PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTISTS 



mi zed the difficulties of publishing scientific discov- 

 eries, it is difficult to understand the isolated position 

 of the scientific investigation of the ages that pre- 

 ceded steam and electricity. Shut off from the world 

 and completely out of touch with fellow-laborers per- 

 haps only a few miles away, the investigators were 

 naturally seriously handicapped; and inventions and 

 discoveries were not made with the same rapidity 

 that they would undoubtedly have been had the same 

 men been receiving daily, weekly, or monthly com- 

 munications from fellow -laborers all over the world, 

 as they do to-day. Neither did they have the ad- 

 vantage of public or semi-public laboratories, where 

 they were brought into contact with other men, from 

 whom to gather fresh trains of thought and receive 

 the stimulus of their successes or failures. In the 

 natural course of events, however, neighbors who were 

 interested in somewhat similar pursuits, not of the 

 character of the rivalry of trade or commerce, would 

 meet more or less frequently and discuss their progress. 

 The mutual advantages of such intercourse would 

 be at once appreciated; and it would be but a short 

 step from the casual meeting of two neighborly 

 scientists to the establishment of "societies," meeting 

 at fixed times, and composed of members living within 

 reasonable travelling distance. There would, perhaps, 

 be the weekly or monthly meetings of men in a limited 

 area; and as the natural outgrowth of these little 

 local societies, with frequent meetings, would come 

 the formation of larger societies, meeting less often, 

 where members travelled a considerable distance to 

 attend. And, finally, with increased facilities for 



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