302 



SCIENCE. 



[N.S. VOL.XXII. No. 558. 



the existence of barriers to its development. 

 Great geniuses like Napoleon I., Shake- 

 speare and Gauss may, it is true, overcome 

 every obstacle; by virtue of their extraor- 

 dinary creative power they can do without 

 and still not be held back ; but easily access- 

 ible aids will undoubtedly awaken to able 

 performances men of capacity, who other- 

 wise would slumber. 



On comparing 'old Europe' with the 

 United States Waldeyer points out that the 

 'climatic' factor is in both instances all 

 that can be desired. Though in western 

 North America there are wide areas less 

 favorably situated, a vast proportion of 

 the country is as favorably located and 

 formed as any part of Europe. The type 

 of man is the same, indeed the whole of 

 Europe has sent, in large part, of its best 

 to contribute to the population of the 

 United States. The means of culture are 

 the same; in many respects America has 

 the advantage, especially as regards ease 

 of use and multiplicity of institutions. 

 There can be no doubt, then, that in Amer- 

 ica effective men and women must develop 

 in all spheres. Waldeyer calls the atten- 

 tion of his countrymen to the fact that it 

 is by no means, as some think, in the nat- 

 ural sciences and technical subjects that 

 Americans have already distinguished 

 themselves; he cites, in evidence, a list of 

 naturalists, economists, jurists, philologists, 

 philosophers and historians of the first 

 rank. 



Some of the reasons for German failure 

 to comprehend Americans are made clear. 

 To understand the people of the United 

 States properly, one must, he emphasizes, 

 keep in view the fact that even their oldest 

 towns never had walls, that there have 

 never been feuds between cities, nor strug- 

 gles between lords and men, that compul- 

 sory service and burdens other than those 

 self-imposed are unheard of, and that the 



state does not trouble itself about religious 

 creeds, nor these about the state. All this 

 affords a wide horizon and creates a feeling 

 of personal independence — a feeling which 

 Americans inherit from the founders of 

 the republic and which is traditionally 

 maintained in their bringing-up. 



The magnificent equipment of America's 

 scientific institutions reflects the national 

 character. High praise is accorded by 

 Waldeyer to the Smithsonian Institution, 

 from which so many foreigners have re- 

 ceived favors ; to the Washington Academy 

 of Sciences, with its various subdivisions; 

 to the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science,, and to the National 

 Educational Association. But as a biolo- 

 gist, the Berlin anatomist is best able to 

 judge of the state of the biological sciences 

 here. After referring to his personally 

 repeated conviction of the advances making 

 in America he says : " I find that over there 

 they stand equal to us in all essential points, 

 in the kind and method of scientific work, 

 in the value of the same, in the equipment 

 and arrangement of laboratories, in ma- 

 terials for instruction and in the form and 

 mode of imparting knowledge. Visit the 

 great workshop of Alexander Agassiz in 

 Cambridge; the anatomical institutes of 

 Huntington in New York, at Columbia 

 University, and of Mall in Baltimore ; the 

 Peabody Museum, so brilliantly filled by 

 Marsh, at Yale; the anthropological mu- 

 seum in New York, etc., and you will say 

 that I am right. J. Orth.has recently made 

 a similar statement. In a few years the 

 new buildings of the Medical School at 

 Harvard will be ready; * * * it may be 

 prophesied that in them we shall have the 

 best to be seen anywhere." 



In view of the present standing and 

 promise for the future of science in Amer- 

 ica, Waldeyer, proceeding with his address, 

 urges the maintenance and strengthening 



