Mat 12, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



499 



frequently subjected may result in improved 

 health and increased longevity, and so be a 

 highly practical matter. An engineer or a 

 physician seldom reaches the economic heights 

 of his profession without the engaging or com- 

 pelling mental exterior which only a general 

 education can develop to the full. One need 

 not admit that only those things are practical 

 which look practical to the world at large. One 

 need not even admit that a thing is useless even 

 if it could be known — as it can not — that no 

 better food supply, or no decrease of hardship 

 would ever come out of it. The conception of 

 the practical which makes it include general 

 knowledge is capable of strong support, Init I 

 shall not avail myself of it. I propose to ac- 

 cept, for the purpose of this address, the 

 definition of the practical as given by the man 

 in the street. 



Nor have I any intention of deciding 

 whether a practical education is the best one. 

 So far as I can see, the whole science of 

 astronomy might be forgotten, and my present 

 daily life would go on about as before. I 

 would enjoy the sunlight and profit by its 

 energy as I do now. The seasons would follow 

 one another in the same order if we were 

 ignorant of the causes of their succession. The 

 eugenic effects of moonlit and starlit nights 

 would be as great as at present. Should the 

 navigator who brings me comforts from dis- 

 tant parts of the globe get into trouble, that 

 difficulty could soon be obviated. But one ele- 

 ment of vastness in the thoughts of men would 

 be gone forever, and it is not unlikely that 

 experiences of other kinds would shrink in 

 proportion. What physical advantage, gained 

 by devoting to some applied science the energy 

 now devoted to the planets, could compensate 

 for such a loss? 



It is not my purpose, however, to address 

 myself to idealists, though no doubt that is the 

 character of this audience. Arguments on a 

 lower level are now much more urgent. We are 

 all familiar with the investigations which have 

 been undertaken for the simple purpose of dis- 

 covering scientific truth, but which afterwards 

 have led to results of the highest practical im- 

 portance. Biologists know by heart the story 

 of Professor Harrison who by painstaking ex- 



periments devised a means of keeping alive a 

 small group of cells after removal from the 

 body of the animal to which they belonged, and 

 of watching them grow under the microscope. 

 He was seeking to demonstrate a principle of 

 morphology and development, and he suc- 

 ceeded to the satisfaction of himself and his co- 

 workers. Neither he nor they considered the 

 possibility that his method of tissue culture 

 would ever be used to the obvious advantage of 

 man. But this method was later used by a 

 great surgeon, who kept tissues alive for years 

 and who pointed out the possibilities which the 

 method contained of disclosing the causes of 

 death and thereby of prolonging human life. 

 Thus the experiments first used to settle a dis- 

 puted question of biology promise, in the opin- 

 ion of many, to bring us nearer to that oldest 

 of human goals, the fountain of eternal youth. 

 The possibility of practical advantage to be 

 derived from these culture methods weighed 

 heavily in the allocation of the Nobel prize in 

 medicine which was bestowed upon the sur- 

 geon. There should be no detraction from the 

 credit due to one who has the vision to discover 

 new uses for old methods, but rather increase 

 of credit to the original discoverer. Professor 

 Harrison would be the last to ask that the 

 Nobel prize be transferred to him. All he 

 ^rould ask is that research in general be sup- 

 ported in a broad way which will occasionally 

 make possible further practical applications. 



Perhaps less generally known is the recent 

 improvement of submarine cables, whereby 

 their capacity is increased five-fold. Experi- 

 ments extending over a long period of time had 

 as their aim improved insulation which would 

 prevent or reduce leakage. These efforts suc- 

 ceeded to a marked degree only after another 

 worker, with the mere advance of scientific 

 knowledge in mind, invented a new alloy hav- 

 ing the desired insulating properties. The field 

 of physics is full of such examples. The work 

 of Maxwell on the electromagnetic wave theory 

 led to wireless telegraphy; Roentgen's rays 

 were discovered in the course of a piece of 

 pure research; and, indeed, all of the early 

 work on electricity was done in a spirit of 

 investigation having no other object than to 

 discover the truth. 



