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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1166 



never made any serious effort to solve. 

 Evidently the man had no powers of ima- 

 gination, and no comprehension of the im- 

 portance or bearing of the problems under 

 his feet, and he seemed to stare and blink 

 at them like a dazed owl. What little he 

 did lacked purpose enough to keep him 

 awake and at work, while ordinary profes- 

 sional courtesy prevented others from 

 going into the field that accident had placed 

 in his incompetent hands. And what has 

 that to do with us ? 



One's life as a scientific man is like his 

 life as an individual in this, that he has 

 the hope of rounding it out satisfactorily 

 and of leaving his work well and conscien- 

 tiously done. "We can not conceive, there- 

 fore, of anything more humiliating to us in 

 our professional capacities than a failure to 

 attack the problems that nature or oppor- 

 tunity has placed under our hands. 



I can imagine some one objecting to local 

 problems as not being big enough for full- 

 grown men. It is true that the laws of sci- 

 ence are world-wide, they are even as wide 

 as the universe itself. None the less some 

 of these problems have been solved right 

 here on this humble little earth of ours, 

 and, if we are big enough, we may yet solve 

 more of them right here in the state of 

 California. 



Some problems are necessarily localized; 

 and nowadays when one wants to study a 

 thing he goes where the thing is. And that 

 is just another way of saying that labo- 

 ratory work is best done in a laboratory, 

 while field work is best done in the field 

 where one can see his materials in abun- 

 dance. 



"What have we here that they have not 

 everywhere else in the world? "What local 

 problems have we that are well worthy of 

 our attention and of our best efforts ? I can 

 only mention two or three of them, and 

 these must be accepted simply as examples. 



Chemistry. — For the chemists we have 

 one of the great oil, gas and asphaltum 

 regions of the world with all of the complex 

 problems connected with the origin of 

 petroleum and with the vast number of 

 products derived and derivable from it. 



"We have here too a great number of lakes 

 of concentrated waters: soda lakes, borax 

 lakes, and salt lakes, with an infinite num- 

 ber of interesting problems that call for 

 solution, and oifer substantial rewards for it. 



The availability of a cheap and abun- 

 dant supply of electricity affords unusual 

 opportunities for studying and investi- 

 gating electro-chemical subjects. 



In the presence of these subjects and 

 opportunities the chemists seem to stand 

 on the shores of a vast and uncharted ocean 

 that they hardly dare embark upon. 



Tropical Diseases. — The territory allotted 

 to the Pacific Division of the American 

 Association includes large areas in the 

 tropics — Mexico and the Sandwich Islands, 

 and the Philippine Islands. These facts, 

 and the opening of the Panama Canal and 

 the growth of trade, and the development 

 of commercial intercourse between our 

 western ports and tropical countries, and 

 especially between us and Asiatic countries, 

 ought to impress us with the importance of 

 our study of tropical diseases. Soon or late 

 we shall have to deal with such diseases, 

 and unless we undertake the work promptly 

 and with thoroughness we shall pay dearly 

 for it later on. If we are not willing to do 

 this from our interest in science, we shall 

 have to do it as a matter of self -protection. 

 The port of San Francisco is close to every 

 town on this coast, and it is at San Fran- 

 cisco that tropical diseases are most likely 

 to land. 



Geology. — As I have said, these cases are 

 cited merely as examples, for I find that 

 there is hardly a branch of science that 

 has not here, within our province, an em- 



