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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1059 



the more fundamental truths can be 

 brought to light. When, therefore, we say 

 that we wish to encourage investigation, we 

 really mean that we wish to encourage 

 those who have the right spirit of investiga- 

 tion. Progress is due mainly to such men ; 

 and it is important in the interests of this 

 progress that the universities, which de- 

 vote so large a part of their resources to 

 the work of investigation, should clearly 

 recognize that the personal factor is still — 

 as it was in Faraday's day — the all-essen- 

 tial. Knowledge, insight, and power of 

 accomplishment are not in laboratories, 

 libraries and organized institutions merely, 

 but chiefly in those who put such means to 

 their right uses. 



It is needless, before an audience of this 

 kind, to justify scientific investigation or 

 to attempt to set forth something of what it 

 has accomplished. I may, however, point 

 out — since this has a bearing on much of 

 what I wish to say later — one consideration 

 which the world at large is prone to forget 

 unless frequently reminded, namely, that 

 it is the fundamental investigations which 

 are chiefly important for science, and lay 

 the foundations for those later applications 

 affecting mankind generally. Thus in this 

 sense we owe wireless telegraphy to Mas- 

 well and Hertz rather than to Marconi, our 

 freedom from many forms of disease to Pas- 

 teur, our mastery of the air to Langley and 

 the others who studied the lifting power 

 of moving planes; and many other similar 

 examples could be given. In general we 

 may say that if an adequate body of theo- 

 retical knowledge has once been gained, it 

 is a relatively easy matter to make the de- 

 sired practical applications. It is when 

 there is no guiding theory and we have 

 to work empirically that problems are diffi- 

 cult or impossible of solution. But if we 

 know beforehand of any task that nothing 

 but hard work and persistence is necessary 



for its accomplishment, we may say that 

 there is no serious difficulty, for these 

 qualities can be commanded at will in any 

 civilized society. When, however, we lack 

 the necessary knowledge of fundamentals, 

 little or nothing can be done. I may here 

 furnish an illustration from biological sci- 

 ence. Until the relation of microorganisms 

 to disease was discovered by Pasteur, phy- 

 sicians were almost helpless in many de- 

 partments of medicine; but once this rela- 

 tion was established, means for indefinite 

 advance were at once furnished; then, to 

 use Ehrlieh 's phrase, ' ' diligent empiricism ' ' 

 was all that was needed to master many 

 problems of pathology ; and, these once mas- 

 tered, effective methods of diagnosis and 

 treatment were forthcoming sooner or later. 

 The relation of Faraday to electrical science 

 is similar ; and in the same sense engineer- 

 ing, scientific agriculture and mining, many 

 valuable manufacturing industries, in short, 

 all that is most characteristic in the mate- 

 rial foundation of our civilization, could 

 never have come into ezistence without the 

 previous development of the pure sciences 

 of physics, geology, chemistry and mathe- 

 matics. Other and less tangible results are 

 of equal importance, but it would lead too 

 far to speak of these. I wish simply to 

 make it clear that the fundamental knowl- 

 edge must first be gained ; and it is the task 

 of the investigator to supply this knowl- 

 edge. This he can do only by prolonged 

 study, observation and experiment, directed 

 toward the simple purpose of obtaining as 

 full and clear insight as possible. In the 

 pursuit of this aim problems inevitably arise 

 that are both difficult and remote from pop- 

 ular interests; yet such problems must be 

 solved, and it is largely for the purpose of 

 providing opportunity and facilities for 

 their solution that universities exist. This 

 is why the greater part of research in pure 

 science is necessarily conducted in the uni- 



