24 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



or what not, are not especially friendly to the scientific move- 

 ment, such an argument will appear conclusive, demolishing 

 in a sentence all that fifty years of science has built up. 

 Whether such argument takes with it electric lights and cars, 

 bacteriology, modern surgery and photography, is not so clear. 



But perhaps the most curious index of the present ebb is 

 scientific interest and enthusiasm comes from a quarter where 

 we should least expect it, from philanthropy or altruism, as in 

 these days we are taught to say. The eccentric Russian lioble- 

 man, Tolstoi, regarded in many quarters as the modern oracle 

 of all efforts for social amelioration, he, too, has a griev- 

 ance against science. His is the most marvellous complaint of 

 all. I quote from the Popular Science Monthly, July, 1898: 



"The strong, sensible laborer supposes that men who study 

 and are supported by his labor, shall be able to tell him where 

 to find happiness. Science should teach him how to live, how 

 to act towards friends and relatives, and how to control 

 instincts and desires that arise within him, how and what to 

 believe. Instead of telling him these things, science talks 

 about distances in the heavens, microbes, vibrations of ether 

 and X-rays. The laborer is dissatisfied. He insists on know- 

 ing how to live. The essential thing is the total view of life, 

 its meanings and aims. Science cannot rise to that view, reli- 

 gion alone can do so. " 



I consider this a most remarkable utterance, but it simply 

 shows how very far off an intelligent man may be in this year 

 1898 from a true appreciation of the method, the work and the 

 mission of natural science. To declare that science has not 

 been a blessing to earth's toiling millions can be possible only 

 to a man who chooses to hide himself amid the serfs of 

 benighted Russia, where aristocracy of church and state still 

 holds millions in the superstitious degradation of medieval 

 ages. Surely everywhere west of Russia, there is not a work- 

 ingman wlio does not by virtue of the progress of science find 

 himself to-day better housed, better warmed, better fed, better 

 taught in health and better nursed in sickness than ever before 

 in the whole history of the race. The light of science converts 

 night into day before his footsteps; for a mere pittance, a 

 small fraction of his daily wage, he journeys to and from his 

 work in style befitting a prince; if he be sober, his home is the 

 abode of comfort, the best knowledge of the world is spread 

 before his children, gifted men taught in the ways of science 



