188 STEVENSON. 



tions which less than two decades ago were regarded as justifi- 

 able only as a last resort. The practice of medicine has been 

 advanced by outgrowths of Pasteur's work almost as much as 

 it was by Liebig's chemical investigations more than half a cen- 

 tury ago. 



In this review, the familiar has been chosen for illustration in 

 preference to the wonderful, that your attention might not be 

 div^erted from the main issue, that the foundation of industrial 

 advance was laid b}" workers in pure science, for the most part 

 ignorant of utility and caring little about it. There is here no 

 disparagement of the inventor ; without his perception of the 

 practical and his powers of combination the world would have 

 reaped little benefit from the student's researches. But the in- 

 vestigator takes the first step and makes the inventor possible. 

 Thereafter the inventor's work aids the investigator in making 

 new discoveries to be utilized in their turn. 



Investigation, as such, rarely receives proper recognition. It 

 is usually regarded as quite a secondary affair in which scientific 

 men find their recreation. If a geologist spends his summer 

 vacation in an effort to solve some perplexing structural prob- 

 lem he finds on his return congratulations because of his glori- 

 ous outing ; the astronomer, the physicist and the chemist are 

 all objects of semi-envious regard because they are able to spend 

 their leisure hours in congenial amusements ; while the natural- 

 ist, enduring all kinds of privation, is not looked upon as a 

 laborer because of the physical enjoyment which most good 

 people think his work must bring. 



It is true that investigation, properly so-called, is made sec- 

 ondary, but this because of necessity. Scientific men in gov- 

 ernment service are hampered constantly by the demand for im- 

 mediately useful results. Detailed investigation is interrupted 

 because matters apparently more important must be considered. 

 The conditions are even more unfavorable in most of our col- 

 leges and none too favorable in our greater universities. The 

 *' literary leisure " supposed to belong to college professors does 

 not fall to the lot of teachers of science, and very little of it can 

 be discovered by college instructors in any department. The 



