506 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. II., No. 



other directions. It seems in the highest degree 

 probable that the terrible scourge known as tubercu- 

 lar consumption, or phthisis, is due to a parasitic bac- 

 terium (Bacillus) discovered two years since by Koch 

 of Berlin as the immediate result of investigations 

 which he was commissioned to carry on at the public 

 expense, in the specially erected laboratory of public 

 health, by the German imperial government. The 

 diseases known as erysipelas and glanders (or farcy) 

 have similarly, within the past few months in Ger- 

 man state-supported laboratories, been shown to be 

 due to the attacks of special kinds of bacteria. At 

 present this knowledge has not led to a successful 

 method of combating those diseases, but we can 

 hardly doubt that it will ultimately do so. We are 

 warranted in this belief by the fact that the disease 

 known as 'splenic fever' in cattle, and 'malignant 

 pustule,' or anthrax, in man, has likewise been shown 

 to be due to the action of a special kind of bacterium, 

 and that this knowledge has, in the hands of MM. 

 Toussaint and Pasteur, led to a treatment, in relation 

 to this disease, similar to that of vaccination in rela- 

 tion to small-pox. By cultivation a modified growth 

 of the anthrax parasite is obtained, which is then 

 used in order to inoculate cattle and sheep with a 

 mild form of the disease, such inoculation having the 

 result of rendering the cattle and sheep free from 

 the attacks of the severe form of disease, just as vac- 

 cination or Innoculation with cow-pox protects man 

 from the attack of the deadly small-pox. One other 

 case I may call to mind, in which knowledge of the 

 presence of bacteria as the cause of disease has led 

 to successful curative treatment. A not uncommon 

 affliction is inflammation of the bladder, accompanied 

 by ammoniacal decomposition of the urine. Micro- 

 scopical investigation has shown that this ammonia- 

 cal decomposition is entirely due to the activity of a 

 bacterium. Fortunately, this bacterium is at once 

 killed by weak solutions of quinine, which can be 

 injected into the bladder without causing any injury 

 or irritation. This example appears to have great 

 Importance; because it is the fact that many kinds of 

 bacteria are not killed by solutions of quinine, but 

 require other and much more irritant poisons to de- 

 stroy their life, which could not be injected into the 

 bladder without causing disastrous effects. Since 

 some bacteria are killed by one poison, and some by 

 another, it becomes a matter of the keenest interest 

 to find out all such poisons ; and possibly among them 

 may be some which can be applied so as to kill the 

 bacteria which produce fihthisis, erysipelas, glanders, 

 anthrax, and other scourges of humanity, whilst not 

 acting injuriously upon the body of the victim in 

 which these infinitesimal parasites are doing their 

 deadly work. In such ways as this, biology has turned 

 the toy ' magnifying-glass ' of the last century into a 

 saver of life and health. 



No less has the same agency revoltitionized the 

 thoughts of men in every branch of philosophy and 

 speculation. The knowledge of the growth of the 

 chick from the egg, and of other organisms from 

 similarly constituted beginnings, has been slowly and 

 continuously gained by prodigious labor, extending 



over generation after generation of students who 

 have occupied the laboratories, and lived on the sti- 

 pends, provided by the governments of European 

 states, — not English, but chiefly German. It is this 

 history of the development of the individual animal 

 and plant from a simple homogeneous beginning to a 

 complex heterogeneous adult, which has furnished 

 the starting-point for the wide-reaching doctrine of 

 evolution. It is this knowledge, coupled with the 

 knowledge of the myriad details of structure of all 

 kinds of animals and plants, which the faithful occu- 

 pants of laboratories, and the guardians of biological 

 collections, have, in the past hundred years, labori- 

 ously searched out, and recorded. It is this which 

 enabled Darwiu to propound, to test, and to firmly 

 establish his theory of the origin of species by natu- 

 ral selection, and finally to bring the origin, develop- 

 ment, and progress of man also into the area of 

 physical science. I have said enough, in referring 

 only to two very diverse examples of the far-reaching 

 consequences flowing from the discoveries of single- 

 minded investigators in biological science, to remind 

 my hearers that in the domain of biology, as in other 

 sciences, the results attained by those who have 

 labored simply to extend our knowledge of the struc- 

 ture and properties of living things, in the faith that 

 every increase of knowledge will ultimately bring its 

 blessing to humanity, have, in fact, led with astonish- 

 ing rapidity to conclusions affecting most profoundly 

 both the bodily and the mental welfare of the comr 

 munity. 



We who know the beneficent results which must 

 flow more and more from the labors of those who 

 are able to create new knowledge of living things, 

 or, in other words, are able to aid in the growth of 

 biological science, must feel something more than 

 regret, — even indignation, — that England should do 

 so small a proportion of the laborious investigation 

 which is necessary, and is being carried on for our 

 profit by other nationalities. It must not be sup- 

 posed, because we have had our Harvey and our 

 Darwin, our Hunter and our Lister, that therefore 

 we have done, and are doing, all that is needful in 

 the increase of biological science. The position of 

 this country in relation to the progress of science is 

 not to be decided by the citation of great names. 



We require to look more fully into the matter than 

 this. The question is, not whether England has pro- 

 duced some great discoverers, or as many as any other 

 nationality, but whether we might not, with advan- 

 tage to our own community and that of the civilized 

 world generally, do far more in the field of scientific 

 investigation than we do. 



It may be laid down as a general proposition, to 

 which I know of no important exception, that scien- 

 tific discovery has only been made by one of two 

 classes of men; namely, (1) those whose time could 

 be devoted to it in virtue of their possessing inherited 

 fortunes; (2) those whose time could be devoted to 

 it in virtue of their possessing a stipend or endow- 

 ment especially assigned to them for that purpose. 



Now, it is a very remarkable fact that in England, 

 far more than in any other country, the possessors of 



