November 13, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



695 



imity and paid for its ignorance in an epi- 

 demic of typhoid. A list of cities whicli have 

 made similar mistakes is too long to give; a 

 list of those which have followed scientific 

 teaching would he shorter. 



As I have indicated, our inability to utilize 

 the known facts of preventive medicine 

 means that the aggregate of human life in 

 our population of one hundred million will 

 measure one billion five hundred million less 

 in years than it would were we, in the mass, 

 more intelligent. This is a trustworthy and 

 conservative statement of the stupendous 

 price that this generation is paying for the 

 ignorance of the many and for the special 

 activities of Christian Science, the league for 

 medical freedom and other impedimenta to 

 the progress of scientific sanitation, which so 

 far have been potent enough to block much 

 needed legislation. There are many men di- 

 recting our local, state and national affairs, 

 among them graduates of our greatest uni- 

 versities and best colleges, who are as ig- 

 norant of, consequently as indifferent to, these 

 matters which so seriously affect our national 

 life — present and future — as are the untaught 

 hordes that crowd into our country like so 

 many cattle, through the gates of Ellis Island. 



The fatalities due to ignorance of science 

 make big figures in the mortality tables. 

 Whether the infant lives or not depends most 

 largely upon the scientific knowledge of the 

 one who feeds it, and many a mother, who 

 would give her life to save her child, murders 

 it through ignorance. Surely, ignorance of 

 such scientific knowledge as is necessary to 

 protect health and life is a crime, a moral, if 

 not a statutory one. 



Descartes said that the purpose of all edu- 

 cation is to enable one to reach sound judg- 

 ment. Daily most of us are compelled to 

 reach some judgment founded on scientific 

 knowledge and training, and yet many col- 

 lege graduates are lacking not only in the 

 knowledge but in the capability of compre- 

 hending it when presented. 



I have indicated the subjects which in my 

 opinion are essential to a liberal education, 

 and I wish to add something about methods 



of study. It is a fallacy to suppose that every 

 man who takes a college course gets an edu- 

 cation and that all who do not have this priv- 

 ilege fail to be educated. The best university 

 with the most complete equipment and the 

 most learned faculty can do no more than 

 supply opportunities. An education is not 

 secured without effort on the part of the stu- 

 dent. Too many college students follow lines 

 of least resistance, dissipating instead of con- 

 centrating their energies, fall into bad habits, 

 and instead of being improved are harmed by 

 college residence. This is shown by their sub- 

 sequent behavior. Forty years have I been in 

 this university as student and teacher, long 

 enough to see many uncouth, unpromising 

 lads develop into eminent jurists, skilful engi- 

 neers, able physicians and surgeons and, in 

 short, honoring alike themselves and their 

 alma mater in widely diversified spheres of 

 activity by their deeds, but to-day I recall 

 many who have been cast as useless driftwood 

 upon the shores of life's sea. Were I asked to 

 name the rocks which have caused the greater 

 part of this wreckage I would mention — first 

 of all, those that lie about the alluring islands 

 of idleness. Inherited defects are not com- 

 mon among university students. The fact 

 that they have been directed wisely at the 

 start is proof of this, but it requires personal 

 strength of character and fixedness of pur- 

 pose to hold to the course. Next, but far less 

 in number, are the high reefs of active dissi- 

 pation. Lighthouses show their location and 

 warn the sailor of danger, but he thinks he can 

 pass through the narrows, where so many, less 

 skilful than he, have been wrecked; he takes 

 the risk and goes on to the rocks. 



I drop the simile of the sailor and the rocks 

 and continue my illustrations. One finds that 

 he needs a knowledge of French or German in 

 order to secure the fullest information. He 

 elects the subject for one semester, works in- 

 differently and fails. He concludes that he 

 has no aptitude for language and tries some- 

 thing in another line in like spirit and with 

 like result. Some men spend their lives in 

 trying to find out what they are good for and 

 die good for nothing. In my basic statements 



