JANUARY 18, 1901. ] 
volume and the economic value is equally 
immeasurable. 
The distinctive feature of pure science is 
that it is not remunerative ; the practical 
rewards and returns are not the immediate 
objects in view. On the other hand, the 
work of Tyndall and Pasteur on fermenta- 
tion, pursued in the first instance for its 
own sake, has come to have an economic im- 
portance which is simply incalculable. 
American legislators have lent a willing 
ear to the advice of wise men. What we 
now enjoy we owe mainly to the counsels 
of Joseph Henry, Spencer F. Baird and G. 
Brown Goode. And IJ may call attention 
here to a thought which will be expanded 
presently, namely, that the secret of the suc- 
- cess of these men is to be found in their en- 
thusiasm, unselfishness and lofty scientific 
and personal character. When we consider 
the liberal appropriations made year after 
year for the United States Geological Sur- 
vey, the nobly equipped station at Wood’s 
Holl, the purely scientific work which is 
now being supported by many States and 
municipalities, there is abundant cause for 
congratulation; but lest we think of our- 
selves more highly than we ought to think, 
let us recall the contrast between our lav- 
ish liberality in certain appropriations and 
our lack of enlightenment in certain details 
of legislation. The student steps in line 
with the farmer to support the manufac- 
turer; he is encouraged to work, he is de- 
nied the tools. In regard to the importation 
of models, microscopes and other scientific 
instruments the tariff is a tax which bears 
most heavily upon research. By the tariff 
on lithographic plates Congress places a 
Chinese wall around publications of the first 
elass in all branches of natural history. 
America is a most unfavorable center of 
scientific publication so far as illustrations 
are concerned. Professor Sedgwick will 
perhaps have something to say upon these 
subjects. 
SOLENCE. 
83 
In these matters the American Society of 
Naturalists has expressed and will continue 
to express its urgent desire for reforms 
which will come about through public en- 
lightenment. 
The main object of this discussion, how- 
ever, is not merely areiteration of opinions 
which we all share, but a symposium in re- 
gard to some of the new directions in which 
we must apply our energies in order to se- 
cure ultimately the best results. 
In the last analysis we are advocating pub- 
lic taxation for the purposes of research. 
Having considered the parental relation of 
the State to the investigator—what are the 
filial relations of the investigator to the 
State. Granting that we have carried the 
outer works by demonstrating the wisdom 
of taxation, felicitating ourselves upon the 
fact that we have an enlightened public 
opinion behind us, there now remains the 
honorable obligation on our part of admin- 
istering these funds to the very best service 
of the State, and it is to this obligation I 
wish to especially direct your attention. 
There are two directions in which it is pos- 
sible that we have not as yet fulfilled our 
duty. 
I believe with Huxley that good science 
rests upon good morals and that good morals 
rest upon those principles which are best 
enunciated for plain people in the ten com- 
mandments. In the special field of work 
under discussion, it seems to me that in re- 
turn for the confidence of the State, special- 
ists are under the binding obligation to ad- 
minister public funds in the most scrupulous 
manner. I have in mind instances where 
the confidence of the State has been betrayed 
and where results damaging to the general 
cause of science have inevitably followed. 
Extravagance in the use of words and par- 
simony in the use of ideas; the lavish illus- 
tration of papers of little scientific and of 
less literary value ; the reckless expenditure 
of public funds for instruments, apparatus, 
