648 



SCIENCE. 



[N.S. Vol. XIX. No. 



ment which wer.e never so rapid as now, and 

 which seem to be subject to a law of accel- 

 eration similiar to that of gravitation, are 

 due,' we are all of us ready to acknowledge, 

 more than to any other influence, to the 

 constantly increasing numbers who obtain 

 the advantage of superior, of college and 

 of university educations. Statistics taken 

 from biographical dictionaries for a defi- 

 nite period show that one out of every 

 250 of those with college training do some- 

 thing worth recording in such a book, Avhile 

 of those without this training the propor- 

 tion is about one in 10,000. 



We are too apt to fix our attention ex- 

 clusively upon the exceptions, upon those 

 brilliant individuals who make their marks 

 in the world, and to withhold deserved 

 appreciation from that much larger num- 

 ber of what we may call the average, the 

 mediocre. Yet these latter do the most of 

 the world's work, and in the aggregate 

 their output is in excess of that of the ex- 

 ceptional individuals. Upon their ability 

 to appreciate and to utilize the discoveries 

 and the methods, found and described by 

 the leaders, depends our advance as a race. 

 The most useful and effective of machines 

 is practically useless and ineffective, if 

 only one man in the world has the knowl- 

 edge and ability to run it. In this scien- 

 tific and mechanical age of ours, where 

 specialization has been carried so far in 

 every branch of industry and every occu- 

 pation in life, there is an ever-increasing 

 necessity for more and better preliminary 

 training, before a man is competent to con- 

 trol and govern the more and more compli- 

 cated conditions. Upon our laboratories 

 devolves the task of disseminating a gen- 

 eral knowledge, broad enough and widely 

 enough distributed, to ensure the recogni- 

 tion and immediate utilization of the great 

 improvements made possible by scientific 

 methods, and also of turning out ever 

 larger numbers of men, thoroughly equip- 



ped to cope with the industrial processes 

 as they stand to-day, and with the intel- 

 ligence to adopt improvements as they 

 appear. 



Our manufacturers are rapidly waking 

 to the fact that it is sound business sense, 

 and brings big returns, to fit up private 

 laboratories of their own and employ well- 

 trained scientists to study and to improve 

 their processes. It is strange that, leaders 

 as we are in so many particulars, we should 

 be so far behind the Germans in this re- 

 spect. They learned this lesson years ago, 

 and to it owe their leadership of the world 

 in nearly all branches of chemistry. A 

 forcible comparison between German and 

 British chemical industries is drawn by 

 Professor Dewar in his address to which I 

 have already had occasion to refer. Tou 

 are doubtless familiar with it, but a few 

 sample statistics wiU certainly bear repeti- 

 tion. From details regarding 633 German 

 and 500 British works-chemists, he finds 

 that 69 per cent, of the Germans hold the 

 degree of doctor of philosophy, and 84 per 

 cent, have received thorough systematic 

 training, while 31 per cent, is the outside 

 figure for the thoroughly trained among 

 the British works-chemists. He next finds 

 that the German chemical industries do a 

 business of over $250,000,000 yearly, and 

 that they are largely based on English dis- 

 coveries which were not appreciated nor 

 developed, in spite of the abundance and 

 cheapness of raw material close at hand. 

 We sometimes forget, in the multiplicity 

 of his accomplishments, that Faraday dis- 

 covered benzene. He gives figures to show 

 the progress of one of the German firms, 

 that of Friedrich Bayer & Co., which em- 

 ployed one hundred and nineteen workmen 

 in 1875. He says: "The number has more 

 than doubled itself every five years, and in 

 May, 1902, the firm employed five thousand 

 worlvcnen, one hundred and sixty chemists, 

 two hundred and sixty engineers and 



