38 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 915 



plication of scientific discoveries in the 

 realm of physiology and biology. Bac- 

 teriology alone, which has had practically 

 its entire development within the quarter 

 centiiry, has changed the whole basis of 

 treatment in hosts of diseases and given an 

 entirely new foundation for preventive 

 medicine and sanitation. Still more re- 

 cently protozoology has entered the field 

 with a present record of many most serious 

 diseases determined as of protozoan basis, 

 and a promise of solution for many more 

 that have baffled medical science for cen- 

 turies. 



In the field of industry the changes of 

 the quarter century have been so enormous 

 as to defy description, at least by one who 

 has not followed the growth in detail. A 

 complete metamorphosis, as a biologist 

 might say, has occurred in many trades 

 and manufacturing industries and prac- 

 tically all based on scientific discoveries 

 and applications. Chemistry, physics, me- 

 chanics, biology, geology and other 

 branches of science have contributed their 

 share in this evolution. 



In agriculture we see this process at 

 present in one of its most active periods 

 and we can only predict from rapidity of 

 change what the future may bring. 

 Enough, perhaps, to say that production is 

 to be still further accelerated, farm condi- 

 tions, both for greater production and bet- 

 ter living, immeasurably improved and the 

 basis of support for a denser population 

 enlarged. Here, as in medicine, botany, 

 zoology and bacteriology are playing a 

 most important part. 



Linked to these phases of human activity 

 in most important manner is the problem 

 of transportation, an activity perhaps 

 more typical of the modern spirit than any 

 other. Locomotion by water, by land and 

 now by air, has been accelerated in a mar- 

 velous degree in the quarter century just 



passed. Twenty years ago I stood in a 

 street in this city of Des Moines and 

 watched a street parade, the most interest- 

 ing feature of which, to me at least, was a 

 horseless carriage driven by electricity, one 

 of the very few up to that time that had 

 actually been made to work. And for a 

 number of years after that the automobile 

 was in a strictly experimental stage. Now, 

 well it is entirely unnecessary to mention 

 motor boats or motor vehicles or even fiy- 

 ing machines as of doubtful accomplish- 

 ment. I doubt, however, if we fully real- 

 ize the immense changes produced in our 

 social status by the progress in rapid 

 transit on water or on land for the last few 

 years. As for the place of aerial naviga- 

 tion, that is yet to appear, but I have no 

 doubt as to its practical application in hu- 

 man affairs. It can not displace present 

 modes of travel or transportation, but will, 

 I have no doubt, create a class of service 

 for itself and doubtless one which will 

 have a profound influence on human wel- 

 fare. 



Closely linked again is the question of 

 rapid communication. Foreshadowed by 

 the telegraph, electrical science has in re- 

 cent years given us the telephone and the 

 wireless as accomplished facts in communi- 

 cation, regardless of time and space. 

 Thirty years ago, when the first commer- 

 cial lines of telephone were being con- 

 nected up, it was still looked upon largely 

 as a toy. Very few, even of its most ar- 

 dent promoters probably, had any concep- 

 tion of how it would alter the conditions of 

 human life, or revolutionize methods of 

 commerce and the relation of social cen- 

 ters, or of city to country. So swiftly and 

 quietly has this come that I doubt if we 

 fully realize the significance of it all. 

 While there still remains to those of us 

 who saw it come some remnant of wonder 

 at the phenomenon, the coming generation 



