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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1169 



application of them ; and, whether we recog- 

 nize it or not, the world is waiting on the 

 research worker. 



If time were available it would be easy 

 to show that practically all the great com- 

 mercial successes rest upon principles for- 

 mulated by research workers who, in many 

 cases, labored solely for the love of truth, 

 without any expectation that their work 

 would immediately benefit mankind. But 

 no one can tell at what instant some such 

 observation may become of immense impor- 

 tance. I beg your indulgence to call atten- 

 tion to a few cases. "Was Rontgen thinking 

 of the extraction of bullets, the reduction 

 of dislocated limbs or the setting of broken 

 bones when he discovered the X-rays ? By 

 no means. Or Helmholtz, did he have in 

 mind the prevention and cure of eye dis- 

 eases when he worked out the principle of 

 the ophthalmoscope? Not at all. Was 

 Cavendish, to whom I have already re- 

 ferred, thinking of providing food and war 

 munitions for the future when, 132 years 

 ago, he read before the Royal Society his 

 paper on the fixation of nitrogen ? I think 

 not. No one will doubt the great practical 

 value to the human race of Pasteur's re- 

 searches, but it is proper to point out here 

 that he began by the study of the asym- 

 metry of crystals, and that he became a 

 bacteriologist through his attempts to dis- 

 prove the doctrine of spontaneous genera- 

 tion. Scores of cases could be cited to il- 

 lustrate the point, but the lesson is, learn 

 the facts, and the applications will be forth- 

 coming. 



The expenditure of public money for the 

 erection of the splendid building we are as- 

 sembled to dedicate is an expression of con- 

 tinued confidence in the leaders in charge 

 of our educational interests, and a pledge 

 that the necessary equipment for the future 

 shall be provided. 



It is a pleasure to me to come here to-day 

 and have a part in the dedication, not 



merely because of my interest in the edu- 

 cational welfare of our state, as a whole, 

 but more particularly because of the oppor- 

 tunity it gives to emphasize the claim of 

 science in general and chemistry particu- 

 larly in connection with the problems now 

 confronting the world. Interest in the 

 study of chemistry has been steadily in- 

 creasing for many years, but its importance 

 has been emphasized by the war in a way 

 that could not have been done otherwise. 

 The University of Oklahoma is to be most 

 heartily congratulated on having completed 

 at this time a laboratory so carefully 

 planned and so well equipped, as well as 

 upon the work of its department of chemis- 

 try in the past. "With the extra space and 

 facilities oifered by the new building, both 

 the university and the state may confidently 

 look forward to greater things in the future. 

 L. Chas. Raiford 

 Oklahoma Agricultural and 

 Mechanical College 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 

 ENGLISH VITAL STATISTICS 



The anmial report of the registrar-general 

 on births, deaths and marriages in England 

 and Wales for 1915, as summarized in the 

 London Times, is remarkable for the number 

 of previous " records " which are broken. 

 Thus the marriage rate was the highest on 

 record; the birth rate the lowest on record; 

 the death rate from typhoid fever was the 

 lowest on record ; that from influenza the high- 

 est since 1900; and that from measles the 

 highest since 1896. Again, the age rates of 

 bachelors marrying spinsters and spinsters 

 marrying bachelors were both the highest on 

 record. Finally, the increase of boy babies 

 over girl babies from July, 1915, to June, 1916, 

 was the highest on record for 50 years. The 

 estimated infant mortality rate for 1916 is 

 the lowest on record. 



The marriage rate was 19.5 per 1,000, being 

 3.6 above the rate in 1914. The provisional 

 figures for 1916, however, indicate that what 

 has been described as the " boom " in marri- 



