August 26, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



271 



of defense in industrial warfare is the 

 educational centers. We are a great in- 

 dustrious and prosperous nation. Prosper- 

 ity is the possession 'of enlarging oppor- 

 tunities to secure the gratification of our 

 material, intellectual, social and spiritual 

 wants. ' 



In the foregoing I have endeavored to 

 show that science is an evolution. In the 

 past, to be sure, at times it has marched 

 with crippled steps ; at present it is gripped 

 into the vitals of nations. The modern 

 spirit of science towards religion is sane 

 and healthy; towards literature it leans in 

 offering themes alive and seeking graceful 

 modes for its expression ; it fosters and 

 grows with industry, so 'to choke the foun- 

 tains of science is to dry the source of our 

 prosperity. ' 



The progress of science among us very 

 largely depends, as Draper has said, on two 

 elements: first, our educational establish- 

 ments; and second, our scientific societies. 



School men within the past decade have 

 learned that it is proper to send the whole 

 boy to school and little by little science has 

 come into the curriculum. There is room 

 for much more sane science and its more 

 widespread teaching, and it should be better 

 taught. Let us teachers then have more to 

 do with pushing the proper recognition of 

 science before the attention of school boards, 

 insisting upon adequate compensation, and 

 let us have men and women ready-equipped 

 for the work. Pardon a personal illustra- 

 tion. I use it solely becaiise I know where- 

 of I speak. Every year there go out from 

 our laboratory at the university a dozen or 

 more graduates who, with rare exceptions, 

 and they are mainly my own assistants, are 

 offered positions in other states. We can 

 change this, and I take it as one of the 

 things this academy may hold out for its 

 accomplishment. How ? 



We teachers can and must get out and 

 see the schools, confer with the boards, 



speak to the people, in short, see that 

 wholesome works in science are placed in 

 the libraries, tell of common sense hygiene, 

 assist the great work and create like things 

 to the farmers' institutes, popularize sci- 

 ence. There is ' no discredit in popular- 

 izing science, ' as Mendenhall has said, ' that 

 popularizing what is not science is the thing 

 that is to be shunned and avoided.' 



This brings to our immediate attention 

 the instructors in the various institutions 

 that are making the teachers, making the 

 preachers, the lawyers, the doctors, bxisi- 

 ness men and the citizens. Boards of 

 trustees must be made to clearly understand 

 that time and equipment for these things 

 must be had; boards of trustees must be 

 made to understand that the best teachers 

 are those who contribute something to that 

 subject they would have better known and 

 appreciated ; boards of trustees must be im- 

 pressed with the fact that with our present 

 arrangements, most researchers must steal 

 the time necessary from rest, sleep, social 

 concernments and family pleasures and 

 that it is not right, it is not just to make 

 them mere teaching machines. 



There is no question whatever but that 

 many of the teachers in our institutions do 

 the treadmill. All of this can not with 

 justice be laid at the doors of our honorable 

 governing bodies, however, for teachers are 

 vain as other mortals. Some insert in cata- 

 logues a vast array of special courses, 

 which either are solely for show, or, if they 

 be given, of necessity, can not be with that 

 fresh vigor which should characterize in- 

 struction. The man who does that volun- 

 tarily loves not really his science. It is far 

 wiser to offer a few courses, give them well 

 and contribute a bit, even a mite, to the 

 sum of knowledge. I do not know but that 

 the late Professor Rowland was a bit severe, 

 yet I wish to quote from an address of his 

 on a 'Plea for Pure Science.' Some chil- 



