REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 15 



Nearly all the great inventions which distinguish the present cen- 

 tury are the results, immediately or remotely, of the application of 

 scientific principles to practical purposes, and in most cases these 

 applications have been suggested by the student of nature, whose 

 primary object was the discovery of abstract truth. The statement 

 cannot be too often repeated that each branch of knowledge is con- 

 nected with every other, and that no light can be gained in regard to 

 one which is not reflected upon all. Thus researches which at first 

 sight appear the farthest removed from useful application, are in time 

 found to have an important bearing on the advance of art, and conse- 

 quently on the progress of society. To illustrate this position, I shall 

 take the liberty of trespassing on your time with a few instances 

 gleaned from the history of inventions. 



Astronomy was not studied by Kepler, Galileo, or Newton for the 

 practical applications which might result from it, but to enlarge the 

 bounds of knowledge, to furnish new objects of thought and contem- 

 plation in regard to the universe of which we form a part; yet how 

 remarkable the influence which this science, apparently so far removed 

 from the sphere of our material interests, has exerted on the desti- 

 nies of the world ! Without its guidance what would navigation have 

 remained but a timid exploration of coasts and inlets, leaving the 

 fairest portions of the earth to be the heritage of rude and idolatrous 

 tribes? The steam-engine, in its improved form, is due to the labo- 

 rious scientific researches of Black, Watt, and Robinson, and the new 

 theory of heat, which is now occupying so much of the attention of 

 the abstract physicist, has lately served to modify our views of this 

 agent, and to develop new and important facts in regard to it which 

 will tend to economize its power, and increase the means of rendering 

 it more effectually the obedient slave of intelligent man. 



In the year 1739, the Rev. Dr. Clayton communicated to the Royal 

 Society his discovery of what he called the "spirit of coal," which 

 he confined in a bladder, and showed its burning powers as it 

 issued from a puncture in the membrane. Sixty years after this Mr. 

 Murdock, of Manchester, applied this discovery to the purpose of 

 illumination ; and what was at first a mere object of scientific research 

 has now become, from its almost universal employment, a necessity 

 of civilized life. 



Early in the present century Davy published an account of a dis- 

 covery he had made of the effect produced on the nervous system by 



