SCIEKCE 



[Entered at the Posi-Offloe of New York, N. Y., as Second-Class Matter.J 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



Eighth Yeae. 

 Vol. XVI. No. 404. 



NEW YORK, October 31, 1890. 



Single Copies, Ten Cents. 

 3.50 Per Year, in Advance. 



THE AIM AND FUTURE OF NATURAL SCIENCE.' 

 The aim of science is twofold : we study science that we 

 may know the truth, and that we may utilize that truth for 

 the material and moral advantage of humanity. Of these 

 two aims, the higher and less common is the former. Many 

 persons will naturally inquire what advantage there can be 

 in seeking truth for its own sake only; yet nearly all the 

 practical applications of discovered truths have been based 

 upon principles which have been attained, not by the so- 

 called practical men, but by those whose lives were devoted 

 to what has been opprobriously called the "mere getting of 

 knowledge." It was with perhaps no slight tinge of sarcasm 

 that Pilate exclaimed, when brought face to face with Jesus 

 of Nazareth, ''What is truth?" Nevertheless, to this ques- 

 tion man has, from his earliest appearance upon this planet, 

 sought for a reply; and, so long as man shall exist as man, 

 he will never abandon his search. One form of this search 

 is curiosity, and we call it idle; but it is far from idle in its 

 origin. It is the insatiable desire, inborn in every man, to 

 find out that which he does not know. It is this which led 

 a Galileo to the torture, and a Bruno to the stake; it is this 

 that has caused men to forsake family and friends, devoting 

 their wealth and health, and all that the world calls happi- 

 ness, to seeking truth. The little child at its mother's knee 

 begins to imagine the why of the phenomena surrounding 

 it; and the old man sinks into his grave, still pondering on 

 the unsolved problems of life which he must abandon, hop- 

 ing that in another world he may find the key to the mys- 

 terious hieroglyphics he leaves behind. Perhaps the origin 

 of this desire rests on the fact that in nature itself, formed 

 by the Almighty, we find the marks of His fingers. By 

 studying science we are but studying His methods of work- 

 ing in the natural world; and thus we are like Job of old, 

 by searching, trying to find out God. It is often lost sigbt 

 of, that nature is just as true a revelation of the Deity as 

 is the record of the Book of books; and the scientist, no less 

 than the theologian, is a student of God and his laws. What 

 we call natural laws are but our formulations of the method 

 by which God has worked in nature. Tlie study of astron- 

 omy is the study of his universe; the study of geology, the 

 study of how he fashioned this planet; the study of evolution, 

 butthestudy of God's methods of creating all livingplantsand 

 animals. The time will come when religion will look back 

 to Newton and Kepler, Dalton and Joule, Darwin and Wal- 

 lace, as God's interpreters, no less truly than to Augustine 

 and Chrysostom, Luther and Calvin, Butler and Edwards. 



1 Lecture delivered before the Polytechnic Society of Kentucky, May 86, 

 1890, by James Lewis Howe. 



But there is another aim of the study of natural science 

 which is to the vast majority of mankind far more practical. 

 It consists of study for the purpose of utilizing the principles 

 of science for the benefit of mankind. From one standpoint 

 this aim is philanthropic, in that it seeks to use its discov- 

 eries for the comfort and convenience of mankind. This 

 aim is hardly less worthy than that of the pursuit of science 

 for the sake of finding truth ; but in far too many instances 

 the incentive is not any feeling of philanthropy, but merely 

 the acquisition of personal financial gain. In the constant 

 struggle for the "almighty dollar," Science proves herself a 

 valuable aid, but it is only by her prostitution. In the 

 spirit of pursuing science merely for the money it will en- 

 able one to make, the true aims of science are wholly lost 

 sight of; and it seems often as if unhappily by fur the 

 greater number of the devotees of science are devotees 

 merely for the money in it, like the money-changers whom 

 Christ drove from the temple precincts. The temptation 

 which is continually offered to leave the paths of pure sci- 

 ence for the sake of following industrial paths is very great, 

 and is in danger of wholly obscuring, or at least of allowing 

 to fall into the background, the true aims of science. Of 

 course, incidentally the human race is vastly benefited by 

 the attainments of those who have no thought but of gain; 

 nevertheless it cannot fail to lower science in the eyes of 

 thinking men. Many great discoveries of the last few years 

 have been very valuable for the world; but often, too, they 

 have given rise to vast and grinding monopolies. It is al- 

 most alone in the sphere of medicine that the profession 

 have kept their standard so high; and it is by them univer- 

 sally held that any great discovery is the property, not of its 

 discoverer, but of all humanity. The true scientist would far 

 rather be a Jackson or a Koller, and give to suffering man- 

 kind the wonderful alleviators of pain, ether and cocaine, 

 than to amass millions through some patent monopoly. 



Look for an instant at the vast multitude of patent-medi- 

 cine advertisements which cover our fences and walls, and 

 fill the columns especially of our religious papers. What 

 are we to think of a man, who, if his claims be true, pos- 

 sesses a specific that will cui-e every case of consumption, or 

 bright's disease, or some other ill of fiesh with which theregular 

 practitioner admits he is wholly unable to cope — whatare we to 

 think of such a man, when he will part with his discovery 

 only in payment of an outrageous fee, and who vpill suffer 

 hundreds and thousands to suffer and perish, in order that he 

 may make a fortune? Is he one whit better thau the physi- 

 cian who would allow a patient to die rather thau treat him, 

 when there was no hope of his bill being paid? The one 



