36 Public advantages of Science. 



siderably cheapened and immensely increased, but 

 also rendered more safe : in travelling by diligence in 

 France the average number of persons injured was 

 i to every 30,000 carried; and killed, i in every 

 335>ooo ; but by railway, notwithstanding the average 

 length of the journey has greatly increased, the 

 former has been diminished to i in 580,000, and the 

 latter to one in five millions ; safety in travelling by 

 sea has also been greatly increased by means of 

 improved lighthouses. By the rapid transmission 

 of messages by telegraphs and of commodities by 

 steam-ships and railways, the horrors of famine have 

 been largely diminished ; the health of this nation 

 has also been improved by greater variety of foods, 

 and the increasing cost of meat has been restrained. 

 It is well known that in periods of famine, the great 

 loss of life has arisen, not from universal scarcity of 

 food, but from the loss of time in ordering and con- 

 veying it. Whilst also the steam-engine has been 

 the means of relieving hundreds of thousands of 

 men from mere animal toil ; it has, with the aid of 

 the printing-press, supplied them with cheap daily 

 intelligence. 



Science has also proved itself to be a great source 

 of employment, as well as wealth. By developing 

 new processes it has given employment to whole 

 armies of workmen in numerous arts, manufactures, 

 and occupations. Some of those employments 

 necessitating scientific training. About 300,000 

 persons are employed on railways alone in Great 



