44 Mac Leod, The Place of Science in History. 



so powerful as at the time in which we are living, and this 

 has given birth to a social need the urgency of which is 

 making itself felt more and more. It is the need of pro- 

 fessional instruction addressed to the entire population. 



At one time the knowledge which the workman, the 

 artisan and the agriculturalist might possess was relatively 

 limited, and altered but slowly. Between the instruction 

 given in universities and schools and the technical know- 

 ledge demanded in the exercise of a trade, there was only 

 a very distant relationship. ... A considerable number of 

 new industries have sprung into being, for example, the 

 electrical industries, the chemical industries, the industry 

 of food preserving, photography. Almost all the industries 

 of earlier days have been transformed : such for example 

 is the case with the construction of machinery, the manu- 

 facture of stuffs, printing, horticulture. Agriculture itself, 

 which for ages has been eminently routine work, has 

 become the object of numerous improvements. 



On all sides instances of the applications of scientific 

 ideas become more numerous, and the different industries 

 demand from their workers more and more extensive 

 knowledge. In reading the reviews and treatises pub- 

 lished for the use of the blacksmith, the shoemaker, the 

 electrician, the carpenter, the market gardener, the 

 arboriculturist, and many others, one is surprised to 

 find how wide spread and varied are the applied scientific 

 ideas, and what an effort of thought is demanded on the 

 part of the reader. He who has lived far from that 

 actual sphere of social life is indeed overwhelmed to find, 

 for example, what difficult and complicated problems, in 

 relation with chemical manure, milk industry, and other 

 matters, the young agriculturists in certain countries, 

 Holland, for instance, learn to solve. 



New needs bring forth new instruments. The 



