IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. ]5 



a second edition; from the geological survey, we have two hand- 

 some volumes, replete with matters pertaining to the economic 

 interest of our state, and almost every article bears the name 

 of some member of this academy. These are simply a few of 

 the publications which have come to my notice, but are suffi- 

 cient to show the variety and high grade of scientific work 

 undertaken in and for the state of Iowa by members of this 

 body. It will be noticed that in many cases the work which I 

 have described is in the line of practical utility. 



This is true, of course, of most of the articles in the reports 

 of the state geological survey and of many others. The fitness 

 of this is unquestioned. Science is nothing if not beneficent. 

 Her object is, and ever has been, the discovery and promulga- 

 tion of natural truth, and the knowledge of truth is always 

 practical. Not less valuable, therefore, even from a practical 

 standpoint, are those researches which may seem to-day to 

 have no direct bearing on man's physical well being. Theory 

 in science, as elsewhere, often precedes practice, and pure sci- 

 ence lays evermore the foundations for invention. Faraday did 

 not invent the telephone, nor did Helmholz or Tyndall; these 

 men simply studied energy, electricity, forms or modes of 

 motion, and in due time sound and light were flashed about 

 the world. Lieutenant Maury wrote the Geography of the Sea, 

 a guide-book to the ocean; a thousand unknown mariners who 

 individually toiled for the sake of pure knowledge brought him 

 his data. Pure science studies the properties of light, practical 

 science grinds lenses to formulae, builds the telescope for 

 astronomy, the microscope for the investigation of the world of 

 life. Practical science investigates the wine industry of France; 

 bacteriology results, a pure science, yet practical in everything 

 that touches human weal. And so although I may seem to-night 

 to commend especially those scientific labors which bear imme- 

 diate fruit, I would not for a moment discourage other investi- 

 gations which tend to no direct outcome of the visii3le, prac- 

 tical sort, but which find their justification on the yet higher 

 plane where they offer satisfaction to the inquiries of genius 

 and solace to the lonely spirit of enlightened man. 



But, however this may all be, there are some other con- 

 siderations to be here noted which seem rather to place us as 

 members of the academy under obligations, especially at the 

 present time, to the accomplishment of work of a practical 

 every-day sort. In the first place we have, upon our own 



