DECEMBER 3, 1897. ] 
commerce and the great liners of the ocean, 
are the results of careful study, by able 
men in quiet hours, devoted to the ascer- 
tainment of accurate knowledge. 
It is the science of mechanics which has 
developed the steam engine for the feeble 
motor, plied by Fulton on the Hudson, into 
the triple and quadruple expansion engines 
which now propel these enormous steamers, 
to and fro, across the ocean, with a regu- 
larity almost as sure as the swinging of 
a pendulum. 
Geographical science has studied every 
portion of the globe and opened to com- 
merce the continents of Africa and Austra- 
lia, and the islands of Japan and Oceanica, 
closed to Europeans before the days of 
Wilkes, Perry, Stanley and other explorers. 
It is to hydrography that commerce owes 
the accurate surveys of coasts, channels 
and harbors, initiated in this country by 
the Blunts, those once famous New Yorkers, 
and those surveys of the ocean depths 
which made possible the laying of the At- 
lantic Cable. 
Physics has well fulfilled its part by the 
improvements introduced into the con- 
struction of the mariners compass, the pro- 
pelling screw, the perfection of light houses, 
the introduction of fog signals, and the ever 
advancing development of electro-magnet- 
ism, most significant, far reaching, revolu- 
tionary and serviceable of all modern dis- 
coveries. 
Meteorology, a branch of physics, grows 
more accurate every year and is interpret- 
ing and foretelling the course of winds and 
cyclones. 
Almost all these advances lie in the field 
of mathematics. 
Caneel these gifts of science. Restore 
electricity to the excitement of a bit of am- 
ber, bring back the quadruple expansion 
engine to the tea-kettle from which it has 
been evolved, reduce the nautical almanac 
to a deliniation of ‘the Dipper,’ and destroy 
SCIENCE. 
828 
the charts on which reefs and shoals are 
carefully indicated to the rude outlines of 
even fifty years ago—and where would 
commerce be ? 
Now let us change our point of view and 
see how these obligations have been met. 
With open-handed munificence, with horns 
of plenty filled with the products of every 
clime, Commerce, the child of Science, has 
been her generous supporter. Rapidly 
glance at the record. 
It was an Hast Indian merchant 
Born in America, in Europe bred, 
In Africa travelled and in Asia wed 
made those gifts to the collegiate school in 
New Haven, which have given renown for 
almost 200 years to the name of Elihu Yale. 
The last half century has been prolific in 
kindred gifts. Itwas a merchant of Mobile 
who founded the Sheffield Scientific School 
in New Haven; a merchant of Boston who 
gave his name to the Lawrence Scientific 
School in Cambridge ; a merchant of New 
York who established the John C. Green 
School of Science in Princeton; a merchant 
of Brooklyn whose gifts to Cornell Univer- 
sity surpassed the founder’s ; a business man 
of Philadelphia who founded the Towne 
School of Science; a merchant of New Or- 
leans whose name is recalled by Tulane 
University ; and a merchant of Baltimore, 
Johns Hopkins, who divided his fortune be- 
tween a university and a hospital. 
Just so with modern libraries in this 
country. John Jacob Astor, a merchant of 
New York, set the example, soon to be fol- 
lowed by Lenox and Tilden. Joshua Bates, 
a partner of the Barings, rendered a like 
service to Boston, and William Brown, one 
of the Brown Brothers, to Liverpool. The 
museums at Cambridge and New Haven at- 
test the scientific interest of George Pea- 
body, who founded a library in Baltimore. 
Chittenden, of New York; Pratt, of Balti- 
more; Newberry, of Chicago, each one a mer- 
