652 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1409. 



every page drips with blood and filth, to the 

 contemplatiQii of the intimate structure of 

 God's universe, perfect, complete; equally ma- 

 jestic whether we view it as a whole or in its 

 minutest parts. It is indeed healthful for the 

 imagination and for the character to delve, now 

 and then into those unseen realms of nature 

 through which wanders in speculative mood the 

 spirit of modern science. 



All of these things: the keeping in touch 

 with life, the love of truth, the breadth of cul- 

 ture, the training of the imagination, the build- 

 ing of character are pedagogical considerations. 

 But they are so important that the favor- 

 able influence of the new laboratory upon them 

 would in itself make that great gift well worth 

 while. Its real purpose, however, is much more 

 momentous. 



The new laboratory will be a center of re- 

 search from the start. Of that we may be sure, 

 knowing who are to occupy it. By its very 

 completeness and adequacy, assured by years 

 of careful and intelligent planning, it will 

 challenge our chemists to redoubled activity. 

 Enthusiasm and the true spirit of investigation 

 are sure to prevail and notable results may be 

 counted upon. 



If the chemists and students of chemistry 

 who are to work in this building attain only an 

 average output as measured by the perform- 

 ance of university laboratories in the past, the 

 donor may count on returns from his invest- 

 ment such as no commercial enterprise has ever 

 paid. l>rearly every fundamental discovery has 

 originated in the universities and these discov- 

 eries have literally transformed the condi- 

 tions of life upon our planet. In this trans- 

 formation chemistry has had a great part. 



The cost in money of these first essential 

 steps towards progress has been but trifling. 



The price of a single battleship would 

 build twenty such great laboratories: that of 

 a modern battle fleet, destined to the scrap 

 heap within ten years, would amply endow 

 all the universities in the land. 



We can not remind ourselves too often of 

 all this because these basic things which must 

 precede all invention and industrial develop- 

 ment are not ushered into the world with 



acclamation. Yesterday, so to speak, a quiet, 

 shy little man in a university laboratory 

 studied the emission of electrons from a hot 

 body, described the phenomenon, wrote out 

 the equations and went his way. Tc-day, 

 as a consequence, you or I may speak to a 

 friend in San Francisco. To-morrow, per- 

 haps, we may be able to call up a man in any 

 part of the world and hear his living voice: 

 and very, very few will realize that Richard- 

 son made that miracle possible! 



This is but one instance, and not from the 

 domain of chemistry; were I a chemist and 

 did time permit I could doubtless cite a 

 hundred equally striking cases. 



It is obviously difficult to estimate just 

 what credit in the development of modern 

 civilization is to be assigned to the workers 

 in pure science but theirs is clearly an es- 

 sential part. But for the new knowledge 

 furnished by them modern civilization could 

 not have come into being. 



It may be thought that this is an evil day 

 in which to boast of the triumphs of our 

 civilization and that it were well if we could 

 return to the primitive conditions of ancient 

 Greece. I prefer, however, to regard the 

 terrible upheaval which the human race has 

 gone through as a violent attack of indiges- 

 tion, due to having taken too rapidly into 

 an unaccustomed system the rich new diet 

 proffered by science. Let us hope for the 

 ultimate recovery of the patient. 



Measured according to that ultimate stand- 

 ard, which does not fluctuate with the abun- 

 dance or scarcity of gold, i.e., the happiness 

 of the human race, I believe that the research 

 man, academic trifler, theorist, dreamer, dab- 

 bler in things trivial as he seems to the man 

 of affairs, will be found, like that other idle 

 ne'er-do-well, the artist, to be among the most 

 supremely productive of all the world's 

 workers. 



Speaking more intimately and personally, 

 we may expect that the renewed activity of 

 our chemists will react upon other depart- 

 ments. There will be joint projects for carry- 

 ing on extended researches made possible by 

 the new equipij snt. Thus we may soon hope 



