THE DEBT OF THE WORLD TO PURE SCIENCE. 333 



rendered delicious by the iutroduction of the proper bacteria; sterilized 

 milk saves the lives of many children; soine of the most destructive 

 plagues are understood and the antidotes are prepared by tlie culture 

 of antagonistic germs; antiseptic treatment has robbed snrgery of half 

 its terrors, and has rendered almost commonplace operations which, 

 less than two decades ago, were regarded as justifiable only as a last 

 resort. The practice of medicine has been advanced by outgrowths of 

 Pasteur's work almost as much as it was by Liebig's chemical investi- 

 gations more than half a century ago. 



In this review the familiar has been chosen for illustration in prefer- 

 ence to the wonderful, that your attention might not be diverted from 

 the main issue, that the foundation of industrial advance was laid by 

 workers in i)ure science, for the most jjart ignorant of utility and caring 

 little about it. There is here no disparagement of the inventor; with- 

 out his perce-i^tion of the practical and his powers of combination the 

 world would have reaped little benefit from the student's researches. 

 But the investigator takes the first step and makes the inventor possi- 

 ble. Thereafter the inventor's work aids the investigator in making 

 new discoveries, to be utilized in their turn. 



Investigation, as such, rarely receives proper recognition. It is usu- 

 ally regarded as quite a secondary affair, in which scientific men find 

 their recreation. If a geologist spends his summer vacation in an effort 

 to solve some perplexing structural problem he finds, on his return, 

 congratulations because of his glorious outing; the astronomer, the 

 physicist, and the chemist are all objects of semienvious regard, because 

 they are able to spend their leisure hours in congenial amusements; 

 while the naturalist, enduring all kinds of privation, is not looked upon 

 as a laborer, because of the physical enjoyment which most good people 

 think his work must bring. 



It is true that investigation, properly so-called, is made secondary, 

 but this is because of necessity. Scientific men in Government service 

 are hampered constantly by the demand for immediately useful results. 

 Detailed investigation is interrupted because matters apparently more 

 important must be considered. The conditions are even more unfavor- 

 able in most of our colleges and none too favorable in our greater 

 universities. The '' literary leisure" supposed to belong to college pro- 

 fessors does not fall to the lot of teachers of science, and very little of 

 it can be discovered by college instructors in any dei^artmeut. The 

 intense competition among our institutions requires that professors be 

 magnetic teachers, thorough scholars, active in social work, and given 

 to frequent ijublication, that, being prominent, they may be living 

 advertisements of the Institution. How much time, opportunity, or 

 energy remains for patient investigation some may l)e able to imagine. 



The misconception respecting the relative importance of investiga- 

 tion is increased by the failure of even well-educated men to appreciate 

 the changed conditions in science. The ordinary notion of scientific 



