March 11, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



333 



all is changed ; workers are multiplied in 

 every land; study in every direction is 

 specialized; men have ceased the mere 

 gathering of facts and have turned to the 

 determination of relations. Long years of 

 preparation are needed to fit one to begin 

 investigation ; familiarity with several lan- 

 guages is demanded ; great libraries are 

 necessary for constant reference, and costly 

 apparatus is essential even for preliminary 

 examination. Where tens of dollars once 

 supplied the equipment in any branch of 

 science, hundreds, yes thousands, of dollars 

 are required now. 



Failure to appreciate the changed condi- 

 tions induces neglect to render proper as- 

 sistance. As matters now stand, even the 

 wealthiest of our educational institutions 

 cannot be expected to carry the whole bur- 

 den, for endowments are insufiicient to meet 

 the too rapidly increasing demand for wider 

 range of instruction. It is unjust to expect 

 that men, weighted more and more by the 

 duties of science teaching, involving, too 

 often, much physical labor from which 

 teachers of other subjects are happily free, 

 should conduct investigations at their own 

 expense and in hours devoted by others to 

 relaxation. Even were the pecuniary cost 

 comparatively small, to impose that would 

 be unjust, for, with few exceptions, the re- 

 sults are given to the world without com- 

 pensation. Scientific men are accustomed 

 to regard patents much as regular physi- 

 cians regard advertising. 



America owes much to closet students as 

 well as to educated inventors who have 

 been trained in scientific modes of thought. 

 The extraordinary development of our ma- 

 terial resources — our manufacturing, min- 

 ing and transporting interests — shows that 

 the strengthening of our educational insti- 

 tutions on the scientific side brings actual 

 profit to the community. But most of this 

 strengthening is due primarily to unremu- 

 neratedtoil of men dependent on the meagre 



salary of college instructors or government 

 ofi&cials in subordinate positions. Their 

 aptitude to fit others for usefulness, coming 

 only from long training, was acquired in 

 hours stolen from sleep or from time needed 

 for recuperation. But the labors of such 

 men have been so fruitful in results that we 

 can no longer depend on the surplus energy 

 of scientific men, unless we consent to re- 

 main stationary. If the rising generation 

 is to make the most of our country's oppor- 

 tunities it must be educated by men who 

 are not compelled to acquire aptness at the 

 cost of vitality. The proper relation of 

 teaching labor to investigation labor should 

 be recognized, and investigation, rather than 

 social, religious or political activity, should 

 be a part of the duty assigned to college 

 instructors. 



Our universities and scientific societies 

 ought to have endowments specifically for 

 aid in research. The fruits of investiga- 

 tions due to Smithson's bequest have multi- 

 plied his estate hundreds of times over to 

 the world's advantage. He said well that 

 his name would be remembered long after 

 the names and memory of the Percy and 

 Northumberland families had passed away. 

 Hodgson's bequest to the Smithsonian is 

 still too recent to have borne much fruit, 

 but men already wonder at the fruitfulness 

 of a field supposed to be well explored. 

 Nobel knew how to apply the results of 

 science ; utilizing the chemist's results, he 

 applied nitro-glycerine to industrial uses ; 

 similarly he developed the petroleum in- 

 dustry of Russia and, like that of our 

 American petroleum manufacturers, his in- 

 fluence was felt in many other industries 

 of his own land and of the Continent. At 

 his death he bequeathed millions of dollars 

 to the Swedish Academy of Sciences that 

 the income might be expended in encourag- 

 ing pure research. Smithson, Hodgson and 

 Nobel have marked out a path which should 

 be crowded with Americans. 



