February 20, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



175 



of the actual conditions interfere with the 

 realization of these ideals. 



Usefulness in Science.— It has been the 

 fashion in some quarters of late to emphasize 

 usefulness as the chief criterion by which to 

 judge the value of scientific research under 

 government auspices. It has been intimated 

 that this or that scientific bureau of the gov- 

 ernment must do " useful " work if it is to 

 justify its existence and its expenditure of 

 public, funds. The statement is usually made 

 with an air of finality, as if a troublesome 

 question had been once for all disposed of 

 and the path of the future made plain. As a 

 matter of fact, however, when it is said that 

 science must be useful in order to receive 

 government support we have really made very 

 little advance. Probably the most idealistic 

 scientific man will admit that ultimate use- 

 fulness is the justification for scientific re- 

 search although that end may not enter into 

 his thoughts when he undertakes any partic- 

 ular investigation with the hope of increasing 

 human knowledge. Men will differ very 

 widely however as to what is meant by use- 

 fulness in science. It is well known to all 

 scientific men, although not yet as widely 

 recognized by others as it should be, that the 

 utility of research is not generally predict- 

 able. For example, the investigations on 

 electricity for hundreds of years preceding 

 the middle of the nineteenth century had, so 

 far as could be seen, no practical bearing. 

 The experiments of Volta, of Galvani, and 

 even those of otit own Franklin, outside of 

 his invention of the lightning rod, were not 

 conducted with any thought of utility and 

 were probably looked upon by the people of 

 the time as diversions of the learned, not 

 likely to have much effect upon human life 

 and progress. How erroneous such a view 

 was it is imnecessary to point out to a genera- 

 tion accustomed to daily use of the trolley car, 

 telegraph, telephone and electric lights. !N^ot 

 only is the utility of science not always pre- 

 dictable but it is of very different kinds. That 

 astronomy has certain practical applications in 

 navigation and g«odesy is well known; but 

 important as these applications are they seem 



insignificant in comparison with the debt 

 that we owe to this science for enlarging our 

 intellectual horizon. This, too, is usefulness 

 which I venture to think is of a truer and 

 higher sort than much that passes current for 

 utility. The classic researches of Pasteur on 

 the tartaric acids, on fermentation, on the 

 anthrax bacillus, on the silkworm disease and 

 on rabies, were so-called applied science of 

 the very highest type, indistinguishable in 

 the spirit and method of their pursuit from 

 investigations in pure science. They were 

 not merely the application of knowledge to 

 industry but were extraordinarily fruitful 

 scientific investigations undertaken to solve 

 particular industrial and humanitarian prob- 

 lems. They are especially interesting in the 

 present connection as probably the most con- 

 spicuous example in the history of research 

 of the merging of pure and applied science. 

 Pasteur was doubly fortunate in that he not 

 only enormously enlarged human knowledge 

 but was able to see, at least in part, the prac- 

 tical application of his discoveries to the 

 benefit of humanity. The value of his re- 

 sults measurable in dollars is enormous, yet 

 this is not their only value. Professor Arthur 

 Schuster, in a recent address, remarks: 



The researches of Pasteur, Liater and their fol- 

 lowers, are triimiplis of science applied directly to 

 the benefit of mankind; but I fancy that their hold 

 on our imagination is mainly due to the new vista 

 opened out on the nature of disease, the marvelous 

 workings of the lower forms of life, and the al- 

 most human attributes of blood corpuscles, which 

 have been disclosed. 



The efEeet on a community is only the snmma- 

 tion of the effect on individuals, and if we judge 

 by individuals there can be little doubt that, ex- 

 cept under the stress of abmormal circumstances, 

 pure knowledge has as great a hold upon the public 

 mind as the story of its applications. 



Quite independently of any recognized use- 

 fulness, investigations that yield results that 

 are of interest to the public are willingly sup- 

 ported by the people and this fact is signifi- 

 cant in connection with what I shall have to 

 say later on the function of education. As 

 illustrations of this truth may be cited our 

 government Bureau of Ethnology and our 



