November 10, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



603 



cuit with the current of injury, but in an 

 opposite direction, so much of the current 

 from the cell as will exactly balance the cur- 

 rent of injury, i. e., so much as will keep the 

 meniscus of the electrometer from moving in 

 either a positive or a negative direction when 

 connected with the circuit. 



Numerous advantages are presented by the 

 form of electrometer here shown. It iits 

 the stage of the microscope. The microscope 

 need not be tilted very far, and the observer 

 is therefore in a comfortable position. The 

 position of the electrometer on the stage may 

 readily be changed. All the parts' near the 

 acid are of hard rubber, thus excluding cur- 

 rents that might arise from acid touching 

 metal parts. The acid tube is flanged so that 

 the acid can not creep out along the capillary 

 tube. The capillary can easily be brought 

 against the wall of the acid tube. The tube 

 from which the capillary springs descends 

 within the acid tube, thus protecting the cap- 

 illary against breakage. Either tube may at 

 once be removed from its holder. The pla- 

 tinum wires extend to the binding post, and 

 are not simply short pieces soldered to copper 

 wire. The wire to the capillary tube extends 

 to the bottom of the tube, thus maintaining 

 the contact until all the mercury in the tube 

 is used. 



About one cubic centimeter of paraffin oil 

 should be placed above the piston. Only ab- 

 solutely clean double-distilled mercury should 

 be used. W. T. Porter. 



Hakvard Medical School. 



QUOTATWNS. 



RESEARCH WORK IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



Explain some remarkable discovery of pure 

 science to the ordinary man and he instantly 

 wants to know what is the use of it or casts 

 about for some way of utilizing it for profit. 

 He neither understands very clearly how the 

 discovery was arrived at nor the importance 

 it possesses apart from immediate application 

 to the meeting of daily wants. Yet nothing is 

 more certain than that the applications of sci- 

 ence which most fully subserve the wants of 

 man depend in every considerable case upon 



the results obtained by men who had no prac- 

 tical application in view. He who finds out 

 merely for the sake of finding out everything 

 that can be known about a given subject has 

 so far contributed to laying the foundations 

 of advance as it is understood by the practical 

 man. Without the discoveries thus made the 

 practical man finds himself balked at every 

 turn. For practical applications depend upon 

 the combination of a great many factors, and 

 dem.and a power of selection from a vast body 

 of ascertained facts which are supplied only 

 by the seeker after knowledge for its own sake. 

 Of the knowledge thus acquired no man can 

 say what part will be first utilized, or how 

 long any portion may remain useless for prac- 

 tical purpose. That depends very much upon 

 the progress made by research in other direc- 

 tions, hence many important results have been 

 lost to sight merely because some link was 

 missing in the chain connecting them with 

 other known facts. In that case they have 

 to be rediscovered, otherwise they in turn be- 

 come the missing links, and for want of them 

 other knowledge remains sterile. 



ISTow it is too true that in this country, as 

 Professor Nuttall complains, research is not a 

 career. Pure science does not bring bread 

 and butter. This country has often been for- 

 tunate in having men of means who devoted 

 themselves to research for the love of truth, 

 and it has had men like Paraday, of great 

 simplicity of life, who were not merely con- 

 tent, but glad, to live on the income of a clerk 

 while making discoveries that subsequently 

 changed the face of society. But we can not 

 depend upon a constant and adequate supply 

 of either type. The field is now very large 

 and very costly to work. There are many 

 temptations to turn aside which we must ex- 

 pect to be too much for most men who do not 

 possess compelling genius. Hence, if we do 

 not provide a living wage and adequate equip- 

 ment for a sufficient number of seekers after 

 knowledge, we must expect to be beaten in 

 practical affairs by nations which better under- 

 stand their true interests. The London school 

 loses promising men who go into practice. 

 In one way or another every branch of re- 

 search loses promising men, who either go into 



