July 26, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



143 



the State. But ninety- nine per cent, of 

 the difficulty will disappear if only the 

 university will do the work admirably and 

 let others take the credit. If the purpose 

 be to promote public welfare why should 

 one care who gets the praise ? In every 

 instance, hitherto, in the writer's experi- 

 ence, the scientific, philanthropic and sta- 

 tistical departments of the State and the 

 nation have been eager for cooperation, 

 wherever the university has demonstrated 

 ability to do work superbly, and in most 

 cases they have supplied the money. Be- 

 sides, it is one thing to appoint commis- 

 sions and quite another to induce them to 

 fulfill strenuously the purposes for which 

 they were appointed. Many a yawning 

 gap of deficiency in public officials may be 

 quietly bridged by the patriotism and skill 

 of the university, which should be the eye 

 of the people, searching in every direction 

 for opportunities to serve their welfare. 



Will not the discussion of social and civil 

 questions embroil the university in partisan 

 politics ? The most important problems of 

 sociology and politics are not often em- 

 bodied in State platforms, which usually 

 consist of the national structure with a few 

 more planks lauding one party and vilify- 

 ing the other. 



Do you ask where the money for all this 

 is to come from? False to the core is the 

 idea that the resources of a university are 

 solely for instruction on its campus. The 

 administration has no right to wait always 

 on needed investigations for special ap- 

 propriations from the Legislature. It should 

 rather assume that in part the income must 

 be consecrated, as need arises, to promoting 

 the public good wherever it can be reached 

 by scientific skill. Ultimately no use of 

 money will pay better, even as an invest- 

 ment of capital. At last, we are not re- 

 quired to do more than our resources per- 

 mit. It is the spirit that maketh alive. 

 The important thing is for the university to 



construe its functions liberally and to 

 choose intelligently what can be done now 

 and what should be postponed. Time as 

 well as money is necessary for perfect per- 

 formance of its whole function. 



In conclusion, let me say that the State 

 University, founded by the Federal Gov- 

 ernment and supported by a mill tax upon 

 the property of a great commonwealth, with 

 broad outlook and intense devotion to the 

 welfare of the people, can be made the best 

 institution yet devised by the wit of man 

 for the promotion of human progress. Uni- 

 versity mottoes are sometimes inspiring, 

 but the one that appeals to the writer most 

 is from Cicero, De Legibus— ' Salus Populi 

 Suprema Lex.' The welfare (salus), con- 

 strued broadly, is coextensive with public 

 interests, which, beginning in the soil of 

 earth and rising through human society, 

 mount upwards finally to the Kingdom of 



Heaven. 



E. H. Jesse. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Le systeme metrique des poids et mesures. Par 



G. BiGOURDAN. Paris, Gauthier-Villars. 



1901. 



A hundred years have passed since the in- 

 auguration of one of the most important re- 

 forms yet undertaken by civilized man, con- 

 sidered as to its far-reaching effects upon social, 

 economic and scientific interests and conditions. 

 Although the establishment of a universal and 

 uniform system of weights and measures among 

 all enlightened nations is not yet an accom- 

 plished fact, that most desh-able end is so nearly 

 reached tliat no reasonable person can for a 

 moment entertain a doubt as to the final result. 

 Only two great nations, constituting the English- 

 speaking people of the world, still hold out 

 against the irresistible movement in favor of 

 uniformity of standards and they are both 

 wavering very decidedly, preparatory to the 

 inevitable yielding which the most thoughtful 

 of their people are endeavoring to hasten. 

 During the last decade in both England and 

 America popular interest in the subject of 



