55 



Science in Its Relation to The Conservation of 



Human Life. 



Severance Burrage. 



Nearly every branch of science has direct or indirect relation toward 

 the conservation of human life. Unfortunately the appreciation of scien- 

 tific work has been from the industrial rather than from the humanitarian 

 viewpoint, and such researches as have resulted in discoveries that have 

 commercial importance have been the ones to receive the plaudits of the 

 public. 



Chemistry, physics, geology and biology in all of their subdivisions 

 have undoubtedly contributed in the work of saving human life. For ex- 

 ample, we have in chemistry the studies of the impurities in the air. water, 

 food and drugs, practical applications on the purification of water and 

 sewage, and so on. In physics and its various branches we have the prac- 

 tical application of safety devices of all kinds, rescue apparatus for mines, 

 the developments in rapid communication, climaxed by the invention of the 

 wireless telegraph and telephone, most useful in the prevention of acci- 

 dents, the various inventions which protect employes from dangerous 

 machinery, the development of fire-fighting apparatus, and special pro- 

 tective devices against floods, earthquakes, cyclones and other disasters. 

 In geology, the selection of proper building stone, the dangers from the 

 corrosion of building stone in different climates, the selection of proper 

 building sites, and, indirectly the discoveries of coal. oil. and other things 

 essential in many phases of human existence. In biology, particularly in 

 the subdivisions, bacteriology, medicine and sanitary science, we find some 

 of the most important discoveries resulting in the prevention of disease 

 and death. Even in entomology — the life histories of various mosquitoes 

 and flies have important bearing on the prevention of disease. In bac- 

 teriology the discovery of the causes of transmissible diseases, through the 

 research of Pasteur, Koch and others, methods in the rapid diagnosis of 

 disease, protective inoculation against disease, resulting from the work of 

 Jenner Von Behring and others, are familiar to you all. In medicine the 

 application of asepsis and cleanliness to surgical methods has revolution- 



