112-(82) THE WORK OF THE SCIENTIFIC SECTION. 



sort to experiment or to the slow processess of skillful ob- 

 servation. For the printing press is the conservitor of 

 science as it is of every other element of civilization. 

 Whatever becomes known is immediately embodied in 

 the records and to trace the progress of scientific research 

 demands the same kind of skill and judgment in the use 

 of books which must be exercised in order to trace the 

 progress of any social or political cause. 



To bring together the scattered fragments of know- 

 ledge, on any single topic, in form suitable for easy re- 

 ference, is genuine scientific work, and, if well done the 

 result is a welcome contribution to science. It is a work 

 which tlie specialist must do, unless it has been already 

 done, before he can launch with confidence upon his 

 original efforts, and hence, it will be found that nothing- 

 is more highly prized by the specialist than a mono- 

 graph of the subject which engages him. The need of 

 such work is very great ; 1 mean that science for its own 

 sake needs it. For consider the state of affairs. Never 

 was the pursuit of science so vigorous as now. Never 

 were its achievements more numerous nor more impor- 

 tant. Ten thousand hammers are opening the treasuries 

 of the rocks ; ten thousand microscopes are revealing 

 the mysteries of matter in its intinitessimal forms ; ten 

 thousand telescopes and spectroscopes are unfolding the 

 records of stellar systems ; and ten thousand laborator- 

 ies are in hot pursuit after all that is physical among 

 the elements of life. We may also add that ten thou- 

 sand printing presses are recording, and ten thousand 

 express trains are scattering the results of these investi- 

 gations. Indeed so numerous are the scientific publica- 

 tions and so general is the field which each one covers 

 that the sum total of what is done in any single direc- 

 tion is to be found nowhere. Its items are so widely 

 separated that the specialist may not discern them, and, 

 ignorant of their existence, he is sometimes led to devise 

 ami accomplish a tedious and toilsome research, only to 

 find in the end that he has wasted his time and energy 

 by attaining results which had been already secured by 

 others. Now, whoever will make a complete compila- 

 tion and digest of any subject will save this wasted 

 energy of the specialist and turn it to account in the 

 genuine advance of science. 



