JULY 7, 1899. ] 
of the student easier by concentrating his 
thoughts upon one subject instead of dissi- 
pating his attention among many subjects. 
If a man wishes to accomplish intellectual 
labor he seeks instinctively to apply him- 
self wholly to that one task until it is com- 
pleted. The capacity for sustained effort is 
the power by which the man surpasses the 
‘child. The child needs constant change 
and variety, and the system, which we have 
had in our school, of running from one lec- 
ture to another and from one laboratory to 
another, appears to many of us more suit- 
able for school children than for young 
men studying medicine, and we expect, 
therefore, the new plan of studies to be jus- 
tified by its results. 
Here we must pause, although we have 
merely touched upon general principles 
and looked at a few details as illustrations. 
It seems to me that the whole problem of 
medical education is just now one of the 
most interesting and important ever pre- 
sented in the history of American universi- 
ties. If I have stimulated your interest in 
it I am rewarded. 
Before I close I will venture to address 
to those of you who are to-morrow to re- 
ceive your medical degrees a few words 
upon the deeper signification of your pro- 
fession. This is not the time to enter into 
a discussion of the assumed antagonism be- 
tween practical science and Christian faith. 
Each year brings the two into closer and 
more helpful relationship and increases 
their mutual understanding. The dignified 
agnosticism of Huxley and the lofty spirit- 
ualism of Brooks meet in the common con- 
viction that the growth and development of 
man to a higher and better physical and 
spiritual life is alone what makes existence 
worthy. 
We are living in an epoch of great scien- 
tific discovery and of consequent material 
progress, which among its many results in- 
cludes numerous new facilities for inter- 
SCIENCE. 11 
course between nations. In contemplating 
these facilities one recalls how great a part 
the free intercourse under the great Roman 
Empire played in the first spread of Christi- 
anity, so that one involuntarily asks: Is 
not science now aiding the same cause in a 
similar way? Science does more. By its 
steadfast pursuit of truth; by its broad- 
minded ability to acknowledge the truth 
whatever found ; by its freedom from nar- 
row dogmatism on the one hand, and from 
ignorant materialism on the other, science 
can do a noble work in the great battle be- 
tween good and evil in the world. 
The antagonism of science and religion is 
unreal. Our intellectual Quixotes take it 
for one of their windmills, but I very much 
doubt if it be more than the phantom of a 
windmill. When you, young men, begin 
your life’s campaign, fight real foes, be 
blind to threatening phantoms and deaf to 
their noisy shibboleths. Attack real diffi- 
culties. Remember always that as physi- 
cians you will have to help others, and that 
it will be peculiarly your obligation to up- 
hold the standard of faithful service and to 
defend what I may call the creed of science : 
that the advancement of knowledge is a 
duty because it serves mankind. Faithful 
scientific research is Christian service. 
CHARLES SEDGWICK Minor. 
LORD KELVIN’S ADDRESS ON THE AGE OF 
THE EARTH AS AN ABODE FITTED 
FOR LIFE, 
10 
A THIRD line of argument relative to the 
habitable era of the earth is drawn from 
the theoretical age of the sun. After stat- 
ing the probability that, if sunlight was 
ready, the earth was ready both for vege- 
table and animal life within a century, or at 
least a few centuries, after the consolidation 
of the earth’s surface, Lord Kelvin in- 
quires whether the sun was ready, and re- 
