732 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1063 



a capital sum of two thousand billion dollars." 

 A great part of this advance is due to a few 

 men, probably one half of it to, at most, 10,- 

 000 men. The value of each of these men to 

 the world has been a hundred million dollars; 

 they have been men not abler nor more pro- 

 ductive on the average than the upper five 

 hundred of our leading American men of 

 science. 



So far from being exaggerated this valua- 

 tion of science and of scientific men neglects 

 the decrease of disease and suffering, the in- 

 creased length of life and the vast number of 

 human beings for whom life has been made 

 possible. It can not take account of the moral, 

 intellectual, political and social changes 

 wrought by science and its applications. 

 Science has made democracy possible and has 

 given us as much of it as we have. The appli- 

 cations of science have abolished the necessity 

 of continuous manual labor from childhood to 

 old age, they have made feasible universal edu- 

 cation, equality of opportunity and equality 

 of privilege, they have banished legal slavery, 

 they have partly done away with the labor of 

 children and the subjection of women. Sci- 

 ence has given us freedom in the moral as well 

 as in the material world, freedom from ignor- 

 ance, superstition and unreason, the means of 

 learning the truth and the right to tell it. 



The service of science for the world is by 

 no means complete. The productivity of labor 

 can be again doubled by further scientific dis- 

 covery; it can be more than doubled by the 

 selection of the right men for the work they 

 do and by correct methods of work. The value 

 of wealth can be doubled by its proper distri- 

 bution and use. Warfare, preventable disease 

 and vice, waste and display, the futile compli- 

 cations of civilization, consume one half of 

 all the wealth that is produced. We do not 

 know the conditions of happiness and real wel- 



2 This enormous figure is based on the assump- 

 tion that there are 25,000,000 people in the United 

 States, whose productive work is worth on the aver- 

 age $1,000 a year and six times as many in the 

 civilized world who earn on the average half so 

 much, with enough left over to balance the earn- 

 ings of 100 years ago. 



fare or how they are to be attained. Science 

 should continue to press to the limit economy 

 of production and the conservation of health 

 and life; at the same time it should increas- 

 ingly direct its methods to the control of hu- 

 man conduct. 



Suddenly, out of its stale and drowsy lair, the lair 



of slaves. 

 Like lightning it leapt forth half startled at itself, 

 Its feet upon the ashes and the rags, its hands tight 



to the throats of kings. 

 On us here in America there has been thrust 

 the duty and the privilege to carry forward 

 the flickering torch of science and of civiliza- 

 tion. Our society of the Sigma Xi and each 

 of us have indeed great opportunity and great 

 responsibility. 



J. McKeen Cattell 



SADIUM FEBTILIZER IN FIELD TESTS 



With the discovery of radio-activity by Bec- 

 querel, in 1896, and of radium itself by M. 

 and Mme. Curie, in 1898, science revealed a 

 property of matter and a source of energy 

 hitherto unknown ; and the facts already estab- 

 lished, the predictions or claims made, and the 

 general interest in the subject seemed to 

 justify an investigation under field conditions 

 of the possible value of radium as a fertilizer, 

 or of radio-activity as a crop stimulant. 



While possessing most of the properties of an 

 element, reacting chemically very similarly to 

 the element barium, radium also has the re- 

 markable property of continuous disintegra- 

 tion, by continuous emanation of particles, 

 which is accompanied by radiation of energy, 

 called radio-activity. 



Investigations show that one gram of radium 

 emits enough heat to raise 118 grams of water 

 one degree centigrade in one hour, or 118 

 calories, and indicate about enough total 

 energy to decompose one gram of water into 

 hydrogen and oxygen every twenty-four hours, 

 equivalent to more than 3,800 calories, or nearly 

 160 calories per hour. This radiation con- 

 tinues hour after hour with gradual reduction 

 to i the quantity in about 1,760 years, to i in 



