August 30, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



313 



plainly practicable, what is to hinder an in- 

 definite mitigation, if not a definite extinc- 

 tion, of the ravages of such dread diseases 

 as consumption and typhoid fever? Or 

 what, we may ask, is to hinder the appli- 

 cation to New York, Philadelphia and 

 Chicago of as effective health regulations 

 as those now applied to Havana ? Nothing, 

 apparently, except vested interests and gen- 

 eral apathy. We read, not many years ago, 

 that a city of about one million inhabi- 

 tants had, during one year, more than six 

 thousand cases of typhoid fever. The cost 

 to the city of a single case may be esti- 

 mated as not less, on the average, than one 

 thousand dollars, making an aggregate 

 cost to that city, for one year, of more than 

 six millions of dollars. Such a waste of 

 financial resources ought to appeal to vested 

 interests and general apathy even if they 

 cannot be moved by any higher motives. 

 Thanks to the penetration of the enlighten- 

 ment of our times, distinct advances have 

 already been made in the line of effective 

 domestic and public sanitation ; but the 

 good work accomplished is infinitesimal in 

 comparison with that which can be, and 

 ought to be, done. It is along this and 

 along allied lines of social and industrial 

 economy that we should look, I think, for 

 the alleviation of the miseries of mankind. 

 No amount of contemplation of the beati- 

 tudes, human or divine, will prevent men 

 from drinking contaminated water or milk -, 

 and no fear of future punishments, which 

 may be in the meantime atoned for, will 

 much deter men from wasting their sub- 

 stance in riotous living. The moral cer- 

 tainty of speedy and inexorable earthly 

 annihilation is alone adequate to bring man 

 into conformity with the cosmic rules and 

 regulations of the drama of life. 



And finally we must reckon amongst the 

 most important of the conditions favorable 

 to the progress of science, the unexampled 

 activity in our times of the scientific spirit 



as manifested in the work of all kinds of 

 ' organizations, from the semi-religious Chau- 

 tauquan assemblies up to those techni- 

 cal societies whose programs are Greek 

 to all the world beside. Literature, lin- 

 guistics, history, economics, law and theol- 

 ogy are now permeated by the scientific 

 spirit if not animated by the scientific 

 method. Curiously enough, also, the ter- 

 minology, the figures of speech and the 

 points of view of science are now quite 

 common in realms of thought hitherto held 

 somewhat scornfully above the plane of 

 materialistic phenomena. Tyndall's Bel- 

 fast address, which, twenty-seven years 

 ago, was generally anathematized, is now 

 quoted with approval by some of the suc- 

 cessors of those who bitterly denounced him 

 and all his kind. Thus the mere lapse of 

 time is working great changes and smooth- 

 ing out grave differences of opinion in favor 

 of the progress of science in all the neigh- 

 boring provinces with which we have been 

 able hitherto to maintain only rather 

 strained diplomatic relations. 



Still more immediately important to us 

 are the evidences of progress manifested in 

 recent years by this Association and by its 

 aflfiliated societies. Our parent organiza- 

 tion, though a half century old, is still 

 young as regards the extent in time of the 

 functions it has undertaken to perform. It 

 has accomplished a great work ; but in the 

 vigor and enthusiasm of its youth a far 

 greater work is easily attainable. Exactly 

 how these functions are to be developed, no 

 man can foresee. We may learn, however, 

 in this, as in other lines of research, by meth- 

 ods with which we are well acquainted, 

 namely, by the methods of carefully planned 

 and patiently executed observation and ex- 

 periment. The field for energetic and pains- 

 taking effort is wider and more attractive 

 than ever before. Science is now truly- 

 cosmopolitan ; it can be limited by no close 

 corporations ; and no domain of scientific 



