world is flat, and teach that it is so. The facts and 

 laws of our science have not equal importance, neither have the men 

 who cultivate the science achieved equal results. One thing is greater 

 than another, and we have no right to neglect the order. Thus shall 

 our minds be guided aright, and our efforts be toward that which is the 

 highest. 



Then shall we see that no physicist of the first class has ever existed 

 in this country, that we must look to other countries for our leaders 

 in that subject, and that the few excellent workers in our country must 

 receive many accessions from without before they can constitute an 

 American science, or do their share in the world's work. 



But let me return to the subject of scientific societies. Here Ameri- 

 can science has its hardest problem to contend with. There are very 

 many local societies dignified by high-sounding names, each having its 

 local celebrity, to whom the privilege of describing some crab with an 

 extra claw, which he found in his morning ramble, is inestimable. And 

 there are some academies of science, situated at our seats of learning, 

 which are doing good work in their localities. But distances are so 

 great that it is difficult to collect men together at any one point. The 

 American Association, which we are now attending, is not a scientific 

 academy, and does not profess to be more than a gathering of all who 

 are interested in science, to read papers and enjoy social intercourse. 

 The National Academy of Sciences contains eminent men from the 

 whole country, but then it is only for the purpose of advising the gov- 

 ernment freely on scientific matters. It has no building, it has no 

 library; and it publishes nothing except the information which it freely 

 gives to the government, which does nothing for it in return. It has 

 not had much effect directly on American science; but the liberality of 

 the government in the way of scientific expeditions, publications, etc., 

 is at least partly due to its influence, and in this way it has done much 

 good. But it in no way takes the place of the great Eoyal society, or 

 the great academies of science at Paris, Berlin, Vienna, St. Petersburg, 

 Munich, and, indeed, all the European capitals and large cities. These, 

 by their publications, give to the young student, as well as to the more 

 advanced physicist, models of all that is considered excellent; and to 

 become a member is one of the highest honors to which he can aspire, 

 while to write a memoir which the academy considers worthy to be pub- 

 lished in its transactions excites each one to his highest effort. 



