August 26, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



267 



interest, but the opportunity carries with 

 it corresiDonding responsibilities beyond the 

 narrow bounds of one's limited investiga- 

 tions. The audience is composed in part 

 of the general public, which is more or less 

 informed, or misinfonned through no self- 

 fault, as to the general trend of scientific 

 thought and movement ; in part of students, 

 some enwrapt with the beauty and majesty 

 of ancient art and philosophy, others versed 

 in the history of science and conversant 

 with its latest conceptions ; in part, my 

 hearers are specialists in the varied branch- 

 es of science, so I feel much like Moleschott 

 in his address at the reopening of the Uni- 

 versity of Rome, when he found himself 

 'in the face of an audience whom he had 

 nothing to teach, but from whom he had 

 much to learn.' 



The groundwork of science may be 

 thrown into three divisions : ( 1 ) laborers 

 who work; (2) tools they miist employ; 

 and (3) that which constitutes the fields 

 of their labors. 



In the world we know there is such a 

 thing as progress ; that civilization is de- 

 pendent upon something capable of in- 

 crease, evidently knowledge. Although, 

 as Schiller has said, 'Knowledge is to one 

 a goddess, to another an excellent cow,' 

 yet the momentum of progress is largely, 

 if not altogether, given by science. 



Variations in social conditions have 

 caused variations in human standards of 

 morality, but through all the ages morality 

 has actually been a stationary thing. Dif- 

 ferent ages have known mighty things in 

 literature and art, but each was the indi- 

 vidual outcome of the pen or brush of the 

 genius, who bequeathed a heritage of his 

 own labors as a stimulus to others ; but the 

 mastership passed with him. Not so with 

 science; for, as Whewell has said, 'It is 

 not a collection of miscellaneous, uncor- 

 rected, unarranged knowledge that can be 

 considered as constituting science.' 



Different ages have known mighty things 

 in science, sometimes as the outcome of a 

 genius, but equally as often the consequence 

 of talent building upon that which was 

 learned before. So, never was one more 

 mistaken than President Woodrow "Wilson 

 when he stated that science breaks with the 

 past. 



In order to appreciate the spirit of mod- 

 ern science, we must take a hurried glance 

 at the motives prompting the older workers 

 and consider their environment. "VVe are 

 aware, in the historical development of 

 things, that all present knowledge arose 

 from a chaotic state enveloping itself in 

 mystery. This was due to the empirical 

 means of observation, superstition attend- 

 ing any inquiry into the why of things, 

 hampering circumscriptions of religions, 

 primitive and more recent, and lack of 

 means of communication. The wise man, 

 exercising a little common sense, wrought 

 cures wonderful in those dark times, many 

 simple for the youngest practitioner of to- 

 day. While, doubtless, some were prompt- 

 ed by an earnest desire to do good, many 

 were actuated by greed of power and gain, 

 even as to-day. Fearful of their loss once 

 secured, they often sought to hide their 

 own shortcomings and take advantage of 

 the universal ignorance by their mysticism. 

 These were not the sole motives of all work- 

 ers, however. The spirit of inquiry has 

 ever been present with mankind. For 



Ignorance is the curse of God, 

 KnoAvledge the wings wherewith we fly to heaven. 



Although, three hundred years before 

 Christ, the living and dead were dissected 

 at the Alexandrian School, it was not until 

 the fifteenth century that the popes over- 

 came popular prejudice about the sanctity 

 of the dead body and issued edicts permit- 

 ting dissection. The following century, 

 Vesalius arose, and then Harvey discovered 

 the circulation of the blood. Greek philos- 



