PROBLEMS OF MODERN SCIENCE 



from one end of Europe to the other. If Helm- 

 holtz had been alive now, how much more might 

 he have expanded that theme, for, since he died, 

 radium, X-rays, and other forms of radiant energy 

 related to electricity have been discovered, and 

 have proved of benefit to mankind not only from 

 the commercial, but also from the medical point 

 of view, by relieving disease and suffering. 



That is one example of how a comparatively 

 trivial and at first sight purely academic piece of 

 curious knowledge formed the foundation of the 

 electrical science which now pervades every branch 

 of human industry. Let me give you one or two 

 more examples, also from the past. 



How would the work of Lister have been 

 possible without the chemical work that preceded 

 his in the hands of the chemist Pasteur ? Pasteur 

 occupied himself with the examination of ferment- 

 ing fluids, and discovered that putrefaction and 

 similar occurrences are of the same nature as fer- 

 mentation, and it was this that led Lister to apply 

 the principle practically, and to invent the modern 

 system of surgery, in which the agents concerned 

 in fermentation and putrefaction, the germs or 

 bacteria, are excluded from wounds. 



Some thirty years ago I was in Basle, and there 

 had the opportunity of seeing Miescher, one of 

 the physiologists in the university of that city, 

 who devoted himself mainly to the chemical side 

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