384 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



Highest temperature during the month 102°, on the 27th. Lowest temper- 

 ature during the month 35°, on the 17th. 



Highest velocity of the wind 44 miles per hour, on the 3rd. 

 The usual summary by decades is given above. 



THE PRACTICAL VALUE OF SCIENCE. 



An orator of the present day, says \ht American Journal of Science, who firmly 

 believes that science is the subUme teacher of all practical knowledge, has beauti- 

 fully said, in one of his lofty perorations, that "reason, observation and experi- 

 ence constitute the holy trinity of science." Looking over the years which have 

 elapsed since the Middle Ages, the frightful ignorance and superstition of which 

 cover many black pages in history; when all knowledge of a scientific character 

 was held in utter contempt, and only a few out of the many could read or write 

 .the English or any other language; when the astrologer took the place of the 

 astronomer, and men, women and children beheved in the existence of ghosts, 

 witches, hobgoblins, and saw signs that the world was going to be speedily de- 

 molished and turned into a still blacker chaos than their wretched ignorance 

 caused to prevail ; when science lay strangled in the cradle and was threatened 

 with instant death if it had the temerity to heave a palpable breath ; in looking 

 over the years which have made their circuit and been ushered into the realm of 

 oblivion since then, and marking the progress of science, which was necessarily 

 slow at first, but quickened its march, century after century, until the nineteenth 

 was reached, when it made a sudden and grand flight upward, it would be amazing 

 indeed if we did not behold the mighty advancement in human affairs with awe 

 and unbounded admiration. When ignorance and superstition covered the brains 

 of man like a black cowl, their reason was obscured and advancement was simply 

 impossible; but when they ceased consulting oracles and having dealings with 

 ghosts and witches, and turned their attention to the study of their surroundings, 

 their wants as well, and how to supply them, a new light illuminated the human 

 brain where formerly only savage instinct dwelt, and man and the world began 

 to improve simultaneously. The knowledge of the engineer opened up canals, 

 river channels, and gave us the railway; and these made inter-state commerce 

 practicable, and now we have international commerce. In order to make the 

 earth yield him a substance, man used to sweat and toil and die prematurely 

 from hard work ; but since science has given him machinery and all kinds of me- 

 chanical appliances, he finds the world to be an Elysium to live in compared 

 with what it used to be. Science has not only enabled him to produce two blades 

 of grass from one and make one bushel of potatoes yield a dozen bushels or more, 

 but it has also brought the very market to his door, as it were ; it has given him 

 in geology a sure and eternal guide to all the minerals which the earth holds in 

 its bowels, and has furnished the means of readily extracting the same. All there 

 is of music, art and beauty has been bestowed upon us by this great benefactor 



