678 HENRY A. ROWLAND 



society, and neglected to provide us with a knowledge of natural laws. 

 In this sense they were the murderers and robbers of future generations 

 of unborn millions and have made the world a charnel house and place 

 of mourning where peace and happiness might have been. Only their 

 ignorance of what they were doing can be their excuse, but this excuse 

 puts them in the class of boors and savages who act according to selfish 

 desire and not to reason and to the calls of duty. Let the present gener- 

 ation take warning that this reproach be not cast on it, for it cannot 

 plead ignorance in this respect. 



This illustration from the department of medicine I have given be- 

 cause it appeals to all. But all the sciences are linked together and 

 must advance in concert. The human body is a chemical and physical 

 problem, and these sciences must advance before we can conquer disease. 



But the true lover of physics needs no such spur to his actions. The 

 cure of disease is a very important object and nothing can be nobler than 

 a life devoted to its cure. 



The aims of, the physicist, however, are in part purely intellectual: 

 he strives to understand the universe on account of the intellectual 

 pleasure derived from the pursuit, but he is upheld in it by the knowl- 

 edge that the study of nature's secrets is the ordained method by which 

 the greatest good and happiness shall finally come to the human race. 



Where, then, are the great laboratories of research in this city, in 

 this country, nay, in the world? We see a few miserable structures here 

 and there occupied by a few starving professors who are nobly striving 

 to do the best with the feeble means at their disposal. But where in 

 the world is the institute of pure research in any department of science 

 with an income of $100,000.000 per year? Where can the discoverer in 

 pure science earn more than the wages of a day laborer or cook? But 

 $100,000,000 per year is but the price of an army or of a navy designed 

 to kill other people. Just think of it, that one per cent of this sum 

 seems to most people too great to save our children and descendants 

 from misery and even death! 



But the twentieth century is near may we not hope for better things 

 before its end? May we not hope to influence the public in this 

 direction? 



Let us go forward, then, with confidence in the dignity of our pur- 

 suit. Let us hold our heads high with a pure conscience while we seek 

 the truth, and may the American Physical Society do its share now and 

 in generations yet to come in trying to unravel the great problem of 

 the constitution and laws of the universe. 



