94 
rather describe it as an investment from 
which we still expect ultimately some re- 
turn. Science for its own sake is, after all, 
much like investment for its own sake; 
which has never been made, I fancy, even 
by the least practical of philanthropists. 
For illustration of public appreciation of 
scientific research as a necessity for practi- 
cal results, I may give an example. When 
in 1886 the newly organized State Board of 
Health of Massachusetts attacked scientifi- 
cally the problem of protection of the purity 
of inland waters, they reported to the 
people of that State that in order to do the 
work required by the Legislature it would 
be necessary to inaugurate and prosecute 
special and novel investigations, and for this 
and other purposes they asked for an appro- 
priation of $30,000. This sum was immedi- 
ately and cheerfully granted by the people 
for this purpose and has ever since been 
continued, annually, with the result that 
the Massachusetts experiments are referred 
to with commendation and advantage by 
lbacteriologists and engineers all over the 
world. Again, when it became clear that 
antitoxin for diphtheria had become a pub- 
lic necessity and its proper preparation a 
public duty, the same State Board of Health 
secured the services of one of the most dis- 
tinguished bacteriologists in the country, 
Professor Theobald Smith, and requested 
him not only to prepare antitoxin for the 
citizens of the State, but also to investigate 
the best methods of its preparation and pres- 
ervation, besides other cognate and novel 
but pressing problems in the field of pure 
science. Herealso the most thorough-going 
utilitarianism has proved to be scientific in- 
vestigation pushed to its utmost limits. 
’ Just here also the State, by and for the 
people, might well do much more than is 
yet done. As a nation we have hitherto 
played but an insignificant part in those 
Scientific inquiries which underlie the med- 
ical and sanitary arts. As a nation we 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Von. XIII. No. 316. 
cannot claim any of the credit for originat- 
ing the germ theory, or antiseptic surgery, 
or for laying the foundations of modern 
bacteriology, or for the discovery of anti- 
toxins or for elucidating the etiology of 
malaria, or for inventing the agglutination 
test for typhoid fever. We may be excused 
for our inertness previous to 1870, because 
until then the civil war or its sequelze 
claimed all our energies ; but from compar- 
ative inactivity in these matters since that 
time—excepting in one honorable division of 
the government service, the agricultural, — 
we have no good excuse to offer. If we 
are to hold our proper place among the na- 
tions in the prosecution of medical and 
sanitary inquiry the State or the States must 
lend their powerful aid, or else private en- 
terprise or the universities must do far more 
than they have yet done in this direction. 
In this connection, and especially on this 
platform, it will not be out of place for me 
to refer to the intense satisfaction which all 
lovers of good government and of the in- 
telligent and scientific administration of 
public affairs feel, that Dr. Gilman, the 
founder of purely university education in 
America, and the president of this Univer- 
sity, which has done so much for the cause 
of scientific investigation, has consented 
to accept the presidency of the National 
Civil Service Reform Association ; for I be- 
lieve that the introduction of more science 
and more scientific investigation into the 
civil service means the development and ex- 
tension of a rational system of government 
based upon merit, rather than partisanship 
or spoils. Here Harvey, the father of phys- 
iology, raised the true standard for us 
when he exclaimed: ‘I avow myself the 
partisan of truth alone.’ 
I cannot close without expressing my cor- 
dial assent to another point made by Pro- 
fessor Osborn and my belief in its extreme 
importance, viz., the reciprocal duty which 
the scientific worker owes to the State. 
