950 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 860 



way adequate provision may be made for 

 the larger vocational interests represented 

 by college students of serious purpose and 

 well matured plans. An inspection of the 

 provisions will at once make clear that the 

 conception of vocational training is broad 

 and catholic, and not in any way to be 

 identified with the occasionally narrow 

 and shallow training afforded by so-called 

 vocational schools. 



James Rowland Angell 

 The University of Chicago 



TEE MAN OF SCIENCE AND EIS DUTIES'^ 



I HAVE been laboring with some uncer- 

 tainty, in an effort to determine what 

 would be most suitable for an occasion of 

 this kind. Shall I read a text, or shall I 

 sound a key-note ? Perhaps either or both 

 would be in harmony with the occasion. 

 For it is the aim of this society to promote 

 what I consider the highest interests of 

 mankind. We are to give every possible 

 encouragement to those who seek to widen 

 the boundaries of human knowledge. The 

 world is beginning to learn how all-impor- 

 tant it is that this should be done. We no 

 longer need to spend any time in contend- 

 ing for such ideas. We only need to ask 

 the doubter to read history, and to open 

 his eyes to his surroundings. The boun- 

 dary of human knowledge has been widen- 

 ing in a way that must excite our wonder. 

 Like the four sages, of whom Dante has 

 given us a beautiful picture, we stand in 

 the hemisphere of light that has been 

 kindled in our midst, and which slowly 

 pushes back the surrounding darkness. 

 But this only serves to reveal, more and 

 more, the immensity of the region of dark- 

 ness which still lies beyond. I wish to em- 

 phasize on every proper occasion, and cer-. 

 tainly on this occasion, that the men who 



' Address of the president of Washington Chap- 

 ter Sigma Xi. 



have earned and deserve the peculiar and 

 special gratitude of their successors, are 

 the men who could by no means foresee 

 the value of their work. 



Think for a moment of what the world 

 owes to Michael Faraday. He never sus- 

 pected the value of his work. The most 

 learned men of his day were interested in 

 his results, but they could not foresee their 

 value. He was a man who had none of 

 the advantages which a college student of 

 to-day so often neglects. The son of a 

 blacksmith, he was apprenticed to a book- 

 binder. While at this labor, he attracted 

 the attention of Sir Humphry Davy, who 

 was in charge of the laboratories of the 

 Royal Institution. And this institution, 

 by the way, was founded by a former 

 teacher in a New England school, who 

 became Count Rumford, and who was one 

 of the greatest men that America has pro- 

 duced. 



Faraday became the assistant of Davy, 

 and he remained in the institution for 

 fifty-four years. At the age of forty-two 

 his merits were recognized by the govern- 

 ing board, in an action which relieved him 

 of all lecture and instruction work. This 

 was also a recognition of an obligation 

 which they owed to the world. 



Consider the results of one fragment of 

 his work: On September 22, 1831, two 

 years before he was relieved of instruction 

 duties, Faraday wrote in his note-book as 

 follows : 



I have had an iron ring made (soft iron), iron 

 round and J of an inch thick, and ring six inches 

 in external diameter. Wound many coils of copper 

 round one half of the ring, being separated by 

 twine and calico. There were three lengths of 

 wire, each about 24 feet long, and they could be 

 connected as one length or as separate lengths. 

 By trial with a trough, each was insulated from 

 the other. We will call this side of the ring A. 

 On the other side, but separated by an interval, 

 was wound wire in two pieces, together amounting 



