294 PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



that which is felt in a direct manner by every man, woman, 

 and child, viz. : prevention of disease by inoculation a 

 scientific result which has saved many lives every year in 

 every country, and preserved us from much suffering and 

 sorrow. And so, the names of Jenner and Pasteur should 

 be revered universally. And the system having been ex- 

 tended to animals, husbandmen have been spared losses 

 which might have involved them in total ruin during 

 epidemic times. Akin to the same category are the daily 

 wonders wrought by medical science : every living man 

 knows by personal experience those priceless results. If we 

 go beyond that sphere, we find science again acting the 

 part of a rich and bountiful fairy, never tiring from out- 

 pouring her gifts upon us. Take, for instance, meteorology 

 allied to physical geography. The discovery of the per- 

 manency of the trade-winds and sea currents has led to the 

 scientific and practical development of navigation. Vessels 

 taking advantage of these currents make a voyage more 

 rapidly than before the scientific discovery. The rapidity 

 of transit decreases the cost of freight, the amount of wages 

 to sailors, and thereby benefits universal trade, and also the 

 consumer, who obtains cheaper and a greater quantity of 

 goods that is, cheaper and more food-stuff, cotton, wool, 

 raw material of every kind. Increase of wealth and pros- 

 perity ensues as a matter of course, and in its wake 

 brotherhood and love of peace among nations, together with 

 intellectual and moral progress. The discovery of the law 

 of the elasticity of gases applied to industry has led to 

 transformations in humanity which it is impossible to gauge, 

 so universal and multifarious they are, ranging from clothing 

 and transport to political economy and colonisation, which 

 are in the modern world dependent chiefly upon steam 

 machinery. Electricity, in its essence, is a force unknown 

 to us just as gravitation is; we cannot explain what it is, 

 but we are certain of its existence as a power, and we control 

 and use that power for our benefit. We have electric 

 machines, phonographs,* TELEGRAPHS, TELEPHONES, the 



* The phonograph, though not an electric apparatus, is an offshoot 

 of the telephone, hence a grandchild of electric applications. 



