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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1114 



like fire and phlogiston, we advanced but 

 slowly. Ages of immaterial research for 

 the philosopher's stone only led to disap- 

 pointment. Successful results in modern 

 times came from following nature, learn- 

 ing by asking and experimenting, reason- 

 ing just enough from one stage of acquired 

 knowledge to ask the next question of ma- 

 terials. 



Professor Trowbridge, of Harvard, once 

 said: 



Before Galvani's time men were lost in philo- 

 sophical speculations in regard to subtile fluids; 

 after Ms experiments their thoughts were directed 

 to the conditions of matter immediately about 

 them. Benjamin Franklin brought electricity 

 down to earth from the clouds, while G-alvini's ex- 

 periments brought men's minds down from the 

 heights where they were lost, having no tangible 

 transformations to study. 



I will go directly to my point. We are 

 being shown by systems of national devel- 

 opment how important is the study of the 

 properties of matter. There is no need to 

 raise the questions of the war, nor of the 

 relative originality of different races, nor 

 to compare the gifts to scientific knowledge 

 of the various world powers. We will go 

 only so far as to point out that in national 

 processes there may be a certain peculiar 

 and useful attitude towards exact knowl- 

 edge. I mean by peculiar that, as is the 

 ease of Germany, it diif ers in direction and 

 intensity from that of other countries. In 

 so far as it is useful, I want to recomimend 

 it. We all condemn it where it is abused. 

 I want to convince you, if I can, that in the 

 uses of science we ourselves have much to 

 learn, and in the matter of research we are 

 still children. 



In speaking of research, I do not mean 

 to confine my thoughts to the chemists and 

 their knowledge and literature, but rather 

 to that science which is back of chemistry. 

 We may call it natural science, if we are 



careful. It includes, for my present pur- 

 poses, all philosophy based on measurable 

 facts. Psychology and therapeutics come 

 under this head ; so do electricity and med- 

 icine, anatomy and physics, chemistry and 

 biology. These are inquisitive sciences, 

 where the answers come from, asking ques- 

 tions of nature. If I can leave with you 

 even a faint impression of the importance 

 of new knowledge, the strength to be 

 gained from its acquirement, and the 

 pleasure in the process itself, I shall feel 

 repaid. 



Research is sometimes looked upon as a 

 remote, postponable, and especially exact- 

 ing undertaking, well suited for martyrs 

 of science and unreasoning optimists, and 

 not at all for teachers. The historical 

 methods of teaching have stiU lingering 

 in them some of these signs. Even in our 

 day it is sometimes said that a teacher 

 should not be an investigator. It will take 

 a long time to completely efface that idea, 

 but it will be as surely forgotten as the 

 fact that most of our older colleges were 

 once religious centers. It is important to 

 realize that the need, facilities and possi- 

 bilities of research are all about us, re- 

 tarded only by the inertia that is in us. 

 So much useful pioneer work in all fields 

 has been done with simple material 

 equipment coupled with good mental equip- 

 ment, that it almost seems as though this 

 was the rule. The telegraph and telephone 

 started with a few little pieces of wire 

 wound by hand with paper insulation. The 

 basic work on heredity was carried out by 

 an Austrian monk with a few garden peas. 

 The steam-engine came from the kitchen 

 fire, and wireless from the tricks of a little 

 spark gap. There was, however, the same 

 general kind of mind behind each one of 

 these discoveries, the mind of the trained 

 inquirer. 



Exactly the opposite belief is also quite 



